Penetration testing is a specialized field of computer testing. It is defined by the Computer Networks Security Policy (CANSP) for the purpose of determining the levels of safety and security in networks and systems. Penetration testing is carried out with the intention of discovering and isolating software vulnerabilities that can be exploited to allow penetration or denial of service attack or an attack of a security feature. A Penetration Test is carried out for various purposes such as assessing system vulnerability, fault injection, application vulnerability, a buffer overflow, and denial of service attacks. All these are executed in a laboratory setting under controlled and recognized circumstances.
A Penetration Testing Process starts with the observation of the flaws in the system under consideration. For this purpose, the developers create a database in which they keep all the details of the tested web applications and their vulnerabilities. Based on this the developers then try to locate the vulnerable web application and carry out a complete scanning and check the code for defects. The goal of the Penetration Testing Process is to find and document the security vulnerabilities that can be exploited by an unauthorized user and make the application to fail in performance or create a security issue in the network.
A Penetration Testing Case should first be documented in a comprehensive manner. It should describe all the objectives of the Penetration Testing Process, the objectives of the testers, and the methods they use to carry out the process. A Penetration Testing Case should also have a title page that provides a summary of the entire process and describes each of the major steps. There may be additional pages that provide information about the various vulnerabilities found during the course of the testing. It should also indicate whether the security personnel involved in the case took any protective measures to mitigate the risks associated with the vulnerabilities found during the test.
There are many companies that specialize in providing automated Penetration Testing Services. They usually employ several people who specialize in different areas of penetration testing. Some of these companies provide automated software that can be used by testers to perform the various tasks involved in the process. In most cases, these automated software are simple script scripts that perform the various tasks involved in the Penetration Testing Process and in most cases can be executed by just one person.
There are many advantages of using automated web application penetration testing services by many companies. For one, the process involves fewer man-hours as the automated application can carry out the various tasks without any help from the testers. The automated software can perform the functions of performing vulnerability scans, code verification, and other functions that can be very time consuming for the testers to perform manually.
Another benefit of using penetration testing software is that it can help to prevent vulnerabilities from being discovered before the application is released. When a vulnerability is found during a web application pen test, the developer has to go back to the development cycle and fix the vulnerability before the application is released. This can cause a lot of loss in time and money.
There are a number of Penetration Testing tools available for use by the developers. Many of these Penetration Testing tools have the capability of performing a comprehensive security scan on your system. A thorough security scan will allow the tool to identify any kind of weaknesses in your system that may not necessarily be found by manual scanning or a manual vulnerability scan. However, some Penetration Testing tools can also perform a live vulnerability check which is very useful for the penetration testing team.
There are many reasons why companies use automated Penetration Testing tools for the purpose of determining the overall security aspects of their network. The primary reason is that the process takes very less time and costs almost nothing compared to the alternative. Apart from this, it will only cost a company a few dollars to perform a complete security analysis of their entire network. If the cost of implementing the various software programs for performing penetration testing is relatively more than the cost of purchasing automated Penetration Testing tools, then you should definitely opt for automated Penetration Testing tools. However, there are a number of companies that offer free Penetration Testing services so that small organizations can also carry out a penetration testing test without spending anything on these tools.
