Security vulnerabilities are a reality faced by the digital world at a rapid speed. Given this reality, penetration testing (also known as Pen-Testing) has become a critical method for protecting systems and applications from security vulnerabilities.

Pen-test assesses the security posture and discovers possible defects that could allow malicious individuals/organizations to compromise the security’s main pillars, i.e. Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability.

Contents 1. Penetration Testing Role 2. What are the types of penetration testing? 3. Why Penetration Testing as a Service (PTaaS)? 4. Major Benefits of Penetration testing Services? 5. What are the tools for Pen testing? 6. Why Outsource PTaaS? 7. What factors should be considered while opting services from PTaaS provider? 8. Why Choose TestingXperts?

Penetration Testing Role

The goal of this exercise is to uncover vulnerabilities in a target system so the team of developers can take action to correct them. Talking about pen-testers, they act as real attackers, attempting to compromise the system to learn the effectiveness of the performed DDoS and cyber attacks.

What are the types of penetration testing?

Penetration Testing on Wireless Networks:

In this type of testing, all wireless devices that are used by an enterprise such as laptops, notebooks, smartphones, etc. are tested. This type of testing helps in finding vulnerabilities of admin credentials, wireless protocols, and wireless access points.

Physical Penetration Testing:

This type of penetration testing is practiced in order to stop the unauthorized control or access on the physical components such as sensors, cameras, motion detectors, etc.

Application Penetration Testing:

This testing practice discovers the security threats and weak points in a web application. It is the process that simulates the app from attacks by monitoring the systems and firewalls.

Social Engineering Test:

This testing practice will help an enterprise to find the threat actors who are trying to lure the employees with the methods of manipulation or influence for achieving control over system and enterprise’s sensitive data.

Network Penetration Testing:

In this testing method, the vulnerabilities and weaknesses in network infrastructure are identified. This method performs a thorough examination on several software packages such as MySQL, File transfer protocol, SQL server, Secure Shell (SSH), etc.

Denial of Service (DoS) testing:

This method of testing is performed in both ways, i.e. using automated tools and manual methods. And, the different types of Dos tests are classified as flooding attacks and software exploits. The DoS formats can occur in various formats such as half-open SYN attack, resource overload, flood attacks, etc.

Pen-tester is likely to make use of the standard hacking tools to check for vulnerabilities. However, various challenges are involved with the traditional pen testing model, which is the reason, companies are moving towards the new Pen Testing as a Service model comprising of data, technology, and talent to eliminate the security challenges for modern applications. This methodology applies a SaaS security platform to pen testing to boost workflow efficiencies.

Why Penetration Testing as a Service (PTaaS)?

A company’s security stance is continuously changing in-line with the growing risks. A traditional penetration testing services is a point in time evaluation. However, PTaaS involves a continuous cycle of testing and remediation. It suggests that to combat the changing security stance of the company, there must be an on-going program of testing and management. The PTaaS methodology recognizes, tests and validates the entire platform stack. From the operating system to the SSL certificate, PTaaS is about creating a system of automatic checks and monitoring to protect the smallest features of the software eco-system.

Major Benefits of Penetration testing Services?

– Continuous Security Management: PTaaS encompasses continuous security management through all-encompassing managed services

– Frequent Vulnerability Scanning: Unlike the traditional penetration testing, in PTaaS, you can receive access to regular vulnerability scanning report

– Automatic Track Changes: PTaaS comprises of an automatic track changes feature that would ensure traceability of improvements in the application security.

What are the tools for Pen testing?

OWASP:

The Open Web Application is a non-profit organization that is running several projects to improve the security of software. A few of the flagship tools of this tool are ZAP, OWASP Web Testing Environment Project, OWASP Dependency-Check, etc.

W3af:

This tool is popularly used to audit framework and protect the app from the web application attacks. Generally, this tool has three types of plugins namely, audit, discovery, and attack. It has a good number of features to prevent vulnerabilities such as cookie handling, DNS cache, proxy support, etc.

Acunetix:

This tool is known for providing complete automation penetration testing services. The security scanner scans applications available on JavaScript, single-page applications, HTML5, etc. With this tool, a tester can audit complicated web applications, clear the compliance issues, and manage the reports on web and network vulnerabilities.

