What is Penetration Testing? A Penetration or “Pen” Test is a simulated attack exercise to help a security administrator identify security vulnerabilities before hackers do. Vulnerability penetration testing techniques from end-to-end technology levels is the professional advanced technology methodologies and quality assurance we help give your organization for the best threat prevention strategy, possible.
A Pen Test can cover many different functions for computer devices, software, and processes such as:
Firewalls | Routers | Mobile Devices |
PC or MAC Workstations | Switches | Servers |
Network Appliances | Operating Kernels | Web Applications |
Business Applications | Social Engineering | Cloud Services |
Network Testing companies offer penetration testing services for the type of areas you wish to validate exclusively and test. A service such as Qualys® specializes in external port services for specific areas of penetration testing layers for corporate networks. Pen Testing is not exclusive to just network testing but is an exercise methodology targeted to validate all levels for your infrastructure.
Core component include:
- Port Interrogation
- PBX and VoIP Testing
- Trust Validation Testing
- Wireless Security Inspection
- Perimeter Layered Penetration
- Access Controls Review
- Host Identification
- Service Holes
- Router Integrity Validation
- Firewall End-to-End Review
- IDS/IPS Testing
- Password Cracking Potential
- Containment Measures Review
- Infrared Integrity Review
- Alarm, Escalation, and Response Workflows
At CyberSec, we bring all infrastructure Pen Test methodologies together, so you can have a single, centralized, and comprehensive penetration testing report that covers a full spectrum of risk assessments for your security planning needs.
Scouting Attacks
DNS Zone Transfer
Hackers attempt to capture this information while the data is in transport. If they do, they will be able to identify all your domain service host and IP address information that’s internal in your data center. Our Pen Testing seeks out these risks and brings them to your attention to mitigating, as needed.
Ping Sweeping
Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) which “ping” response sweeps use can help an attacker identify live IP addresses on your perimeter, both inside and outside your network topology. Our scans can scope where you are allowing ICMP and traceroute communication into your environment and provide you with the procedures needed to cap these mapping packets that both external scanners and dropped virus Trojans can use and send your entire network back to the cybercriminals.
URL Fuzzing
This is a technique that provides a scout attacker to find hidden files through broadcasting port services. Many of these files could have contained identity-related attributes, or other corporate-related sensitive data that a hacker can use to their advantage.
CyberSec uses our tools to find these HTTP response risks and work with you to fortify and protect their communication through Pen Testing analysis.
Firewalls
Firewall security penetration testing requires simulating cybercriminal attacks to firewall ports and acknowledgment timings. Sending large amounts of TCP connections to the targeted area is initiated during a standard Pen Testing exercise. Our validations will make sure to monitor packet reply response times to help identify potential port vulnerabilities in those ranges. SYN Flooding and Denial-of-Service attack simulations are also fully evaluated.
Pen Testing will randomize target ports with fingerprint scanning using enumeration ranges that are detected available on your firewall servers. Then, the scanning process will identify throughput thresholds of connections and transactions per second. This shows which firewall ruleset policy controls are strong, weak, or vulnerable. Trusted vs. Untrusted site traffic is also verified with your current firewall configurations.
The test also ensures that your existing shutdown port settings are working, as designed. This is a built-in countermeasure your firewall has in case it detects an attack trying to overload its available connections.
We work closely with you to manage a thorough and insightful firewall Pent Testing, giving you the most value possible for future risk mitigation.
Routers and Switches
Similar to firewall Pen Testing, our penetration testing service scans your routers both internally and externally to your network perimeter and validates not only port packet response behavior, but also whether your Access Control Listing (ACL) settings on each router are working effectively to throttle unwanted traffic.
Packet capping and forwarding rules on each router are also evaluated and analyzed. Online penetration testing helps find packet failure rates that are either at acceptable levels or showing as excessive that could denote a weakness in your router configuration. Device-type operating systems such as Cisco IOS requires ensuring the risk potentials are inventoried and as current as possible.
Our subject matter experts can provide results to help recommend the most hardened device settings, possible for your segmented network needs.
Mobile Devices
The challenges in wireless network management help if you are better prepared with a proper Pen Testing validation strategy put into place. Your access point configurations and Mobile Device Management (MDM) in your office area need to be evaluated, periodically, to ensure both integrity, and foreign device detection settings are working, as designed. Pen Testing in MAC-address filtering, Dynamic Host Control Protocol (DHCP) handshakes, and office signal availability are analyzed, and risks identified are reported back in the findings report.
Encryption strengths and weaknesses will also be evaluated through the exercise. Strategic best practices can be taken from these findings to ensure your organization has the strongest encryption possible over your wireless network.
PC or MAC Workstations
Each workstation device must be fully scanned not only on network ports, but also making sure the operating system has the latest versions, so your computer is not vulnerable to the latest viruses. Anti-Virus software is also checked for the latest virus protection along with preventive countermeasures put into place to safeguard against malware or rootkit attacks.
Hardware Pen Testing also includes identifying any BIOS version security vulnerabilities your current device model may have due to out-of-date EPROM software versions.
