What are the benefits of network penetration testing?

A vulnerability in a network is considered to be a flaw or weakness in the hardware, software or organizational processes. When a threat is being compromised then it may eventually lead to a security breach. Network security is considered to be a significant component of any application and hence needs to be tested accordingly. In this article, you will get to know the benefits of network penetration testing.

What is Network penetration testing?

An organization’s network is breached by conducting network penetration testing with the goal to identify security weaknesses in the network. Modern networks are complex with a combination of IoT devices, workstations, servers, WAN/LAN and security technologies like firewalls.

When businesses implement network penetration testing, valuable insights are gained into its entire security posture and informed actions is taken to resolve issues before a malicious user can exploit the systems.

Benefits of Network penetration testing:

• Breaches are prevented before they can happen
• Security posture and controls are analyzed and understood
• It provides a specific manner in case of an actual attack by understanding how hacking activities are responded by a system
• Damage that is caused by preventable attacks is fixed by spending less time and money.
• The criticality of a particular vulnerability is known so that remediation can be prioritized and security measures can be focused when you most need them
• Network penetration testing aid in compliance with regulations and industry standards.

Types of Network Penetration testing:

1. Internal Network Penetration testing: Internal network penetration testing is conducted to detect what an attacker would be able to obtain with initial access to a network. Insider threats can be mirrored such as unintentionally performing malicious actions or employees intentionality.

2. External Network Penetration testing: An external network penetration testing is conducted so that the effectiveness of security perimeter controls is tested to prevent and detect attacks. Weaknesses are identified in internet-facing assets like mail, web and FTP servers.

Strategic importance of Network Penetration testing:

It is considered to be a good practice for organizations to conduct network penetration testing on their infrastructure and systems to ensure that there are no security breaches that might cause harm to revenue loss or reputation. Following are a few key factors that describe the strategic importance of network penetration testing:

1. Prioritizing risks: The specific vulnerabilities that lies in the network is detected by this testing method. Without prioritizing, it will not be able to verify which of the vulnerabilities can be patched first.

2. Vulnerabilities are uncovered: Loopholes are uncovered in the network through the network pen testing method. The network is breached in such a way as the hacker would try to attempt it.

3. Attack vector feasibility is ascertained: Security testing is enabled by penetration testing vendors to effectively respond and identify various forms of attacks.

4. Real-time experience: The security controls are in proper place or not should be learnt by penetration tests. Real-time experience is provided by a pen test in dealing with an attack.

Network penetration testing best practices:

1. The system needs to be patched regularly: The software needs to be kept updated by organizations with the most recent security patches.

2. A strong encryption protocol needs to be used: Compliance cannot be equated with security always, but, valuable advice can be offered as to how risks can be mitigated. Vulnerability fixes can be prioritized by organizations and downtime can be saved by conducting periodic risk assessments.

3. Outdated software should not be used: Applications or software need to be installed if they are coming from well-known, reliable sources.

Conclusion: If you are looking forward to implementing network penetration testing for your specific software development project, then do get connected with a leading software testing company in United Kingdom that will provide you a tactical testing solution in line with your project requirements.