Would you like to find out the vulnerabilities in your system before a malicious hacker exploit it? Are you aware of the present network vulnerabilities in the system but require an expert to provide more proof for additional investment? Would you also love to conduct penetration testing to comply with the set regulations and industry standards? Well, it is a good idea to be tech-savvy on matters pen testing to assess your vendor pre and post penetration testing exercise. The following guide will help you understand what should be done before, during, and after penetration testing.
Pre-Penetration Stage
This point is vital to help you understand the series of activities you need to pay attention to before a network penetration process. They include:
Defining the scope – whichever the type of penetration, ensure to list the number of networks, IP addresses within each network, computers on the net, and subnets to avoid any problems. This move is essential to help pen testers attend to all network systems. Worse still, they can mistakenly hack some third-party systems.
State the time frame – Penetration testing should always be independently done and should never affect the regular company working hours. For instance, if a pen tester working on your network uses techniques that draw heavy traffic, this would consequently overload the system. You may experience slowed speeds or even crashes.
Decide whether your security and technical staff should be aware – sometimes, sudden penetration testing is essential in assessing how your security team reacts. If not informed early, they may slow down or shut the system down altogether. They can easily cut off internet access from pen testers.
The Actual Penetration Stage
During this stage, you need to understand the best practices involved in network pen testing. It will help you have a clear understanding of whether your hired vendor runs the process as per the required standards. You need to gather more information concerning your customer. You can do this through their websites, online data mining services, WHOIS databases and much more. Ensure to carry out a network survey to allow pen testers have adequate information about domain or server names, IP addresses, open and closed ports, operating systems and much more.
Another activity is finding out the existing vulnerabilities. This can be conducted manually or automatically. Some automatic penetration testing software can be helpful in covering the huge ground. Finally, identify suitable targets and attempt penetration. Great software usually groups vulnerabilities basing on their severity index. Pentesters can also decide to perform social engineering which involves involving the employees in finding out some information.
Post Penetration Stage
As of now, the process of network penetration is complete. However, penetration testing is not yet complete. The remaining methods involve generating the test report and clean-up. You should always understand that creating an excellent report is vital while planning your risk management. Write your overview including what vulnerabilities require attention.
Ensure to highlight other critical vulnerabilities. Finally, for the clean-up exercise, pen testers should ensure zero room for any backdoors on your network system. They are required to keep track and record all the logs of work performed. Double checking with your security personnel is an added advantage.
