Security Testing vs Pentesting: Which One Should You Choose?

The real threat of cyberattacks isn’t very obvious to us. We feel content with the illusion of safety from the firewall we installed three years ago and an expired SSL certificate.

So, before we discuss security testing vs pentesting, let’s brush up on some sore memories from the major cyberattacks of the past:

• 2022: Uber’s ride-hailing app suffered a security vulnerability. Hackers obtained personal data belonging to 57 million individuals by taking advantage of an SMS spoofing vulnerability. By using malicious code included in SMS texts, the attackers were able to bypass Uber’s login mechanism and gain unauthorized access.
• 2021: The RockYou2021 breach compromised 8.4 billion passwords. The name commemorates the breach of the RockYou site in 2009, which compromised around 32 million passwords. Some tribute!

Most of these were targeted attacks, meticulously devised for specific networks. But a staggering number of websites fall prey to blunt mass attacks, which target sites with common vulnerabilities, such as weak passwords.

What is Security Testing?

Security testing refers to scanning your network and physical environment for vulnerabilities that could lead to a cyberattack, data theft, or other malicious activity. The activities under security testing are vast and involve several types of vulnerability scanning and penetration testing. 

Pentesting and security testing primarily have the same methods of conducting the tests. They are:

1. White Box Testing: In white box security testing or penetration testing, the testers receive all the necessary information about the target system, including its internal structure, publicly available information, etc. 
2. Black Box Testing: Under black box testing, the testers receive little to no knowledge about the target system. The knowledge is limited to publicly available information, significantly increasing the guesswork in the testing process, mimicking a real hacker.
3. Grey Box Testing: The Grey Box approach combines white and black box techniques. The testers are given partial information about the target, such as login credentials, but internal structure details are left out, helping them determine how privilege escalation can be exploited.

What is Penetration Testing?

Penetration testing is an integral part of the security testing process. In this process, security experts simulate attacks on your system and hacker behavior to find vulnerabilities that could be exploited.

At the end of a successful penetration test, you will find detailed information on the following:

• The vulnerabilities present in your system.
• The risks that each of these vulnerabilities poses to your system.
• Ways to fix these vulnerabilities and mitigate the risk.

Why is Astra Vulnerability Scanner the Best Scanner?

• We’re the only company that combines automated & manual pentest to create a one-of-a-kind pentest platform.
• Vetted scans ensure zero false positives.
• Our intelligent vulnerability scanner emulates hacker behavior & evolves with every pentest.
• Astra’s scanner helps you shift left by integrating with your CI/CD.
• Our platform helps you uncover, manage & fix vulnerabilities in one place.
• Trusted by the brands you trust like Agora, Spicejet, Muthoot, Dream11, etc.

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Types of Security Testing

1. Network Scanning

Network scanning refers to using network protocol features to identify the people and devices connected to a network. Network scanning is a technique used to identify servers and services connected to a network and then scan them for vulnerabilities. Security specialists may use similar methods to identify and address those issues.

2. Vulnerability Scanning

Vulnerability scanning is a majorly automated process in which software scans the target system for vulnerabilities and weaknesses. The convenience of automated vulnerability scanning makes it easy to check your system for loopholes regularly. Pentesters and security experts use vulnerability scanning as a foundational security exercise.

3. Ethical Hacking

Ethical hacking is a broad term that covers all the activities performed by security experts to alert organizations about potential threats to their networks, applications, or sites. Ethical hackers employ a skill set similar to that of a real hacker, but with a different intention and within strict legal boundaries. 

4. Penetration Testing

In the penetration testing step, security experts attempt to penetrate the target system manually, mimicking a hacker’s behavior. They exploit the vulnerabilities to an agreed-upon extent and create a report. The pentest report contains the list of vulnerabilities, their risk score, and detailed guidelines for remediation.

What Separates Penetration Testing from Security Testing?

Simply put, penetration testing is an advanced form of security testing in which you identify vulnerabilities and understand how each of them could affect your business. For instance, if your site has a faulty plugin, that is a vulnerability.

The pentester would try to establish how much damage a faulty plugin can cause to your system if an attacker were to exploit it. It will also show you how the defenses in place would react to the incoming threat. 

Security Testing vs Pentesting 

Understanding the Pentest Process

The penetration testing process is quite elaborate. However, you do not need to worry about each step, especially if you are working with an efficient penetration testing company. 

