There exist different approaches and different types of penetration testing. One can find around different typologies and nearly any of them will include the following:
- Network Pentest
- Wireless Network Pentest
- Web Application Pentest
- Mobile Application Pentest
- Social Engineering
- Physical Pentests
It is worth noting that all the above types of pentest require special skills and knowledge, so when choosing a supplier of pentesting services, you have to ask questions about a specific experience. Typically, a well-established penetration testing services company will provide at least a golden trio of penetesting types: network, web, and mobile.
Network Pentesting is one of the most common types of such security assessments, and it serves to identify vulnerabilities and weaknesses in the networked IT infrastructure, which includes not only firewalls, switches, and routers, but also servers, storages, workstations, printers, and so on. Such type of pentesting helps assess the level of preparedness for such attacks, as firewall bypass, router attacks, proxy server attacks, database attacks, and so on.
Wireless Network Pentesting is a specific type of network penetration testing, and focuses on connections between wireless devices and home or office wi-fi networks. One of the peculiarities of wireless pentests is that they are performed onsite because of the need to be in the range of the signal. However, there are certain devices that can be connected to a wireless network and allow a remote pentester run the checks. The wireless networks should be pentested, as they are among the most common sources of data leakage due to the relatively more random nature of their users.
Web Application Pentesting serves to identify vulnerabilities and weaknesses in web applications. This could be quite a sophisticated type of pentesting, because its scope can include font-end, database, back-end, and other varieties of web application pentesting. The scope should include every endpoint of every web application interacting with the user. Some of the tests, that might be a part of such security assessment include (for the front-end): Cross-Site scripting attacks, clickjacking attacks, form hijacking, HTML injection, Open Redirection, and others.
Mobile Application Pentesting is one more type of penetration testing, that is extremely popular today, as more and more businesses and public services start using mobile applications. Such pentests include searching for various vulnerabilities in mobile applications, such as insecure data storage, insufficient encryption, or data authentication mechanisms, input validation flaws, exposed APIs, and dozens more.
Social Engineering Pentesting stands a bit aside from other types of penttesting, as it relies more on social, communications, and, to some extent, design skills, in addition to the technical. When attempting a social engineering attack, a cybercriminal tries to lure the victim into disclosing very sensitive information, such as credentials, for instance. There exists a wide variety of social engineering techniques, such as phishing, vishing, smishing, imposter attacks, and dozens more.
Despite the seemingly less offensive nature of social engineering, it’s a dangerous illusion. A staggering 98% of all cyberattacks rely now on some elements of social engineering. Such attacks prove successful far too often, as the human remains the weakest link in the sophisticated system of cybersecurity.
So, social engineering web3 penetration testing, combined with cybersecurity awareness training, has become a cornerstone of today’s cybersecurity posture for any organization.
Physical Penetesting is another specific type of penetration testing, as it necessarily involves attempts to compromise some physical barriers, such as locks, cameras, fencing, different sensors, etc, safeguarding some infrastructure, systems, etc.
Such type of security assessment might look somewhat too straightforward, but, upon consideration, it proves to be the easiest way to compromise in certain cases. If a criminal gets physical access to your networking equipment, that will be by far the easiest way into your network.
There are other types of penetration testing, as well, and we will talk about them in one of our coming articles.
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