Servers
Each server platform must be fully scanned on network ports, OS patching versions, or any API services for potential security holes. Anti-Virus software is also checked for the most current virus protection. BIOS versions are also verified on the hardware. Virtual servers on physical server hosts are validated using virtual network interface bridging emulation inspection.
Microsoft Domain Controller servers are fully scoped out to ensure there are no risks in Active Directory Services or file replication.
Network Appliances
Unique interface devices used to enhance network, OS, or program functionality will be in-scope for Pen Testing. Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP), VMWare Storage controllers, or Firewall-related appliances will be scanned with the same attention as Firewalls, Routers, Switches, and Servers.
Operating Systems (Kernel Protection)
Microsoft, Linux, Apple OS X or iOS, Cisco IOS, HP/UX, Solaris, IBM AIX, Novell Netware, or SunOS will need to be thoroughly inspected for kernel-version related patching weaknesses, service port risks, or any network connectivity flaws discovered during the scanning process.
Operating System version examination for Pen Testing cross-references the latest in version libraries to verify security version patching for the OS, is as optimal as possible.
Web Applications
Website penetration testing focuses in on Identifying hidden XSS attacks, malicious scripting, SQL Injection traps, JAVA, dot-NET or PHP threats, and other exploitable vulnerabilities. Web application penetration testing locks into finding these risks and brings them to an intuitive findings report format for security administrators to use and remediate with.
API enumeration control, security upgrades, multi-home network card configurations, and p-to-transport-to-database secure workflow planning can give your back-end enterprise solutions the confidence and assurance needed when transporting encrypted company data. We assist in evaluating these channels for performance, as well as, industry methodology practice recommendations, such as PCI-DSS for credit card data transports to your input hash and encrypted fields.
Business Applications
There are many business programs that require regular upgrades or could potentially have security risks or transparent connections to the database they are using. Application and database penetration testing with specific software enumeration listings is added to Pen Testing routines.
Multiple Application Types
Application types can vary, such as Microsoft Office, Adobe, Oracle e=commerce, and many others. Our version validations help you work with your software support vendor to ensure your environment has the latest security patching available.
Email Protection
There is a continuous flood of spam traffic that routes into all email environments touching cyberspace. Why is this? Marketing, advertising, hackers, almost all of these types of emails run on automatic-generated messaging which requires little to no effort on the person sending them. In marketing and advertising, the science of this is focused on volume of messages coming out to keep the product or enticements in mind as much as possible.
For hackers, false links taking you to fake sites or trying to get your personal information (Phishing) to use against you and exploit your identity knowledge or finances. When cybercriminals send these malicious emails in the hundreds or thousands, they’re hedging their bets someone naive will believe them. URL links and document attachments in email messages must be filtered and validated using your spam filtering solution.
Email content filtering configurations make sure your employees do not accidently, or on purpose, send out social security number lists, credit cards, or anything your content filtering structure is setup to stop, so your company’s data is protected. This includes scanning file format attachment types such as Adobe PDF files, Microsoft Office Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and notepad clear text files
That’s why it’s very important to Pen Test your filtering platforms to ensure it’s functioning at optimal levels and that it has the necessary security remediation fixes on it.
Social Engineering
Social Engineering threats where a cybercriminal could call in as a false user to gain private information by posing as an employee or customer can be simulated as a process penetration test. These kinds of tests also include tailgating into securely locked doors, phishing emails, garbage can treasure, posing as maintenance or regular staff, and stealing private documentation left overnight on office desktops. Cybercriminals love these kinds of hacks because they are so easy to do when businesses miss to implement training for employees in the basics of security awareness.
IT penetration testing is not just testing technologies, but people-process activities, as well. Ethical hacking penetration testing is the general practice of using Black Hat techniques to help develop White Hat Strategies.
We can provide social engineering Pen Testing to help senior management identify the process weaknesses in their organizations. These kinds of assessments also help justify the importance of purchasing security awareness training classes that we also can provide.
Cloud Services
IT security penetration testing can be outside your perimeter, as well. Working with your Cloud Infrastructure Provider, we can help you verify all their perimeter defenses on the internet. If your company subscribes to a single sign-on topology, we can help provide the necessary testing to ensure your Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) adapters are fortified with the necessary encryption and security attention needed to help protect your user account database.
We do this by focusing Pen Testing validations into known LDAP ports and capture protocol packet transports so they can be probed for reliability and integrity. Our simulated attack and penetration testing enumerations can quickly seek out any channel breakdowns in inter-corporate transfers of financial banking job communication or user account data.
Why hire Penetration Testing Experts?
You need to have the best and most experienced Pen Testing Experts in the field to make sure you are getting the effective infrastructure enterprise assessments. Our survey assessments, global penetration techniques, and defense-in-depth strategies help fortify all your digital walls of threat prevention that gives much more value than selected areas from a single penetration testing company. We are dedicated to giving your administrative teams the strongest threat prevention possible, along with a long-lasting support life cycle to help enhance and grow your cyber security infrastructure on a regular basis. Vulnerability assessment and penetration testing specialists along with advanced cybercriminal attack prevention is the quality assurance we help give in every threat evaluation report.
We can save you countless hours of research and re-education activities by letting you leverage our years of real-world security experiences and best practices that will give you a strong, reliable security architecture that works with your organization’s needs.