Quality Penetration Testing by Netragard

The purpose of Penetration Testing is to identify the presence of points where an external entity can make its way into or through a protected entity. Penetration Testing is not unique to IT security and is used across a wide variety of different industries. For example, Penetration Tests are used to assess the effectiveness of body armor. This is done by exposing the armor to different munitions that represent the real threat. If a projectile penetrates the armor then the armor is revised and improved upon until it can endure the threat.

Network Penetration Testing is a class of Penetration Testing that applies to Information Technology. The purpose of Network Penetration Testing is to identify the presence of points where a threat (defined by the hacker) can align with existing risks to achieve penetration. The accurate identification of these points allows for remediation.

Successful penetration by a malicious hacker can result in the compromise of data with respect to Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability (“CIA”). In order to ensure that a Network Penetration Test provides an accurate measure of risk (risk = probability x impact) the test must be delivered at a threat level that is slightly elevated from that which is likely to be faced in the real world. Testing at a lower than realistic threat level would be akin to testing a bulletproof vest with a squirt gun.

Threat levels can be adjusted by adding or removing attack classes. These attack classes are organized under three top-level categories, which are Network Attacks, Social Attacks, and Physical Attacks. Each of the top-level categories can operate in a standalone configuration or can be used to augment the other. For example, Network Penetration Testing with Social Engineering creates a significantly higher level of threat than just Network Penetration Testing or Social Engineering alone. Each of the top-level threat categories contains numerous individual attacks.

A well-designed Network Penetration Testing engagement should employ the same attack classes as a real threat. This ensures that testing is realistic which helps to ensure effectiveness. All networked entities face threats that include Network and Social attack classes. Despite this fact, most Network Penetration Tests entirely overlook the Social attack class and thus test at radically reduced threat levels. Testing at reduced threat levels defeats the purpose of testing by failing to identify the same level of risks that would likely be identified by the real threat. The level of threat that is produced by a Network Penetration Testing team is one of the primary measures of service quality.