Internal Penetration Testing

An internal penetration test emulates the role of an attacker from inside the network, organisation or business. Such as a contractor, former employee, disgruntled staff, and other malicious actors with an aim to steal data or damage the systems or network

Our cyber security engineers emulate the role of an attacker who has penetrated the network or someone who has access to the network and intends to escalate privileges with malicious intent. For example a contractor, an employee or temporary staff

Internal Penetration test provides you with a safe, controlled way to test your systems’ efficacy at fending off external attacks. The test lets you see how the system responds to threats and highlights potential vulnerabilities and weaknesses

This is simulation testing, therefore, it won’t have any negative impacts on your operation. The test demonstrates how a hacker would likely attack or exploit security gaps within your application. In addition, the scope and timing of the penetration test can be predetermined, allowing you to fine-tune specific areas of your cyber security system

Why web application testing is critical for a business?

Protect your business: 

Regardless of your industry, hackers see every company as a potentially exploitable opportunity, small businesses included. In fact, small businesses are especially vulnerable to cyberattacks

Every business has personal data to exploit, computing power to hijack, or various other enticing opportunities to illicitly profit from; most small and medium businesses simply lack the resources and expertise to properly secure their systems from hacking attacks

According to Ponemon’s report, 67% of small and medium-sized businesses, having fewer than 1,000 employees, experienced a cyberattack. Additionally, 58% of them experienced a cyber breach. The average cost of these attacks was £200,000 which caused more than 60% to go out of business

Identify security exposures and vulnerabilities before cybercriminals can

Hackers often use cutting edge technology, employing new attack techniques and programs. When a security vulnerability is patched, they are then forced to find a new way in

As cyber threats faced by businesses evolve, so too must your cybersecurity efforts. External penetration tests allow you to properly gauge your defences and determine where they can be successfully hacked

The web application test highlights cybersecurity exposures, which allows you to correct issues before hackers can exploit them. After the entire cybersecurity perimeter is tested, you can prioritise threats by risks and address the greatest threats first before moving on to lesser concerns

Ensure compliance with security standards and regulations

Penetration testing doesn’t simply help you protect your business and its assets from hackers. The benefits extend to the entirety of your network and data security concerns, particularly if your business has to comply with security standards and regulations

Most industries have a governing body, which stipulates a base level of cybersecurity necessary for a business to legitimately operate. A business can ensure that compliance standards are upheld by frequently conducting external penetration tests

There are several important compliance standards, an external penetration test can evaluate, including GDPR and Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). These standards require businesses to carry out penetration tests at least once a year 

Reduce costs and downtime 

Regular penetration testing is one of the primary ways which can help you prevent attacks or ensure business continuity if an attack is successful. By conducting penetration tests quarterly you can ensure your team is able to rapidly recover and restore systems and networks should the need arise

Data breaches cost an average of £3.92 million per breach globally. Those exorbitant costs result from several factors, including:

• Loss of customer trust 

• Business and revenue loss from downtime

• Loss of potential new customers

• Lawsuits

System downtime is incredibly expensive. The longer your system remains shut down, the more costly it will be

Penetration tests are a proactive way to highlight and fix your IT system’s most critical vulnerabilities. They not only address potential weaknesses but also prepare your team to move with alacrity the moment the system goes down

Protect your reputation and customer trust 

If a hacker successfully exploits your system, resulting in a data leak, your customers will be upset, and rightfully so. When that happens, customers lose faith in your ability to keep their information secure

All it takes is one significant breach to tarnish your reputation. According to a recent Ponemon study, “Twenty-seven per cent of consumers surveyed say they discontinued their relationship with the company that had a data breach. Of those consumers affected by one or more breaches, 65 per cent say they lost trust in the breached organisation.”

Penetration testing can help you prevent a harmful data leak. By systematically eliminating your cybersecurity vulnerabilities and being vigilant with your defences you demonstrate to customers that you take their privacy seriously. Over time, maintaining a strong security posture will lead to more trust and a better reputation

What do we assess?

Our cyber security experts carry out high-quality vulnerability assessments of the following components within IT environments and cyber setups:

Websites and Web applications: We assess the susceptibility of web applications to various attacks, following the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) top 10 application security risks

Networks: We assess the efficiency of your network segmentation, network access restriction, the ability to connect to the network remotely, and firewall implementation

Mobile applications: We evaluate the security level of a mobile app following (OWASP) top 10 mobile risks

Desktop applications: We assess how data is stored in an application, how it transfers information, and whether any authentication is provided

Email service: We evaluate the susceptibility of email systems and servers to phishing attacks, spyware and other malware

Assessment methods we apply

Our security testing team combines automated and manual approaches to take full advantage of the vulnerability assessment process

Automated scanning

To start the vulnerability assessment process, our cyber security engineers use automated scanning tools, the choice of which depends on each customer’s needs, requirements, and financial capabilities

These scanners have databases, which contain known technical vulnerabilities and detect our client’s susceptibility to them. The main advantage of the automated approach is that it is not time-consuming and ensures wide coverage of security weaknesses possibly existing in a range of devices or hosts on the network.

Manual assessment

Our security testing team performs manual tuning of scanning tools. It also carries out manual validation of scanned findings to eliminate false positives

Upon completion of manual assessments performed by our specialists, you will receive reliable results containing only confirmed events

Classification techniques we apply

When conducting a vulnerability assessment, we divide the detected security weaknesses into groups according to their type, severity level and other criteria. We follow the following industry-leading guidelines and standards for classification purposes:

• Web Application Security Consortium (WASC) Threat classification

• Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) testing guide 

• OWASP Top 10 application security risks

• OWASP Top 10 mobile risks

• Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS)

Classifying vulnerabilities allows our cyber security experts to prioritise findings according to their impact in the case of exploitation. It also directs your attention to the most critical weaknesses that need to be eliminated on a first-priority basis to avoid financial and security risks

Our Methodology

We adhere to industry-leading standards and guidelines, including (OWASP) Testing Guide (v4), NIST SP 800-115, CREST guidelines, The Open Source Security Testing Methodology Manual (OSSTMM) to deliver our services to ensure the highest quality testing

Step 1: Planning  

We gather testing goals, set rules of engagement, and agree on the scope with clients

 Step 2: Discovery

 Our cyber security experts perform scanning and enumeration to identify potential vulnerabilities, weak areas, and exploits

Step 3: Execution

Confirm potential vulnerabilities through manual and auto exploitation and perform additional discoveries upon new access 

Step 4: Reporting

Document all found vulnerabilities and exploits, failed attempts, and tools used. Our reports also include free remediation advice and recommendations