Protecting your business from cyber attacks is a necessity in today’s global digital age. Whatever your business, and whatever the level of security you need, you want to be sure that if someone was trying to access your systems or attempting to attack your business, you can have all the protection you require to stop this from happening. That is why getting a Penetration Test completed is now a requirement for many businesses, but how do you know to choose an organisation that can complete the work and can be trusted to do a great job?
In this article, you will learn about why you need a penetration test and how to choose a Penetration Testing Provider.
We live in an ever interconnected and globally digital world, and whilst that opens up a window of opportunity for many businesses and individuals, it also comes with potential issues and threats. A penetration test is one of the key ways to discover an organisation’s security threat, and help personnel learn how to handle any type of break-in from a malicious entity. Pen tests serve as a way to examine whether an organisation’s security policies are genuinely effective.
Some of the key reasons why penetration testing is vitally important includes:
There are many many organisations offering pen testing – which can be a challenge for those seeking these services. As with anything that provides a lot of choice, understanding who is trustworthy, can complete the tasks required and also, being reputable within the industry can be a difficult task for any person tasked with identifying the right business for the job.
Trustworthiness is one of the main priorities when it comes to something like PEN testing as your organisation will be giving access to all company data and security measures for testing purposes – so it is a priority to get it right!
How do you go about choosing a pen testing provider? Here are some tips:
One of the key things with choosing anyone who comes into your organisation, is getting an understanding of their credentials and quality standards. You need to thoroughly assess the credentials of pen testing providers, and you may also get your team or an external provider to go through these.
The other element is quality standards. When selecting your third party provider, quality standards like the ISO 27001 certification is an example quality standard to look for (as for BlueFort Security).
As with any reputable company, there will be case studies and even first hand recommendations and reviews that you can use to get a better understanding of how well the organisation works. However, sometimes new organisations may use scrupulous third party review sites to give 5* ratings – so you must investigate the reviews equally as much as the credentials.
Reputable pen testing organisations will have the required experience, demonstrated from case studies and reviews – usually found on site and you can – or should – contact the clients who have given feedback to verify the validity of the recommendations.
Experienced, professional pen testing organisations will follow defined processes that they can clearly show you and provide examples of such tests in a timely manner.
The Penetration Testing Execution Standard is the industry standard. Look out for this as an explanation when asking about the Pen Testing Process.
This is something that should be obvious to anyone who knows about these tests, but is less obvious to inexperienced managers requiring the test. A PEN test comes with a report, and the final stage of the PTES process involves reporting the identified vulnerabilities and recommended remedial actions. This is what you are looking for as an organisation, so getting this information is key. It’s important to review some example reports from pen testing organisations, to make certain they could be followed and understood.
You want to be able to understand if they are specialists or generalists when it comes to PEN testing. Some cybersecurity organisations do everything when it comes to protecting an organisation from cyber attacks, whilst others have specialisation and a focus on pen testing. If you’re looking for a specialist, getting a clear picture of their field of specialisation is key.
You also run an organisation which has many things to think about and will have business needs which are essential to the day-to-day running and function of the business. So you want to select a pen testing organisation that is adequately flexible to cope with changing requirements (e.g. times during which testing can be carried out).
But, you also want a PEN tester that can equally deliver in a timely manner. You don’t want a test carried out and then you have to wait for weeks to get a report back – especially if some of the cyber threats could be extremely dangerous to the operations of your business.
Pen testing isn’t a ‘do-it-once’ activity. It must be repeated regularly to stay ahead of the hackers. Organisations without scalable pen testing solutions tend to be vastly more expensive than those with optimised processes.
There are two types of testing, automated and manual testing. Automated pen testing processes and tools provide the best value for money and it should therefore be verified that organisations provide automated testing.
However, a professional pen testing service recognises where manual testing is needed and is capable of providing it.
Specialist organisations can give you a clear insight into which is going to be the best solution for your organisation.
You must assess pen testing organisations for their data security processes. Why? Because you are giving your organisation’s details to a third party, you wouldn’t give your house keys to a stranger, this is essentially the same thing.