BurpSuite:

The software of this tool known as a commercial product can work for web application scanning, crawling content, intercepting proxy, functionality, and many more. The main advantage of this tool is that it can be used in any environment like Windows, Linux, Mac OS, etc.

Wireshark:

This is an open-source tool known as a network protocol analyser. It is capable to run on various platforms such as on Linux, Windows, Mac, Linux, etc. The efficient features of this tool include displaying filters, live capturing, VoIP analysis, offline analysis, etc.

Metasploit:

This is an open-source penetration testing tool that enables a tester to access a number of features such as to verify vulnerabilities, to manage security, and more.

Aircrack-ng:

This is a complete suite of tools that effectively focuses on vulnerabilities that can affect Wi-Fi security. All the tools that are available are command line interface and have a need of heavy scripting.

SQLMap:

This is an open-source tool, widely used for identifying the issues related to SQL injection in an application. It supports a number of platforms such as Windows, Linux, Mac, etc.

Why Outsource PTaaS?

Outsourcing Pen Testing as a Service is a common practice for businesses across various industries. One major benefit of outsourcing pen-testing is to stay updated with the latest tools and cyber trends in the market. Outsourcing the Penetration Testing as a Service efforts can provide innovative and tailored methodologies that can create better quality and coverage. Almost all organizations perform these evaluations to validate their security stance across their IT domain and accomplish different supervisory requirements, mandating an independent security audit.

What factors should be considered while opting services from PTaaS provider?

– The provider should be able to correlate data and aggregate with multiple resources

– Should have testers who are able to perform multi-level tasks on the project

– Testers should have the ability to combine the workspace findings for reporting

– Need to build the confidence, put efforts to improve the growth and reduce the conditions of failures

– Should have the ability to generate reports in multiple file formats

– The teams must be able to customize report templates for every specific testing type

– Need to have the ability to track the trends from period to period

– Must be able to integrate reporting along with enterprise ticketing, risk, governance, and compliance

Why Choose TestingXperts?

Enabling a long-term partnership is something that a PTaaS approach brings into play. TestingXperts’ global pool of skilled testers and researchers with a diverse set of skills across the technology stack helps in providing the best services to eliminate the security testing challenges. Our PTaaS model combines data, technology, and talent to eliminate security challenges for modern web/ mobile applications and APIs.

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Bell Canada shocked the world by experiencing second hack in just eight months. Hacker stole data from up to 100,000 Bell Canada customers, leaving customers under enormous stress. Bell is Canada’s one of the largest and oldest telecom company, with over 22 million customers. This breach happened twice in eight months, prompting an RCMP investigation into the breach at Canada’s largest telecommunications company.

1. Cybersecurity Facts 2. Cybersecurity: The Inevitable Need 3. Solution: TestingXperts’ Security Testing Services

Cybersecurity Facts

BCE Inc. confirmed on Tuesday, i.e., January 23, 2018, that hackers got hold of ‘fewer than 100,000′ customers’ information, including names and email addresses. This followed a hack in May 2017 when 1.9 million email addresses and about 1,700 names and phone numbers were stolen from Bell’s database. –Courtesy: Financial Post

From leaking debit card details to attacking global enterprises and institutional systems, cyber-attacks have become a substantial part of our political and social discourse. Every day there is fresh news of cyber-attack that gets people in distress. The last WannaCry Ransomware virus attacked global enterprises and institutional systems and panicked every mobile application user. This repeated again on Jan 23, 2018 with Bell Canada paying the price.

Cybersecurity: The Inevitable Need

Cybersecurity has become more than just a concern for businesses these days. Gone are the days, when cybersecurity was perceived as a reactionary measure to be taken after the incident had occurred. Nowadays with the growing awareness and knowledge, businesses have realized the importance of securing their data.

Viruses and bugs attacking the digital space are getting stronger; intensifying the need for an extensive security strategy. Companies and individuals today are in dire need to build software/applications that are thoroughly tested for the data security and are, at the same time, competent enough to alert users against any possible cyber-attack.

