In today’s quickly evolving cybersecurity landscape, organizations constantly seek the most effective ways to secure their digital assets. Penetration testing (pentesting) has emerged as a leading solution for identifying potential system vulnerabilities while closing security gaps that can lead to an attack.
At the same time, a newer entrant into the security arena is Pentesting as a Service (PTaaS). Although PTaaS shares some similarities with pentesting, distinct differences make them two separate solutions.
This article will discuss how these methodologies function, their applicability in different contexts and how they can enhance an organization’s cyber readiness.
What is involved with penetration testing (pentesting)?
Penetration testing, popularly known as pentesting, is a proactive and authorized effort to evaluate the security of an IT infrastructure. However, the process of pentesting is not just about finding loopholes and reporting them. Pentesting services like IBM’s X-Force Red apply a comprehensive process that involves several stages:
Planning and reconnaissance. This is the initial stage, where the pentesting team defines the scope and goals of the test, including the systems to be addressed and the testing methods to be used. They also gather intelligence (like domain names and mail servers) to understand how the target works and identify potential areas of vulnerability.
Scanning. This step involves using automated tools to understand how the target application will respond to different intrusion attempts. This can be done through static analysis (inspecting an application’s code to estimate its behavior while running) or dynamic analysis (inspecting an application’s code in a running state).
Gaining access. Here, the pentester uses web a ..
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