The purpose of legitimate Network Penetration Testing is to positively identify risks in a targeted IT Infrastructure before those risks are identified and exploited by malicious hackers. This enables the IT managers to remediate against those risks before they become an issue. To accomplish this the Penetration Test must be driven by people with at least the same degree of skill and persistence as the threat (defined by the malicious hacker). If the Penetration Test is delivered with a skill set that is less than that of the real threat then the test will likely be ineffective. This would be akin to testing the effectiveness a bullet-proof vest with a squirt gun.
Unfortunately most penetration tests don’t test at realistic threat levels. This is especially true with regards to PCI based penetration tests. Most PCI based penetration testing companies do the bare minimum required to satisfy PCI requirement 11.3. This is problematic because it results in businesses passing their PCI penetration tests when they should have failed and it promotes a false sense of security. The truth is that most businesses that pass their annual PCI audits are still relatively easy to hack. If you don’t believe us then let us prove it and hire us (Netragard) to deliver a conditional penetration test. If we can’t penetrate your network using our unrestricted, advanced methodology then the next test is free. (Challenge ends March, 31st 2011).
We challenge your spelling ;) Compliance :)
ReplyDeleteYep, apparently we challenge our spelling as well. That's a wacky mistake there...
ReplyDelete