What is Penetration Testing?

Think of a penetration testing methodology—or “pentesting” for short—as a controlled cyber attack during which your best defenses are put to the test and exploited to determine the extent of vulnerabilities in your web applications.

Essentially, designing and implementing a penetration testing methodology allows you to:

• Hack your own system in a proactive, authorized environment, focusing on elements such as IT infrastructure, OS vulnerabilities, application issues and user and configuration errors;
• Analyze and validate both system defenses and user adherence to system protocols; and
• Assess potential attack vectors such as web applications, wireless networks and devices and servers.

Unfortunately, no data is safe 100 percent of the time. But an effective penetration testing methodology can do wonders for eliminating unnecessary vulnerabilities.