Overview of penetration testing

Penetration testing or Pen testing is now in the discussion of top security journals and obviously the reason is not hard to guess – computer systems are getting complicated and to ensure their security now we need comprehensive security plans. Companies are realizing the importance of security paradigm and now investing a lot in getting the best security for their networks and systems. But they are analyzing their system to check vulnerabilities at different levels. This is the point where penetration testing comes under discussion. So what is pen-testing, how to do that and what kind of tools are used in different media industries?

What is Penetration Testing?

It is kind of testing where the areas of weakness in software systems in terms of security are assessed to determine the vulnerabilities, and that can be broken into or not.

How is it performed?

Penetration testing is one of a kind of testing that is a usually the part of complete security paradigm. Here it is broken into important steps so that everyone can understand what the real science behind it is.

Step 1: It starts with a list of vulnerabilities/potential issues that can cause irreversible security issues in the system.

Step 2: Most common these issues are assigned numbers to show their priority or criticality.

Step 3: Device penetration tests that would work (attack your system) from both internal and external aspects to determine if you can access data/network/server/web site unauthorized.

Step 4: If the unauthorized access is possible, the system has to be corrected and the series of steps which must be taken should be written or documents or determine at this stage.

So now the question is who performs the penetration testing – well, obviously testers/ network specialists or simply security consultants.

Penetration tools:

However, there are companies who are willing to do penetration testing using their own resources, especially if they are small-sized companies ¬– here is the list of few amazing tools that can be used to do penetration testing Dubai. These are three top tools in our list:

1) Metasploit

2) Wireshark

3) w3af4
Let’s have a detailed discussion on these few important tools.

Metasploit pen testing tool

This is one of the most advanced and popular frameworks that can be used for pen-testing. It is usually based on the concept of “exploit” which is a code that can easily surpass the security measures and enter a specific system. If entered, it usually runs a payload, a set of code that actually performs operations on the target machine, creating the perfect framework for penetration testing and the benefit of this tool is that it can be used individually. And it is used on almost all platforms such as Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Wireshark

Wireshark is basically a protocol analyzer – famous among testers for its ability to provide the minutest details about your network protocols, decryption and packet information, etc. It can also be used on Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris and many others.

w3af

W3afis a Web Application Attack and Audit Framework having some great features of fast HTTP requests, web integration and proxy servers into the code. It can also be used on all above-mentioned platforms.

Better late than never, get your business PENETRATION TESTED now!!!

Many businesses are now prospering with the aim of prospering further without caring about how their carelessness can lead to hopeless disasters. Reason being nowadays IT professionals are becoming more and more educated and some of the ill minded people among them easily get indulged in wrong activities such as business related hacking, scams, data theft, etc. Since they have already ample skills and education so they easily succeed in doing so such activities.

Therefore to be careful and take pre-cautionary actions against such mischievous persons, it is mandatory for every Entrepreneur or stake holders to get their organizations penetration tested. Penetration testing is specifically important in Dubai because it is the business hub of middle east with a vast amount of establishments of local and foreign brands of multiple product/service categories. Businesses here range from small low scale less riskier set ups to mid-sized and large scale high risk businesses which have a penetration testing as their pre requisite of operating smoothly in the short as well as long run. Hence penetration testing in Dubai is very crucial.

 

But what benefit will your company receive from spending on this area of business?

• It is better to act proactively cautious than to show concern when things have gone wrong: Research says that major businesses who don’t realise the significance of penetration testing at the right stage, end up paying financial as well as reputational costs. Sudden virus or hacking may bring in bad impact for the organisations as it can lose financial income due to such interruptions, it can attract press to spoil its image, it can even lose its clientele because of low quality service for the time being. Had it been penetration tested earlier, it would have been safe from all such hassles.
• Preservation of information 24/7 gets very problematic: With the increasing complexity of newer viruses and hacking tactics, companies having pre-established defence mechanism even may not be able to protect their crucial data and information from external malicious people and their techniques of spoiling your business. Through penetration testing, you get your firewall, cryptography, user control access, IDS/IPS and other important defence mechanisms checked from all corners and hence as a result there is no chance left for any 3rd party to intrude in your business through malicious techniques.
• Categorising of business security related risks and their execution: Through getting your business penetration tested, different available as well as anticipated security threats are prompted out which an internal IT in charge might not have been able to prompt out to the business because of lack of expertise in the area of work. This is where our expertise brings out fruitful results for your business leaving no corner for an external malicious activity to take place in damaging your business.