Also you want to verify that the pen testing organisation has the necessary insurance.
Selecting a PEN testing organisation can be tricky and navigating who is best placed to the best job is essential. Following the tips highlighted in this article can help you get a better understanding of who to select and the reasons behind choosing them in the first place.
If you are looking to get a better understanding of where your organisation’s cyber weaknesses lie, Bluefort’s Evolve IT Services can not only help you to get a much better understanding of these threats but also provide you with the solutions to protect your organisation in the long term.
Call 01252 917000, email enquiries@bluefort.com or get in touch with us via our contact form.
It’s pretty obvious to say it but the world has changed a lot in the last two decades, and that is largely thanks to the way the digital world has taken over so many of our day-to-day lives and the way we work. Therefore, it is important to realise that when we come to speak about cybersecurity and cyber threats, vulnerability assessments are no longer enough to keep our organisations safe. Why? Because the more technology advances, the more vast and complex these threats have become.
While we need to continue to do vulnerability assessments—after all, they are important—we also need to do more.
In this article, we are going to take a closer look at what a vulnerability assessment is, why it is important, the different types of vulnerability assessments, and why they are not enough.
A vulnerability assessment is the process of identifying, classifying, and prioritising security vulnerabilities in IT infrastructure. When undertaking vulnerability assessments, they are designed to assess and evaluate whether an IT system is exposed to known vulnerabilities, and in response to these vulnerabilities, assign severity levels to each one. Following that, there are recommendations provided to help remedy or mitigate steps where required.
A vulnerability assessment is a common security procedure, and provides a detailed view of the security risks an organisation may face, enabling them to better protect their information technology and sensitive data from cyber threats.
A vulnerability assessment is one important component in an organisation’s overall cybersecurity strategy. There are other things an organisation should and must do when it comes to their own cybersecurity strategy.
We understand that a vulnerability assessment is still needed in today’s fast paced and fast moving cyber society, but why is it important if it is only part of your cybersecurity strategy?
The short answer is that a vulnerability assessment is important because it helps to provide you with security weaknesses in your environment, and helps to provide direction on how to remediate or mitigate the issues before they can be exploited.
Of course, there are other reasons why you should carry out a vulnerability assessment, and these include:
There are different types of vulnerability assessments that are designed to discover different types of system or network vulnerabilities, and these include:
As described in the earlier section of the article, vulnerability assessments are important and needed as part of your cybersecurity strategy; however, they are not the only assessment tools you should be using. Whilst they form part of the cybersecurity strategy, there are disadvantages, which translate into being not enough for many organisations. These include:
In a recent report, nearly 60% of security breaches involved unpatched vulnerabilities.
Whilst vulnerability management is an essential part of cybersecurity, it is not the only solution you should consider to help protect your organisation.
Keeping your business safe from cyber attacks has become commonplace – especially in today’s fast-paced society, and performing a vulnerability assessment is a great starting point. These assessments help to identify, classify, and prioritise security vulnerabilities in IT infrastructure. However, they are not the only things you need to get ahead of your cybersecurity needs, as they can often miss new vulnerabilities and require specialist skills to help patch up old ones as well.
If you are looking to get a better understanding of where your organisation’s cyber weaknesses lie, BlueFort’s Evolve IT Services can not only help you to get a much better understanding of these threats but also provide you with the solutions to protect your organisation in the long term.
Call 01252 917000, email enquiries@bluefort.com or get in touch with us via our contact form.
No matter where you have worked in the last decade or more, knowing that cybersecurity threats can pose great danger to your business shouldn’t be a surprise. This is where Penetration Testing Execution Standard (PTES) helps us to get a better understanding of where these threats can come from, thanks to cybersecurity specialists in different fields, working together to perform the baseline requirements of a business’s preparedness for a cyberattack.
In this article we will take a closer look at what the Penetration Testing Execution Standard is, the 7 sections of a PTES, and how you can get one done for your organisation.
The Penetration Testing Execution Standard is the most recent penetration testing methodology to date.
