From a lack of manpower to resource constraints, running a small business in this day and age is no easy feat. As such, it is understandable for many small organisations to believe penetration testing is not relevant for them. However, vulnerabilities do exist across all networks, regardless of organisational size. Rather than skip the test, here’s why all businesses need to take penetration testing seriously.

Why penetration testing is crucial for small businesses

1. Gain brand credibility

The ultimate goal of every business is to expand and grow bigger. Having credibility is a crucial factor for such growth. However, oftentimes, small businesses do not have the benefit of an established brand image yet. Worse, their reputation can be easily tarnished once a data breach occurs.

Data breaches can ultimately undermine an organisation’s credibility, reduce its customer trust, and impact its business. For this reason, small businesses need to focus on gaining their brand credibility, particularly through various IT-related means.

Regular penetration testing is one of the best ways for small businesses to build their brand image. It provides startups with sound credibility in the form of good cybersecurity practices. Without penetration testing, small businesses will be largely vulnerable to cyber attacks at all times.

2. Minimise any downtime

Traffic is especially vital for small businesses that heavily rely on qualified leads to grow their audience and earn more. The more traffic an organisation’s website receives, the more opportunities it has to generate qualitied leads. Because of this, it is important for small businesses to boost their web traffic.

However, if there is a hit to a business’ server, perhaps due to a DDoS attack in which devices turn into zombie computers, a business can experience downtime and consequently reduce its potential revenue. For every minute that a business website is down due to security breach, an opportunity to attract new customers or close a sale is lost.

To avoid this from happening, small businesses should invest in regular penetration testing services. Especially during a time-sensitive promotion, it is best for businesses to secure their networks to ensure zero downtime.

3. Ensure compliance with international standards

With the ever-changing cyber-landscape, it is important for businesses to stay ahead of the latest cyber trends. This involves complying with international standards when it comes to cybersecurity.

There are several international security regulations or standards that businesses, whether small, medium-sized, or large corporations, are compelled to adhere to. These standards generally requires companies to conduct regular security audits and certified penetration testing with the assistance of professional security experts.

As of 2020, GROUP8 offers CREST-certified penetration testing that are truly reliable and effective. We ensure that our methods undergo vigorous assessments and measure up to CREST’s standards, which is the representative body in the technical information security sector.

4. Increases staff awareness

Staff awareness and compliance with the security protocols are important in successfully preventing or responding to a cybersecurity breach. Penetration testing helps to analyse if the business’ staff is aware and truly compliant with the security protocols.

Through the help or advice of a certified penetration tester, an organisation’s in-house security team can be educated on the possible loopholes in its IT systems. Particularly, with the use of social engineering tactics, penetration testers can check if the employees are susceptible to phishing attempts or scams.

Through regular penetration testing, a business can guarantee that it has put in place a more structured security protocol, which is extremely necessary in the event of a real cyberattack.

Tips to optimise penetration testing for SMEs

1. Choose the more critical information systems

Many small businesses usually do not have a full overview of what information systems they are running to power their operations. These systems come a variety. They can be an e-commerce web application that brings in revenue, an internal Human Resources system that manages employee time-off, or others.

To maximise the benefits of penetration tests, small businesses should focus on testing their more critical information systems, such as their internet-facing networks and applications. These networks and applications are accessible from the internet, so any public user can launch an attack against them.

Aside from internet-facing networks and applications, penetration testing should also be concentrated on comprehensive systems with multiple services, such as web, email, and storage, running on them. These systems have more interface exposure, which makes them more vulnerable to attacks.

Lastly, systems with sensitive data lead to more damage if compromised. Therefore, systems like those e-commerce web apps that retrieve card details or store personal information should also be focused on during penetration testing.

2. Couple it with vulnerability assessment

In conducting penetration testing, there could be a lot of identified vulnerabilities, some of which could prove to be false negatives. Especially for people or organisations that are not accustomed to the processes, methods, and use of the test findings, penetration testing can be somehow challenging.

Hence, it is vital for small businesses to prioritise the cyber risks with a vulnerability assessment first. A vulnerability assessment helps in deciding which vulnerabilities to exploit in penetration testing.

There are several IT companies that offer a combination of vulnerability assessment and penetration testing services in Singapore. Engaging these combined services can greatly help small businesses maximise their penetration tests and upscale their cybersecurity measures.

Conclusion

Penetration testing is highly relevant to businesses, whether small, medium-sized, or large corporations. Penetration testing and all the other cybersecurity solutions in Singapore do not only ensure that businesses are free from cyber threats and risks, but they also help boost the revenues of these businesses, improve their credibility, and guarantee their compliance. Ultimately, penetration testing is essential to the security of businesses.

Here at GROUP8, we recognise the need to secure all businesses, whether large or small. With a suite of cybersecurity solutions that can be tailored to your organisational size, drop us a note at hello@group.co today for us to craft a personalised solution that combats growing cyber-threats.