What Is A Penetration Test And Why Do I Need It?

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Cyber security is of the utmost importance for companies today. With more and more business being done online and more people working from home, there is a growing number of cyber attacks. These can range from hacks, to data breaches, leaks and several others.

While many companies use protective measures of some kind to enhance their cyber security, these don’t always work. Because of this, it is very important that your company, app or platform go through a penetration test every now and then. Read on to learn about what these tests are and why they are so important.

What is a Penetration Test?

A penetration test is essentially where your company will mimic the actions of a hack or other cyber attack, and see how your security measures work. This is done to test out cybersecurity measures in a controlled and safe environment, to make sure they work if tested by a real threat. These tests can easily identify any vulnerabilities and make it easy to know just what needs to be changed to increase your cyber security. If you want to learn more about Penetration testing, be sure to check out the link.

Why Does My Business Need a Penetration Test?

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Now that you know what a penetration test is, why must your company need them? First of all, you need these tests to discover any potential weaknesses in your infrastructure or software. From there, these tests can help you develop and create the right sort of cybersecurity controls to remove these aforementioned weaknesses.

These tests can then make sure that these new controls are effective, as well. They can identify hard-to-find vulnerabilities, and even show how very low-risk vulnerabilities can lead to much more major issues.

All in all, they are needed to make sure the measures you have in place are good enough to defend your company from the increasingly complex and diverse cyber attacks that are out there. If you’re not adequately protected, cyber attacks can be very expensive to deal with in some cases. Penetration tests can also keep you compliant in industries that require certain kinds of testing. Not being compliant can often come with some steep penalties, so keep that in mind.

These tests can also often detect bugs in your software. But be sure to perform tests once previous vulnerabilities have been addressed. It is always possible that when a certain issue is fixed, another one can materialize.

So how often should you do these tests in order to achieve the best results? In general, it should be done at least once a year, but can be done more frequently if you are concerned or have recently changed up your cybersecurity measures.

In conclusion, we hope that this article has been able to help you learn what penetration testing is, and why you need it. Without penetration testing, you might not know whether your cyber security measures are up to par before it’s too late.