Developed by a team of information security practitioners, its aim is to address the needs for a complete and up-to-date standard in Penetration Testing – an ethical simulated cyber attack on your systems. It helps guide security professionals to the threats and weaknesses in a system, and helps to inform businesses with what they should expect from a Penetration Test, and guide them in scoping and negotiating successful projects. It covers what and when, but goes much deeper into the how.
The PTES is made of two main parts which complement each other. The Penetration Test guidelines describe the main sections and steps of a Penetration Test, while the technical guidelines discuss the specific tools and techniques to be used in each step.
The PTES standard prioritises a basic set of norms that govern the minimum requirements for all Penetration Tests.
These norms are broken down into seven distinct areas, which correspond to the order of steps taken in any Penetration Testing agreement:
This is where the main issues are outlined and discussed before any initial test begins. Testers will gather all the main tools, required OS and software to begin the Penetration Test. The required tools will vary depending on the type and scope of engagement, but this will be clarified by the tester at the time.
Goals are agreed and defined through this initial stage, and there is a common agreement reached with all parties involved. The main items discussed at this point:
The initial gathering phase is also called open source intelligence (OSINT). This is the compilation of all the information that may be useful in later stages of the testing process.
There are three levels of reconnaissance used at this stage:
Level 1: Compliance – based (mainly) on automated tools
Level 2: Best practice – includes automated and some manual tools
Level 3: State sponsored – full scope, includes automated and detailed manual analysis
The main steps of reconnaissance are defined as:
This is the more traditional model of understanding assets and attacker’s approach. It sets out to define the assets as business assets and business processes, and the attackers as threat communities and their capabilities. It then prioritises the information for modelling purposes.
Effective Penetration Testers will work with the host organisation to simulate more realistic attacks and be done in co-operation with the client organisation:
In vulnerability analysis, the Penetration Tester will be trying to identify the weaknesses in the target systems and processes, which would allow an attacker to compromise on the security controls to an asset.
The scope of the Penetration Test (agreed in the first stage) will define the breadth and depth of vulnerability assessment. For some, it will be a single vulnerability in a single system, whilst other tests will be broad and wide-ranging to uncover where all the relevant vulnerabilities lie.
PTES involves two main models:
These initial results are followed by validation (correlation, manual testing and attack tree creation) and research (evaluating the exploitability of identified vulnerabilities).
Exploitation is arguably the most important part of the whole testing process. It begins with identifying the least path of resistance into the organisation without detection, and having the most impact on the organisation’s ability to generate revenue (PTES 2012).
The attacker will use all of the compiled insight and information to launch one or more targeted attacks. By the end of the attacks, the Penetration Tester should be able to identify a set of the attack vectors which allow bypassing security controls and compromising the organisation’s assets.
What is important to note here, is that the form of the attacks are determined by what has been learned in the previous stages of the Penetration Test.
The main points uncovered in this phase include:
Post exploitation is equally as important as the previous stage.
The post exploitation phase helps the tester identify and document sensitive data, identify configuration settings, communication channels, and relationships with other network devices that can be used to gain further access to the network, and set up one or more methods of accessing the machine at a later time.
This phase helps the organisation to get a greater understanding of what is required to shore up their cybersecurity requirements such as:
This is a relatively straightforward part of the process which helps both the testers and organisation set out what issues are required to be addressed. The reporting phase involves documenting the entire process in a format that’s appropriate for the client.
A standard Penetration Testing report includes – an executive summary which describes the specific goals of the Penetration Test and its main findings. It’s written as an overview, and aimed at the organisation’s management. The technical report which describes in sufficient technical detail the scope, information, attack path, impact and remediation suggestions of the test. It is aimed at the organisation’s technical staff.
There is a need for both internal and external Penetration Testing and as covered in detail on our blog. You can see the reasons why an organisation would choose to do some of the tests in-house and call in experts for the external tests as well.
As described in our blog, both approaches to Penetration Testing (internal and external) complement each other, and are essential to determine how vulnerable your systems are to attacks.
However, internal threats are rarer, whereas external threats are ever-evolving, more common and potentially more damaging to deal with. With external Penetration Tests, organisations can focus more on their most prominent vulnerabilities.
