Network Vulnerability Assessment v/s Penetration Testing
When people misinterpret the differences between penetration testing and vulnerability scans, they often miss out on a crucial part of their total network security account, and both are equally vital for security breach avoidance.
Vulnerability scans and vulnerability assessments look for systems for well-known low-hanging vulnerabilities. However, the goal of a penetration test is to actively exploit weaknesses in any environment. While a security vulnerability scan can be fully automated, a penetration test always calls for various degrees of manual analysis and strategy.
Organizations should maintain standard track records on vital systems and should investigate the manipulation of open ports and exposed services running on them. A vulnerability scanning tool such as Qualys, Nessus, and Rapid7 can help detect vulnerabilities, along with changes made to any services. Often, reconciling discovered modifications against change-control records can aid in figuring out whether the modification was authorized or if there is a problem, such as a malware infection, or if an employee is violating the company’s change-control policies.
Penetration testing is rather different, as it attempts to recognize insecure organization operating procedures, lax security setup, and configuration, or other weaknesses that an external threat could exploit for their benefits. Transmission of clear-text passwords over the network, password reuse, and left-out databases storing valid credentials are examples of problems that can be often discovered by a penetration test. Penetration tests do not need to be carried out as commonly as vulnerability scans but should be repeated regularly. Penetration tests are best carried out by a third-party vendor instead of internal personnel to offer a hawk-eye view of the network environment. Different tools are utilized in a penetration test, but the performance of this type of test relies upon the skill of the tester. The tester ought to have an experience in information technology, along with the capability of thinking in an abstract way. The penetration tester should also be capable of anticipating a real threat actor’s bad intentions.
Hope this was helpful.
