Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration testing is a form of the testing methodology that assesses and identifies the vulnerabilities in a network. They are both security services that aim to focus and identify different kinds of vulnerabilities in a network, server, as well as system infrastructure. Both these services provide and have different purposes and they are carried out in order to achieve different but complementary goals.
Vulnerability Assessment provides a focus on internal organizational security, while Penetration Testing provides a focus on external real world risk.
What is Vulnerability Assessment(VA)?
Vulnerability Assessment is a kind of rapid review that is automated and aimed at network devices, servers, and systems in order to identify key vulnerabilities and configuration issues that an attacker can take advantage of. It is generally conducted within the network that consists of internal devices and because of its low footprint, it can be carried out as often as every day.
Vulnerability Assessment asks and answers the question “What are the issues in my network?”
What is Penetration Testing?
Penetration Testing is an in-depth expert driven activity that focuses on identifying the various possible routes that an attacker can use to break into the network. In addition to the vulnerabilities, it also identifies the potential damages and further compromise the internal network that an attacker can carry out once the attacker has passed the internal network.
Penetration Testing asks and answers the question “What can a motivated attacker do?”
What are the deliverables that we can get from a Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing (VAPT)?
Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing results in the following deliverables:
- Executive Report: A high level overview that provides insights into the activities conducted, a summary of different issues that are found, risk ratings and action items
- Technical Report: A detailed report that is able to explain each issue that is identified, step-by-step POCs for each issue, code and configuration examples in order to fix the issue, as well as reference links for further details.
- Real Time Online Dashboard: This is an online portal that allows your teams to monitor the audit in progress for real-time, take immediate action for high risk issues, as well as track fixes and closure status, etc.
How Should we define the scope for a Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing (VAPT)?
The scope of each VAPT audit that is done depends on the specific company, industry as well as compliance standards. Here are some of the general guidelines that you should consider.
- Any and all devices that have an IP address can be considered for a VAPT activity.
- Penetration Testing should focus on your organization’s external parameters (IP addresses, Offices, People and so on.)
- Vulnerability Assessment is known to provide adequate focus on your internal infrastructure (servers, database, routers, switches, laptops, and so on)
Do I need to conduct Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing?
Cyber attacks as well as threats are a real problem today, with thousands of networked and websites being compromised every day. Here are some of the normal reasons that we see for carrying out a VAPT are as follows:
- Customer Needs: This has become a common practice today for customers to request Security Certificates from their partners or vendors.
- Compliance- A big or huge number of industry standards and regulations have included VAPT as a mandatory requirement
- Security Validation: Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing (VAPT) is very helpful in validating your security controls as well as measures against real world attacks.
- Best Practices and Data Security: As attackers evolve and discover new methods, the threats also evolve and change, and there is a need within the organization to carry out proactive security audits in order to protect their data and systems from evolving threats.
Also Read: What is an automation tester? Automation tester tools
Conclusion:
From a point of view for proper and adequate security for the organization and to prevent confidential data from being leaked to the public. It is essential that every organization perform a security audit check or VAPT assessment for their company. If you are looking to hire a VAPT tester or looking to perform an audit then do contact us at enquiry@nimapinfotech.com with your requirements.
