Internet crime is still on the rise. Companies should always take up more powerful and better IT protection measures in order to be able to keep up with the dynamic danger situation of these days. Automated penetration tests can help to detect attack surfaces and IT security gaps within the IT infrastructure and to close them before cybercriminals do it. In today’s blog post you will learn why automatic penetration tests are of crucial importance in the long-term IT security strategy and what advantages they have compared to manual penetration tests.
Cybercrime is now a thriving industry
Regardless of whether it is data theft via phishing campaigns, blackmail via ransomware or monitoring via spy apps: nowadays almost every single company in Germany is under constant digital attack, as the results of the latest analyzes show.
The considerable costs in the event of damage make it clear how crucial a multi-level IT security concept with permanently effective and reliable IT security solutions is to clean.
After the test is before the test!
With the aim of protecting oneself from such sometimes existence-threatening expenses, it is necessary to regularly put the company’s IT security precautions to the test.
A proven medium for this are automated penetration tests
In contrast to manual penetration tests, which are usually time-consuming, complex and expensive, companies can use automatic penetration tests to initiate controlled Internet attacks on an IT system, a business application or an entire company network with the aim of uncovering hidden IT weak points and points of attack plus these neutralize before they can be used by cybercriminals for their criminal activities.
With the aim of simulating an Internet attack that is as realistic as possible, the same attack techniques are used that Internet criminals use.
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The different types of automated penetration tests!
In today’s business world, Internet attacks on company IT infrastructures are commonplace. Internet attacks have long since ceased to be just virtual threat scenarios and pinpoint attacks, but far-reaching, multi-stage attack campaigns that threaten companies, authorities and individuals alike.
For this reason, automated penetration tests are used in many places with the aim of additionally protecting the corporate network, IT systems, business applications and business data from current Internet threats.
There are now many different types of penetration testing solutions on the market. These can be broken down into the following categories:
- Network: With this penetration test, the network infrastructure of a company is classified. For example, the firewall configuration is tested and attacks are carried out at the DNS level.
- Web application: These penetration tests target selected web applications such as browsers, applets and plug-ins.
- Client-side: Client-side penetration tests are used to search for IT weaknesses and points of attack in locally used third-party or open-source software.
- WLAN: A penetration test for WLANs looks for IT vulnerabilities in WLAN configuration protocols or access rights that could be exploited by all endpoints that connect via WLAN.
- Social engineering: This category of penetration tests involves making targeted, controlled attacks on the company’s employees. The advantage: This penetration test provides companies with information about the extent to which the IT security awareness of their employees has developed.
Danger recognized, danger averted!
IT weaknesses are now being exploited on a large scale to obtain confidential business information and valuable assets.
It is therefore becoming increasingly important for companies to detect any IT weaknesses in their company network in order to reduce the success of Internet attacks and thereby limit the damage.
Automated penetration tests are extremely suitable for this.
For example, companies benefit from:
- Time and Cost Savings: Automated penetration tests are completed faster than manual penetration tests, which can take a long time. Thanks to automatic reporting, companies have the opportunity to rectify the discovered IT weaknesses directly. Another advantage is that with the automated penetration test, security experts and so-called “white hat hackers” only have to be commissioned for a short period of time, which is why the costs for a lengthy and manual penetration test can be saved.
- A high test frequency: In contrast to manual penetration tests, automated penetration tests can be carried out weekly or even every day because they are neither time-consuming nor cost-intensive.
- A high range of access: Automated penetration tests, in contrast to manual penetration tests, can be carried out from multiple entry points. As a result, various IT weaknesses can be identified and remedied as part of the optimization measures.
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