Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing Services: Vulnerabilities come in all shapes and sizes, but the most damaging ones are those that allow an attacker the potential to execute arbitrary commands or steal sensitive data. These vulnerabilities can be found in a variety of systems, including operating systems, network routers, applications, and websites. The good news is that there are organizations like ours that can help you assess your vulnerabilities and do penetration testing to uncover these issues. In this blog post, we’ll discuss some of the benefits of vulnerability assessment and penetration testing services.
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They help in the detection of defects
One of the primary benefits of doing the assessment and penetration testing is in the ability to identify defects. A good penetration tester, for example, will poke away at your systems to understand what weaknesses they have. The right one will then find ways to exploit these weaknesses, indicate them and make a recommendation on how you can patch them. This way you can fix the vulnerabilities before they are exploited by hackers or other criminals who wish to do harm to your company.
They improve your overall security posture
After a vulnerability assessment and penetration testing, the results will be sent to you along with a report that outlines the problems found and how effective your current security measures are. Furthermore, the results will lay out how vulnerable your organization is to attack. At this point, you can decide if it’s necessary to take action based on the severity of weaknesses discovered. For instance, if your network has a few medium-level vulnerabilities, it might not be worth spending significant time and money addressing them right away. You can also monitor their progress and see if the weaknesses are getting worse over time.
They help you understand your overall threat landscape
A vulnerability assessment will tell you what potential threats you need to be aware of. You’ll know who is trying to hack your systems, how likely they are to try, and what resources they might use in an attack. This knowledge can be used to be better prepared for attacks or even predict what will happen. For example, if you know that your systems are under heavy attack from particular IPs, you can block them to stop the attacks before they start.
They help eradicate shadow IT
In recent years there has been a rapid growth of shadow IT — the use of non-corporate technologies and services that are developed outside of the company. For example, companies with large budgets might purchase iPads for employees or use video conferencing software that can be used for meetings and not be billed to the company. While these practices are great for productivity, they also open up your company to legal risks. A vulnerability assessment and penetration testing will help you understand what technologies you’re using and how they’re being used by your employees. This knowledge can help you determine if a shadow IT practice is actually helping your business or increasing your risk of data breaches.
They can save you money
A potential risk with shadow IT is that it could lead to the exposure of sensitive corporate data. This in turn can have a negative impact on your reputation, which means that there might be a need for crisis management to inform customers or investors about what happened. However, if you had a vulnerability assessment and penetration testing done, this process becomes much easier because you already know what vulnerabilities exist in your systems and how they’re being used.
Conclusion
These are just some of the many benefits of doing vulnerability assessment and penetration testing. When conducted correctly, they can greatly improve your security posture and protect against cyber threats. If you’re interested in learning more about how a vulnerability assessment or penetration testing can help you, feel free to reach out to us here at Sumo Logic.