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The beginners’ guide to network penetration testing
Businesses from all industries employ a vast arsenal of interconnected digital tools, equipment, and processes. With the ever-increasing capabilities and scale of digital networks, the number of vulnerable nodes is also growing. Hackers exploit these vulnerabilities, gaining unauthorised access to sensitive data and aiming to disrupt operations. As of 2024, the global average cost per data breach is about $4.8 million, 10% higher than the previous year. This increase in attack vectors highlights the need for comprehensive network penetration testing.
What is network penetration testing?
Often shorted as ‘pen testing’, penetration testing is a controlled simulation of a cyberattack on systems or networks to locate weaknesses that attackers can exploit. It uses a number of methods to identify susceptibilities or misconfigurations in the organisation’s security setup. This test also provides real-world evidence for approaches that attackers could use to access and manipulate businesses’ networks.
Two key objectives are achieved by network penetration testing:
- The efficacy and resilience of an organisation’s security setup are evaluated.
- Being a preemptive measure, vulnerabilities are identified before malicious parties can exploit them.
Depending on the objectives of the project, pen tests can be either external or internal.
External network penetration testing
External penetration testing is where ethical hackers try to breach an organisation’s defences from outside its IT environment. This type of testing is aimed at assessing how one could gain access to the organisation’s internal network by exploiting vulnerabilities in assets like internet-connected devices, servers, websites, etc.
Some examples of external network penetration testing include:
- Weak cryptography testing
- Input validation testing
- Identity management testing
- Authentication and authorisation testing
External pen tests offer real-world insights from the vantage of the threat actor and paint a clear picture of which network assets might be considered a vulnerability.
Internal network penetration testing
This approach allows testers to pose as malicious insiders or external hackers who have managed to gain access to the organisation’s IT environment. Here, the key focus is to evaluate the extent of what could potentially be accomplished by a threat actor targeting critical assets like data and information systems, intellectual property, etc.
However, internal network penetration testing methodology is not merely a way of exploiting internal network weaknesses. It also offers valuable insights into information leakages, credential theft, malware spread rate, MITM (man-in-the-middle) attacks and other forms of malicious activity.
Some examples of internal network penetration testing include:
- White box testing: White box testing involves testers who have full access to the system’s architecture and source code, providing an in-depth view of potential weaknesses.
- Black box testing: Black box testing simulates an attack from an outsider, where testers have no prior knowledge, reflecting the real-world scenario of a hacker attempting unauthorised access.
- Grey box testing: Grey box testing strikes a balance, with testers possessing partial knowledge, such as limited access or user credentials, to identify both external and internal threats.
- Wireless penetration testing: Wireless penetration testing focuses on identifying vulnerabilities in wireless networks, such as unsecured Wi-Fi or weak encryption, which can be exploited.
- Social engineering and database testing: Social engineering tests can identify how susceptible employees are to manipulation, such as phishing or pretexting, which often serve as gateways for cybercriminals. Database testing involves probing the organisation’s database for vulnerabilities that could lead to unauthorised data access.
Organisational impact
The annual cyber readiness report published by a well-known insurance broker suggested that 41% of the small businesses in the USA fell prey to cyber attacks in 2023. Several organisations from diverse sectors have also been exposed to data breaches in 2024. While not mandatory by law, some regulations demand regular pen testing for compliance.
Considering this, it’s not hard to see the overarching value network penetration testing delivers to SMEs and MNCs alike. It provides organisations:
- The ability to identify vulnerabilities from an external and internal vantage
- A detailed understanding of their security posture and controls with real-world evidence
- Insights that prompt pre-emptive measures to tackle security threats, consequently bringing down remediation costs
- Compliance with regulatory authorities like HIPPA, ISO 27001, PCI-DSS, SCO2, GDPR, etc.
- A data-backed framework to build strong information security infrastructure
How can Infosys BPM help with network asset management?
Network Inventory Management System (NIMS), offered by Infosys BPM, replaces legacy approaches with consistent and consolidated approaches to service delivery and network changes. With real-time network inventory management and support for multi-vendor, multi-generational networks, NIMS can secure companies with reliable network assets management.