As businesses and companies are moving towards a digital infrastructure, it makes them rely heavily on the latest technology, such as web applications, cloud platforms, APIs, and internal networks to run their operations. While this innovation helps the business to increase its efficiency, it also introduces a series of vulnerabilities that are exploited by attackers to gain unauthorised access to the system. To safeguard the system against external attacks, companies and businesses employ the Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing (VAPT) service.
A VAPT testing simulates a real-world attack and mimics the steps performed by the attacker to exploit the vulnerabilities present in the system. An active VAPT testing service helps the organisation to develop a security system that is resilient to external attacks.
What is VAPT testing?
Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing is a security testing service that is opted for by businesses and organisations in order to strengthen their security system and protect their digital infrastructure from external or internal threats. A properly implemented VAPT testing helps an organisation to identify, evaluate, and contain vulnerabilities in a system, network, and architecture.
A VAPT testing deploys two strategies to identify, mitigate, and contain the risk. The two approaches used are the Vulnerability Assessment(VA) and Penetration Testing(PT). Let's see both approaches in detail:
- Vulnerability Assessment(VA): The Vulnerability Assessment is an automated process that is used to identify vulnerabilities in a system. The vulnerability assessment is used to identify vulnerabilities such as outdated patches, misconfigured systems, and poor access controls. Apart from identifying the vulnerabilities, it also lists the severity of the vulnerability.
- Penetration Testing(PT): Penetration testing is the second approach used in the VAPT services. Penetration testing is used to simulate a real-world attack where the security teams try to exploit the vulnerabilities to gain unauthorised access to the system. Penetration testing approach depicts how the identified vulnerability can be exploited by the attackers, leading to a large-scale attack.
What are some real-world security risks?
As the current technical ecosystem is hyperconnected, it exposes the entire technical infrastructure to risks like data breaches and unauthorised access to the system. To counter these issues and ensure a secure infrastructure, companies and businesses opt for Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing (VAPT) services. A VAPT service helps an organisation by:
- Identifying a real-world attack scenario
As the Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing (VAPT) services try to mimic the real-world scenario, this helps the business and organisation to strengthen their security infrastructure, as the VAPT services not only help the organisation to identify and contain the risk, but also provide a detailed report on how the vulnerabilities can be exploited to form attack chains that are exploited by the attacker to compromise the system.
- Detecting Hidden Vulnerabilities
Many Vulnerabilities can go unnoticed during regular maintenance, routine checks, and during compliance audits, which can be later exploited by the attacker to get unauthorised access to the system. The Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing (VAPT) services aim to identify the hidden vulnerabilities, such as Insecure APIs, Weak encryption implementations, and misconfigured cloud storage or access policies. As these vulnerabilities are often overlooked during audit and maintenance, manual penetration testing is used to identify such vulnerabilities and contain them. By deploying the VAPT testing services, an organisation can strengthen its infrastructure and be resilient to external attacks.
- Prioritizing Risk
Not all vulnerabilities pose the same risk to the digital infrastructure. A proper Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing (VAPT) service provides the organisation with a risk-based vulnerability assessment. A risk-based vulnerability assessment provides an organisation with insights such as exploitability and business impact. A risk-based prioritisation helps an organisation to focus on the vulnerability that poses the highest risk.
- Ensuring Regulatory Compliance
Regulatory bodies like ISO 27001, PCI DSS, and HIPAA provide strict guidelines to protect sensitive data from external threats. Failing to comply with the guidelines leads to hefty fines and legal battles. An active VAPT testing service helps an organisation to meet the compliance requirements as provided by the guidelines. Ensuring compliance with the regulatory bodies helps an organisation to avoid legal fines and legal battles and ensure an architecture designed as per the regulatory guidelines.
Conclusion
As the latest technological innovations are flooding the market, every new innovation introduces new vulnerabilities that are exploited by the attacker to gain unauthorised access to the systems. In such a situation, to ensure a secure ecosystem, companies and organisations opt for the VAPT testing services. By integrating VAPT testing with the regular chores, the organisation can move away from the assumptions and have an active security check method that helps in preventing data breaches while protecting the sensitive customer data and keeping the company safe by complying with the regulatory bodies.