What is a Penetration Testing? Simply put, it is a test of how well protected a system is from online attacks. Generally, this type of test is carried out during website design and development process and involves the testing of web server security. A Penetration Testing typically involves attacks on a web application using malicious scripts and data. The attacks may include SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS) and other malicious attacks that may harm the website security.
Basically Penetration Testing refers to the detection of vulnerabilities in a system or application and the evaluation of those vulnerabilities in order to gain access to a system or application. Pen Testing may be executed in real world environment or on some test machines. The term’Penetration Testing’ is a misnomer since the purpose of Penetration Testing is not just to test the safety of a system or application but also to test the robustness and scalability of that system or application. A Penetration Test usually takes 7 hours in duration.
The purpose of a Penetration Test is to determine whether the system or application is robust enough to withstand any attacks. The term ‘Penetration Testing’ is a misnomer since the purpose of Penetration Testing is not only to test the safety of a system or application but also to test the robustness and scalability of that system or application. In this practice, a continuous flow of malicious scripts is initiated. In simple terms, these scripts are used to try and infiltrate the security testing mechanism of the system. These scripts may either succeed or fail based on various parameters provided by the tester.
So what is a Penetration Test in plain English? Well basically a Penetration Test is a series of controlled experiments to test the permeability of the given system or application. In simple terms, the goal of a Penetration Test is to test whether or not the application or system can be attacked and exploited by a hostile actor with the use of an exploit or Trojan. If an exploit successfully bypasses the security testing mechanism, the attacker gains control of that system or application. If this happens, this can render the said system or application useless and can render the entire mission of the Penetration Testing whole a waste due to such a useless outcome.
What Is A Security Pen?
So what is a Penetration Test? A Penetration Test should be written in a clear and concise sentence form. The aim of such a sentence is to highlight all the important points of the potential attack along with the countermeasures that can be made in order to prevent them from happening. It is important to understand that every Penetration Test should have a single and clear goal as to what it is trying to achieve – not to confuse or mislead the reader.
For instance, let’s look at a hypothetical Penetration Test which was created to determine whether or not a USB drive could be used to carry a virus. The purpose of such a test would be to find if a USB drive (which was non-functional) could be converted into a working virus, carried on someone’s behalf, and thus used maliciously. The proposed solution would be for a third party company to scan all potential USB drives and see whether or not they contained any viruses. What we are looking for in this situation is a very technical kind of thing, right? Well, here is one potential problem with such a “what is a security pen” type of assessment: what if the person writing the assessment actually has no idea what he/she is talking about? In other words, what if the person is just reading a flow chart and is completely mashing up the different concepts in his/her own mind and not actually fully understanding what he/she is actually talking about?
What is a cyber – Attacks assessment, then, would be completely worthless as a stand alone form of what is a security pen check if you also have no real working knowledge about what is a cyber-attack or any of the other things that we’ve been discussing here. So, what we need here is a combination of what is a pen check (a subjective evaluation of what a computer might not contain based on how it is being used) and what is a cyber-attack (which involves actual hacking techniques). Now, the good news is that there is already software in existence that takes advantage of both kinds of expertise. This software can be found free online (no cost at all, by the way), and it can provide for an accurate assessment of what is a cyber-attack (based on recent known cyber-attacks and malware) or what is a potential cyber-attack (based on how it might be exploited).
Here’s the bottom line: what is a security pen check is absolutely meaningless! What is a cyber-attack is not. And what is a potential cyber-attack? No need to go into detail. It is too long a statement to bore even those who are involved in the cyber security industry with a long and tedious definition. Basically, what is a security pen check is a waste of time and effort, because the only people who benefit from its use are those who want to gain access to unsecured networks and the like…for the purpose of exploitation.
- The Essential Role of Data Virtualization Software in Your Business - August 26, 2024
- Understanding Cyber Threat Intelligence Services - July 1, 2024
- Implementing Interactive Voice Response Automation for Efficiency - June 3, 2024