After all these incidents, it is evident that such attacks will only grow in the days to come. Companies and individuals should realize the need to build software/applications that are thoroughly tested for their security. At the same time, should be competent enough to alert the users against any possible cyber-attack.

Cybersecurity experts and specialists from the industry are saying that such attacks on the internet will continue to propagate and intimidate the core presence of web in the global sphere. So, the question remains – can such cyber-attacks be hindered or totally choked with anti-virus programs, or is there a need for a comprehensive Security Testing Strategy

Solution: TestingXperts’ Security Testing Services

Security testing service exposes weaknesses and threats to the security mechanisms of the applications under the context that maintain functionality and protect data as envisioned. It involves a wide range of testing segments like penetration testing, vulnerability scanning, security auditing, posture assessment, security scanning, risk assessment, and ethical hacking.

Over the past years, TestingXperts has built test accelerators, capabilities, and knowledge repository and is working on more than 150 engagements using the latest industry standards such as OWASP and proprietary testing methodologies. TestingXperts offers a comprehensive security analysis supported by dashboards, wide-ranging reports, along with remedial measures for all issues found. TestingXperts has deep expertise in security testing for mobile applications, web applications, web services, and software products. Connect with us to discuss how TestingXperts can bring more value to your business with enhanced security testing techniques.

The post Oldest Canadian Telecom Company Experienced Another Data Breach. Is your Data Secure? first appeared on TestingXperts.

The modern approach towards software testing has changed the traditional way of doing testing and has come a long way in making testing automated and integral. This new testing approach has allowed developers to invest more time adding value by looking at the problem areas rather than running tests by hand.

Contents 1. Role of DevSecOps 2. Automated Security Testing is the Solution 3. TestingXperts’ Solution- DevSecOps

Role of DevSecOps

After all these improvements, businesses are struggling to get security effectively integrated into the system. There are various tools available to assure security into the systems, but they are still not to the point of being the only route to test. These security and compliance issues are seen as road blocks that slow down the deployment.

According to a recent study by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, people experience decision fatigue when asked to make more security decisions than are manageable. 

Security teams of all sizes receive nearly 17,000 alerts every week. This statistic represents that an organization would have to review nearly 1,700 alerts per week with 10 dedicated security personnel.

According to a study by Ponemon, On an average, 29 percent of all malware alerts received by their security operations team are investigated, and an average of 40 percent are considered to be false positives.

If security teams receive more alerts than they can address, how can we expect them to successfully find the real threat among a huge number of possible threats?

Automated Security Testing is the Solution!

Automated application security testingcan help in preventing many of the standard attacks , of which SQL injection is one of the examples. These days, an automated tool informing the DevOps team to fix a whole sea of vulnerabilities is considered to be easy than the security team doing the same thing. The burden of informing DevOps team about all the alerts can be reduced by the new automated tools that are getting better day by day.

Automation tools not only support in covering the employee time gap but also covers the skills gap. If a tool can check the whole deploy environment for your preferred cloud environment at the time of deployment, it becomes a huge relief for the testers on having complete knowledge about the security features of the given cloud environment. The overall result of automation would increase security position for the business.

TestingXperts’ Solution- DevSecOps

We all are aware of the importance of security of our organizations. We all know security does not really have the staff it needs. DevOps is the perfect solution to this puzzle. Organizations should start looking how your DevOps effort can include security. For this reason, it is important to have a reliable software security testing vendor.

TestingXperts’ team of security experts understand that DevOps is a mindset and cultural change, collaborating development and operations teams into an ongoing and seamless agile process. DevOps is not as simple as it looks, it requires perfect planning, association, and extensive tools and methodologies. TestingXperts has extensive expertise in Security Testing Services for mobile web applications and software products.

The post DevSecOps – Automating Security into the Testing Process first appeared on TestingXperts.

In today’s interconnected world, the damage caused due to an online security breach is known to all. The reputation of a brand gets at stake if the hackers gain access to their corporate systems. Keeping the data safe and away from hackers is the prime objective of today’s enterprises. In this infographic, we will discuss the top cybersecurity facts and statistics and how security testing can help.

Top Cyber Security Facts

The post Top 10 Cybersecurity Facts, Figures, and Statistics [INFOGRAPHIC] first appeared on TestingXperts.