Penetration Testing: An Effective Cyber Defence Technology

Since the complexity of systems increases day by day, it leads to more and more vulnerability in systems. Cyber attackers use these vulnerabilities to exploit a victim’s system. Ideally, it is in the best interest of an organization to find out these vulnerabilities before the attacker does. Organizations do not realize the power of penetration testing until they utilize it. Organizations can hire a pen testing company and use Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing (VAPT) as a cyber-defense technology to provide a proactive approach to security. 

What is Vulnerability?

A vulnerability is a weakness in an application which can be a design issue or a bug that allows an attacker to either gain access to sensitive data or harm the users of the application. Vulnerability is a potential risk for systems and malicious attackers use these vulnerabilities to exploit the system and get unauthorized access and information. These vulnerabilities can be a small or big flaw in a system’s security system. By ensuring a vulnerability free system, you can provide more information assurance and system security. Although it is impossible to ensure a 100% bug-free application, experts remove as many vulnerabilities as possible. VAPT is mostly underestimated and considered just a formal activity, but used by only a few companies. However, the use of VAPT can significantly reduce the amount of risk of being attacked and also ensuring more secure systems. 

VAPT and its Application in Businesses

Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing is a step by step process that scans a system, network, or software to identify the weaknesses. These weaknesses can work as a back door for an attacker to attack a system. A system should have access to control vulnerability, boundary condition vulnerability, configuration weakness vulnerabilities, etc. Pen testing is the next step after the vulnerability assessment. Penetration testing is an effort to exploit the system in an authorized way to find out all the possible exploits in the system. Here, the testers have the authority to perform pen-testing and intently exploit the system and find out possible exploits. 

Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing (VAPT) provides businesses with a comprehensive application evaluation than any single test alone. This approach gives an organization a detailed view of threats facing its applications, enabling businesses to protect the systems and data from malicious attacks. Vulnerabilities can be found in applications from third-party vendors but most of these issues are easily fixed once found. Hiring the right pen testing company and VAPT provider discovers and classifies vulnerabilities. 

Why Use Pen Testing in the Current Era?

In the current digital transformation age, organizations need to be vigilant about weaknesses in their own systems, so as to protect from attackers. Cyber-attackers are in search of vulnerabilities in systems and networks and make use of these potential vulnerabilities to misuse sensitive information or gaining access to systems for data theft. Pen testing enables businesses to stay ahead of these attackers and secure their systems from all angles.