The pentest process can be divided into seven phases:

Phase 1. Pre-Engagement

In this phase, the client and security team discuss the scope of the pentest, decide which assets to leave out of the test, discuss a strategy for exploiting vulnerabilities without interfering with business, and set up the rules of engagement. This is also where any required information is given to the pentesters.

Phase 2. Reconnaissance

This is the step in which the pentesters use various tools and techniques to gather information about the target. They can assume active or passive strategies to achieve their goal. This phase determines the course of action for the entire penetration test. 

Phase 3. Discovery

The discovery stage in pentesting involves gathering information about the target organization through techniques like social engineering. This information is used to identify potential vulnerabilities that can be exploited in subsequent test phases.

Phase 4. Vulnerability Analysis

In this phase, the threats found in the previous phase are tied to specific kinds of vulnerabilities. You start gaining an understanding of the potential vulnerabilities and the risks each one carries. 

Phase 5. Exploitation

Some of the vulnerabilities found earlier are deemed to be exploitable. The pentesters exploit some of these vulnerabilities to determine how much access hackers can gain through those loopholes. They also try to escalate their access by different means.

Phase 6. Pentest Report and Remediation

The pentest report contains all the relevant information about the vulnerabilities, including their individual CVSS scores. The risks posed by the vulnerabilities are judged by how easy they were to exploit and how much access they yielded. The report also contains detailed guidelines for developers on how to fix vulnerabilities.

Phase 7. Rescan

Most pentesters offer a rescan of your systems after the vulnerabilities are fixed. Rescans should be conducted periodically to ensure continued safety. If the rescan does not reveal any vulnerabilities, your network, site, or application can be considered safe.   

Astra Pentest is built by the team of experts that helped secure Microsoft, Adobe, Facebook, and Buffer

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Benefits of Penetration Testing

When discussing a topic like security testing vs. penetration testing, it is evident that our security experts would recommend one of them. Penetration testing has a strong upper hand over most other forms of security testing in terms of depth of coverage and effectiveness.

• You understand the risk posed by a security loophole when it is exploited to gain access to your system.
• The pentest is conducted from the vantage point of a real attacker, which helps you focus on the most significant attack vectors rather than taking a surface-level approach to security.
• The detailed report from the breaches gives you real-time data on how a breach could affect your business. It becomes easier for you to allocate security resources.
• The same data helps your developers reproduce and fix the vulnerabilities for good. 

Who Should Get a Pentest Done?

In some industries, penetration testing is mandatory to get certifications, licenses, etc.

1. Payment processing companies should implement penetration testing services to comply with the PCI DSS regulations.
2. Healthcare institutes need pentesting to operate within the HIPAA guidelines.
3. IT service providers need regular pentesting for SOC2 Type II compliance.
4. Any organization with internet-facing assets or holds and transmits sensitive data—credit card information, customer personal data, healthcare-related information, and confidential government data—should engage in regular Penetration Testing. 

Astra Makes Penetration Testing Simple

Key Features:

• Platform: SaaS
• Pentest Capabilities: Continuous automated scans with 10,000+ tests and manual pentests 
• Accuracy: Zero false positives (with vetted scans)
• Compliance Scanning: OWASP, PCI-DSS, HIPAA, ISO27001, and SOC2
• Publicly Verifiable Pentest Certification: Yes
• Workflow Integration: Slack, JIRA, GitHub, GitLab, Jenkins, and more
• Price: Starting at $1999/yr

As a business owner or someone responsible for a business’s security, your goal is to improve your organization’s security posture, get certified, and secure your business from the threat of hacks with a good security ROI. 

Astra’s vulnerability scanner performs 10,000+ tests to scan for vulnerabilities and find ways to fix them. 

Our security experts update the discovered vulnerabilities on a pentest dashboard dedicated to your organization. You can monitor the vulnerabilities, visualize the analytics, and plan the remediation according to the degree of threat. 

Final Thoughts

The nature of your business, the amount of sensitive data you are handling, the value your company may hold for hackers, and the kind of software you use should all factor into the security test you choose.

VAPT companies can help you make this decision with their professional expertise. All the forms of security testing can work in tandem to improve your overall security posture and help you avoid cyberattacks.

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