Physical penetration tests are an excellent and often overlooked way to test an organization's security posture. However, they can come with serious consequences for testers if they aren't properly prepared. Look no further than the recent arrest of two pen testers probing Iowa's Dallas County courthouse security.
According to a September 13 report in the Des Moines Register, the men were employed with Coalfire, a cybersecurity adviser with headquarters in Colorado, and outfitted with "numerous burglary tools." They told authorities they were "hired to test out the courthouse alarm system's viability and to gauge law enforcement's response time, an alleged contract that Dallas County officials said they had no knowledge of...."
The Register reported:
Authorities later found out the state court administration did, in fact, hire the men to attempt "unauthorized access" to court records "through various means" in order to check for potential security vulnerabilities of Iowa's electronic court records, according to Iowa Judicial Branch officials.
But the state court administration "did not intend, or anticipate, those efforts to include the forced entry into a building," a Wednesday news release from the Iowa Judicial Branch read.
Coalfire, in a September 18 press release, said that the company and the Iowa State Court Administration "believed they were in agreement regarding the physical security assessments for the locations included in the scope of work. Yet, recent events have shown that Coalfire and State Court Administration had ..
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