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In this fast-changing cyber landscape, an excellent penetration tester not only has to be qualified in uncovering potential vulnerabilities, he is also challenged to keep up with the latest cyber threats and constantly upgrade his cybersecurity skills. Here’s a look at how penetration testers wear multiple hats to ensure your digital assets are secured from the wrong hands.
Whether you’re operating in an e-commerce industry or have any reliance on digital assets, you’d be looking among the cybersecurity services in Singapore for a professional penetration tester. Essentially, the role of a penetration tester is to uncover the cyber vulnerabilities that affect an organisation’s security posture and craft solutions to the organisation’s needs.
Due to the nature of the role, a penetration tester has to be someone who is goal-oriented in the cybersecurity field – he needs to seek out the vulnerabilities before the hackers gain access to your data. This involves identifying and exploiting the vulnerabilities, similar to what is done in a cyber-attack, in order to test your current security measures.
During the simulated attack, the penetration tester has to be detailed: gathering all information about the organization and its industry through open-source intelligence platforms such as Google. Subsequently, the penetration tester will connect with you – the client, to discuss the scope in order to get the green light to perform the penetration testing.
You can be assured that your certified penetration tester has the necessary IT fundamentals such as reading and writing in several programming languages, comfortable working with various operating systems and has a grasp of data analytics. Additionally, a penetration tester is proficient in the cybersecurity field of threat profiles, vectors and ethical hacking techniques.
Beside the technical skills, the penetration tester keeps up with the latest cybersecurity and cyber intelligence trends to stay relevant – it’s similar to how hedge fund managers keep themselves up to date with daily financial news. As GROUP8 is a member of CREST, our penetration testers are able to participate in cybersecurity conferences. From these conferences and other shared resources, our penetration testers have the privilege to exchange insights with members and hone their skills further.
With such a diverse role, for you to better understand what penetration testers do to protect your data, here are the five milestones a penetration tester achieves upon completion of the test.
Before the test commences, the penetration tester will finalise with the client on the scope and objectives of the examination. Details such as test duration and the possible impacts on your business operations must be discussed and conveyed to you and the other stakeholders involved.
The penetration tester will then begin to identify and choose the systems in your IT infrastructure, by which they will target and spot any emerging threats. At this juncture, the goal is to conduct in-depth network analysis through a network survey tool such as Nmap.
Right before the penetration test commences, a vulnerability assessment would need to be conducted. This is to provide the penetration testers with a list of prioritised vulnerabilities, a guide for them to decide which risks to exploit.
Finally, the team of penetration tests can discuss and decide to land an intrusive attack to check your system’s defence. The penetration test is extensive – and may even include several comprehensive tests such as password cracking and social engineering.
Once the penetration test is complete, the team generates and delivers you a report that summarises the test analysis. Using the report, the experts then discuss the critical vulnerabilities and suggest possible solutions you can take up. Last but not least, the final step would be a clean-up of the system, removal of any data that was created and used in the process to avoid exposing the system to detected vulnerabilities.
A penetration tester’s work in keeping your assets safe is a detailed process. That’s because he understands your need to steer away from any cyber threat, and stay ahead in your industry.
Have yet to review your IT systems and networks for the year? It’s time to engage a highly qualified and competent penetration testing company in Singapore – let them worry about cyber-attacks while you concentrate on boosting your business.