Pen Testing Companies

Things to Know When Choosing Pen Testing Companies

There’s no telling when a malicious entity would attempt to break into your network system. When this happens and if they can access all of your crucial data, then your business might suffer great losses, not only in terms of your finances but also from acquiring new clients. One of the best things you can do, however, is to get the services of pen testing companies to bolster your network and application’s security features and structure. However, since this can easily get technical, it can be hard to determine which service provider to hire for the job.

If you are wondering how you can effectively choose which data security specialists to hire, read on.

Clear and detailed reports

Some of the main things pen testing companies must be able to provide are comprehensive yet easy to understand reports including summary data for executives and detailed data for technical personnel. The penetration test report should contain a prioritised risk-based list of findings with detailed step-by-step recommendations. Any steps taken to exploit systems should include screenshots, where applicable. Your team should be able to reproduce the findings, given the steps in the report. The pentesting company should be able to provide a sample and redacted reports. If you can’t understand the report or take action on the findings, what’s the point of the penetration test?

Manual and automated testing

Automated tools do not detect all vulnerabilities and are prone to false positives. Manual methods must be used as part of the penetration test to fill in gaps left by the automated tools, eliminate false positives, and ensure test completeness. Both manual and automated methods should be used for every penetration test. Many penetration testing organisations run automated tools, then try to pass those results off as a penetration test. A penetration test, however, should involve many tools and many manual techniques as much as possible. Be sure to consider this when choosing among penetration testing companies to hire.

 Identify and eliminate false positives

A false positive is when the penetration testing team tells you there is a vulnerability or a problem when there isn’t one. That said, reliable penetration testing companies should ensure that they can eliminate false positives and tag questionable findings. This is why manual analysis is critical. A report riddled with false positives wastes your time.

Background Checks

Another thing to take into consideration is the mechanism in place used by penetration testing companies UK to ensure the trustworthiness of its employees. Are background checks performed at hiring? Does a company have a program for continuous security recertification? Pen testers will have access to the company’s inner infrastructure secrets and some type of screening and vetting is a minimum requirement.

A clear statement of work involved

When outsourcing to a penetration testing services provider, it should be clear to these organisations that their chosen company follows an industry-accepted penetration testing methodology. The team needs to provide a clear statement of work that highlights testing limits, time of engagement, tools and methods employed, privacy concerns, procedures related to data access, along with reporting expectations and requirements. Make sure the services that the penetration testing companies UK provide cater to the needs of your organisation.

The number of researchers

Be sure to look into the number of personnel within teams deployed by a pen testing company. A traditional security testing firm will typically appoint one to three researchers for a pen test, and they often choose entry-level testers. More ethical hackers participating in a penetration test means diverse skills will yield more varied vulnerabilities. It is often observed that some hackers may be experts at finding database vulnerabilities whereas others may specialise in testing particular software frameworks.

Security matters especially in the field of business and technology. As many institutions are geared towards establishing their presence online, the need for pen testing companies cannot be highlighted any further. These companies employ techniques similar to what cybersecurity criminals use - to search and safely exploit – vulnerabilities in your infrastructure. Using the data they gather, they will then provide a security report highlighting the security problems discovered and then recommend methods on how to address and prevent such issues. Just make sure to use the guide above to determine the best security provider for the job.