Internal and external Penetration Testing can help discover flaws in your cybersecurity program, and also validate your existing security policies and procedures.
For many organisations, getting a PTES Penetration Test can be confusing, but standards such as PTES can give you a better idea of what to expect when a Penetration Tester hunts for your organisation’s vulnerabilities.
The importance of external and internal penetration testing to an organisation cannot be underestimated. Whether conducted by an internal team or expert third-party consultants like BlueFort Security, Penetration Testing is a necessary tool to determine how vulnerable your systems are to cyber attacks.
Penetration testing has become the industry standard for understanding the threats posed to your cybersecurity,and how you can better protect your organisation from such attacks.
If you are looking to get a better understanding of where your organisation’s cyber weaknesses lie, BlueFort’s Evolve IT Services can not only help you to get a much better understanding of these threats, but also provide you with the solutions to protect your organisation in the long term.
Call 01252 917000, email enquiries@bluefort.com or get in touch with us via our contact form.
Organisations face many challenges, and the last few years have been testing for everyone. We don’t always know what the future holds, but we know that being prepared for today’s challenges can secure business success today and in the future.
One of the major challenges that any organisation faces is the battleground of information security. With the recent increase in ransomware attacks in the last decade, costing businesses $20 billion (US) in 2021 alone; there are many reasons to understand what ransomware and insider threats are, and how to avoid being a victim of these security threats.
In this guide, you will discover what insider threats are and how to prevent them.
Insider threat is when someone inside an organisation uses his or her authorised access, wittingly or unwittingly, to do harm to the company’s/department’s mission, resources, personnel, facilities, information, equipment, networks, or systems. It is a form of internal cybersecurity threat.
Traditionally, cybersecurity measures tended to focus on external threats, from cyber attacks to phishing scams, that can cause widespread damage to an organisation. However, insider threats are now becoming more prevalent, and they are more likely to be done unintentionally, as systems become more complex and the origin of the issues can be multi-faceted.
In 2019/2020 incidents caused by insider threats accounted for 66% of those reported by organisations. This threat is growing among organisations who have large teams and staff who have access to local and organisation information.
Insider threats can pose serious safety issues for an organisation and its staff.
Here are some different types of insider threats:
Risky employee behaviour can be broadly classified in three different ways:
Whilst you can’t do a lot in accidental leaks, such as the pawn insider threat mentioned earlier, there is a lot you can do to protect your systems from malicious or negligent behaviour.
If you think that you or your organisation are the only ones getting targeted, then you’re mistaken. Of course, organisations of all sizes have been attacked and insider attacks are becoming so much more common, and better known that there are examples we can all learn from to better protect your organisation in the coming future.
Here are some examples:
There are many different ways that you can prepare yourself and your teams to prevent insider attacks. Firstly, you need to be aware that insider attacks occur when either people don’t have enough information about how they happen, or they have too much knowledge coupled with access to perform one themselves. Being able to better train your teams to see the risks is essential.
From possible negligence to carelessness, good training will help mitigate many of the common issues that can happen within an organisation. From simple solutions, to running daily virus checks, to being secure in understanding what a ransomware attack can look like, and how emails can look harmless but cause potential threats.
In order to better train your teams, you need a threat mitigation program. This is the process of developing options and actions to enhance opportunities, and reduce threats to project objectives.
One simple solution can be to limit network access and robustly monitor activity. Who requires access to parts of the organisation and who doesn’t? What information is essential and what information isn’t?
Be vigilant – look out for early warning indicators such as:
You should continuously test and validate existing cybersecurity tools and processes. Bring in third parties to test the system, and go through different testing priorities to see what matters and what doesn’t when it comes to your cybersecurity.
Insider threat is the threat that an insider will use his or her authorised access, wittingly or unwittingly, to do harm to the company’s/departments mission, resources, personnel, facilities, information, equipment, networks, or systems. The impact and cost of insider cybersecurity attacks can be considerable, with an estimated $6 trillion dollars in damages to business around the world.
If you’re looking to protect your organisation or evaluate your cybersecurity requirements or challenges. Call 01252 917000, email enquiries@bluefort.com or get in touch with us via our contact form
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