5 Reasons Why Penetration Testing Is Important

Cyber security is completely significant, particularly in this era. The global COVID-19 outbreak has a huge impact on the cyber ecosystem. In reality, the damages caused by cyber theft are poised to double amid the COVID-19 outburst.  “Cybercrime costs count stolen money, destruction and damage of data, theft of financial and personal data, theft of intellectual property, lost productivity, fraud, forensic investigation, embezzlement, a post-attack distraction to the normal course of business, deletion and restoration of hacked systems and data, and reputational harm,” stated by Editor-in-Chief at Cybercrime Magazine and Founder and of Cyber security Ventures, Steve Morgan, in a release.

Statistics Overview

As per the Official Cybercrime Report mentioned by Cyber security Ventures, cyber theft in the future will charge up from the world  US $3 trillion in 2015 to USD 6 trillion per annum by 2021. The outbreak also signifies one of the leading transfers and changes of economic wealth in history. Every 40 seconds, the company is hit with a ransomware attack; as a minimum 71% of these attacks is a success. While the total time is taken, on average, for the organization for mitigating even one of these attacks is approximately 23 days.

The new study has also found that the big-giant company (mainly in the Asia Pacific) can incur US$30 million of an economic loss of, which is more than 300 times higher than the average economic failure for a mid-sized company ($96,000) [in any breach case]; and cyber security hit has also resulted in the loss of jobs across diverse functions in more or less 7 in 10 (67%) companies that have encountered an incident over the last twelve months.

In the year 2019 cyber theft or crime cost individuals and companies USD 3.5 billion lost, an approx. 30 % hike from the USD 2.7 billion lost in the year 2018. This is not just a yearly hit in cybercrime; cyber hackers are now using sophisticated and fresh new methods and strategies to penetrate systems.

To resolve the danger of a security incident and stay away from the cost of cyber theft, we need to be able to stop, discover, react, and recover from such hits. We can control various attacks by ensuring we control and resolve all identified software vulnerabilities and executing standard security assessments to detect possible unfamiliar security vulnerabilities. Modern companies necessitate a superior technique for security and advanced scrutiny. Therefore, to test how and whether a malicious hacker can gain unauthorized access to your data and assets, you will require to consult one of the reputable professional penetration testing services companies like KiwiQA.

5 Core Reasons Why Your Business Needs Penetration Testing

Pen testing is mainly implemented to detect vulnerabilities and fix them before a hacker does. Most of the time, the IT department is aware of the identified vulnerabilities but still requires an external specialist to authoritatively report them so that the management gets assure about the vulnerabilities and can mitigate them correctly. The presence of a second set of eyes to resolve all the vulnerabilities is always great practice for security.

Let us have a glance at the reasons why performing a penetration test is significant:

1. Protect Your Organization

Regardless of your sector, users see each company as a potentially exploitable prospect, small companies included. In reality, small companies are most vulnerable to cyber thefts. This is because even a home business has computing control to hijack, confidential data for exploiting, or several other alluring opportunities to illegally profit from; most non-enterprise companies simply lack the expertise and resources to appropriately secure their system.

Also Read: Myths and Facts of Security Testing

2. Smartly Detect Security Vulnerabilities and Exposures

Cyber attackers are mostly on the leading edge of technology, deploying fresh attack programs and techniques. When security susceptibility is patched, they are then pushed to seek for a new means. Hence, external penetration testing enables you to appropriately determine your defenses and verify where it can be mainly hacked.

The pen testing mainly highlight and disclose cybersecurity exposures, which enables you to correct the glitches before attackers can exploit them. After the complete cyber security perimeter is perfectly tested you can then prioritize the risks; mitigate the greatest threats first before moving on to less risky ones.

3. Confirm Secure Configurations

If the security member of any company is doing great work, and are confident of their activities and the results, the penetration reports confirm them. Taking assistance from an outside unit acts as a verifying agent of whether the system security gives a sight that is lacking the internal preferences. The external outside entity can also determine the team’s competence and efficiency as security operators. It aids to identify the system’s gaps.

Also Read: Your Guide To Mobile Application Security Testing

4. Regulations and Compliance with Security Standards

Undeniably, pen tests play a vital role in terms of safeguarding your company and its precious assets from intruders. But, the rewards of a penetration testing extend far beyond data security and network. Regular penetration testing can aid you to comply with security standards and regulations dictated by the important security standards, like ISO 27001, PCI, and HIPAA, and avoid the heavy fines connected with non-compliance. These standards necessitate system owners and company managers for conducting regular security audits and pen tests with the assistance of professional security analysts.

For example, the Payment Card Industry Data Security (PCI DSS) standard necessitates companies that manage huge volumes of transactions for conducting both regular and annual pen tests (after any system modifications). What else’s, the descriptive reports produce from penetration tests can help the company improve its security controls and demonstrate ongoing due diligence to evaluators.

Also Read: Best Practices for Security Testing of Software

5. Protect Client Trust  and Your Business Reputation

If an attacker exploits your system successfully resulting in an information leak, your clientele will be upset—and rightfully so. When that occurs, clients lose confidence in your capacity to keep their confidential data safe. It mainly takes one attack and data breach to ruin your brand image, which may last for an unlimited time. As per the current Ponemon study, “27% of clients surveyed stated that they discontinued their relationship with the organization that had a data breach. Of those clients affected by 1 or more security breaches, 65 % say they lost faith in the breached company.”

A penetration testing company can easily assist the companies from any sort of damaging cyber-attack and data leak. By eliminating the company’s vulnerabilities systematically and being vigilant with the defense company demonstrate to valuable clients that you take their confidentiality seriously. Eventually, maintaining a robust security posture will lead to more faith and an improved reputation.

Also Read: How to Select a Penetration Testing Company?

Final Words

External Penetration Testing Company can assist to mitigate the cyber threats that your organization may face. However, better security practices must be taken care of to protect your business and its reputation. By taking a robust approach to cyber-security, you can easily address the prioritized risks and review your risk exposure constantly.

Connect with us today to start testing your cyber-security!