Enhancing pentesting strategy

Chris Dickens at HackerOne argues that penetration testing can be enhanced with the help of ethical hackers

 

As businesses increasingly adopt cloud computing and machine learning, dependency on IT has never been more significant. These technologies have become core tools in pursuing efficiency, innovation, and agility - key factors driving transformation initiatives.

 

Even with concerns about potential misuse, the power of AI in analysing and processing huge data volumes promises to be a key driver in devising new business models and work methodologies.

 

However, alongside these technological advancements and associated benefits, cyber-security risks have grown in tandem with no sign of slowing down. As online platforms and data volumes have exploded, cyber-threats have increased. Market pressure, rapid business agility, and hurried tech adoption often surpass security measures, leading to exploitable vulnerabilities. Even minor data breaches can lead to severe consequences.

 

To counteract this, tech vendors have been proactive in developing new methods to prevent, detect, and respond to threats. Support often includes automated vulnerability scanning and machine learning, which help fill the gap left by the lack of expert security analysts. For in-house security teams, the best practice is to embrace unconventional thinking.

 

Meeting the relentless challenge of ensuring cyber-security defences can match the evolving threat landscape and the demands of digital transformation, from everyday changes to large-scale projects, is daunting. Therefore, constant vigilance is needed, and this is precisely where external penetration testing, or more specifically, PTaaS (Penetration Testing as a Service), can aid, helping to lighten the burden on internal teams.

 

In fact, research shows pentesting is growing in popularity as a hacker-powered solution, and pentesters are getting even better at finding high-impact vulnerabilities.

 

Effective pentesting strategies

To safeguard against such risks, a comprehensive cyber-security strategy should stand alongside every digital transformation effort. Yet, cyber-security should not be perceived as a one-off task. Instead, it requires regular assessments and tests to ensure its continued effectiveness.

 

Given the ceaseless evolution of cyber-criminal tactics, cyber-security measures must also constantly adapt or risk quickly becoming obsolete, often in a matter of weeks or months.

 

Frequent pentesting is one of the most efficient methods to stay ahead. It gives businesses a prompt, precise snapshot of their cyber-defence levels. Ethical hackers simulate adversarial actions in a set time to penetrate a system’s security and expose vulnerabilities. Both automated software and human expertise are used for a detailed examination, probing, and assaulting a network using various methods and channels known to be exploited by cyber-criminals.

 

A modern, effective pentesting strategy should encompass the following components:

 

Identify crucial security priorities. Initially, businesses must pinpoint what they must safeguard. Although it’s unfeasible to protect everything constantly, vital assets should be ranked based on the potential harm if they were compromised. Generally, highly sensitive data such as proprietary IP, competitive and legal information, and personally identifiable information (PII) will have top priority.

 

Obtain security commitment from all employees. Strengthening a sustainable security culture requires buy-in from every organisational level, from the executive board to the receptionist. When all employees take responsibility for company security, it’s easier to establish a model that distributes risks and enables teams to scale securely across the organisation.

 

Implement pentesting as a regular security checkpoint. Doing so frequently encourages a more proactive stance toward security overall. Many organisations merely strive to fulfil minimum compliance requirements, mistakenly assuming they are secure—this is a high-risk tactic. Companies have to test more often, and they need to partner with a pentest provider that can start a test in days, not weeks.

 

The provider should also offer real-time visibility into findings, empowering companies to swiftly detect and address vulnerabilities before malicious actors exploit them.

 

Utilise strong cyber-security as a strategic differentiator. Data serves as the lifeblood of the digital economy, and digital trust forms its core. In fact, 87% of global CEOs invest in cyber-security to build customer trust. Organisations with sound security strategies can swiftly turn them into a strategic differentiator for their brand—proving invaluable amid highly competitive business sectors and industries.

 

PTaaS as part of a cyber-security strategy

While often seen as suitable only for specific testing periods before launching new software, applications, or systems, PTaaS facilitates quicker and more adaptable testing models. Using a combination of tools and human touch from trusted ethical hackers, tests can span extensive environments or concentrate on particular elements such as web applications, wireless networks, physical infrastructures, social engineering, or mobile apps.

 

Ethical hackers display exceptional critical thinking and creative problem-solving abilities, as they must rapidly adapt to unexpected circumstances or exploit emerging opportunities.

 

Assuming the relentless mindset of malicious adversaries, ethical hackers start by infiltrating the customer-specified target. Their deep knowledge of programming languages and network protocols enables them to simulate exploits and payloads. Once breached, the objective shifts to identifying the easiest path to access sensitive data. Comprehensive final reports deliver findings on vulnerabilities, compliance implications, and suggested remediation steps.

 

Using ethical hackers as part of their PTaaS approach allows customers to gain access to a wide variety of skill sets and expertise typically unavailable in-house. Upwards of hundreds of thousands of registered testers are available at any given time from crowdsourced ethical hacking providers, offering continuous and dynamic testing with the capability to scale up or down as required.

 

Registered hackers undergo rigorous vetting, including skills evaluation, identity verification, and their adherence to ethical standards, ensuring a high level of trust and competence. 

 

The valuable intel gained from PTaaS can serve as a roadmap for devising and refining security protocols, as well as enhance product development workflows and cycles. It will help cultivate a more robust and agile cyber-security strategy that amplifies the success rate of digital transformation.

 

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Chris Dickens is Senior Solutions Engineer at HackerOne

 

Main image courtesy of iStockPhoto.com