A secure environment is the need of every business organization. When any website or web application is released to the public, it is also exposed to hackers and cybercriminals. Hence, testing and scanning against all types of known and unknown vulnerabilities should be a part of any proactive organization’s business model.
When it comes to testing and scanning, penetration testing and vulnerability scanning are the two processes that come to mind. People often tend to mistake these both to be the same and hence include only one of them in their business process.
Although penetration testing and vulnerability scanning are both done to protect the business environment, they have major differences between them. The businesses should conduct both for the enhanced security of their applications.
What is Penetration Testing, and how it is different from vulnerability scanning?
Penetration testing, also known as pen testing, is done to check the network, web app, or computers against all the unknown vulnerabilities and security weaknesses. Penetration testing is carried out manually by white hat hackers but can be automated for large scale requirements.
The pen tester or white-hat hacker tries to enter the system from all the possible entry points and try to exploit the system in all possible ways. Penetration testing is carried out to find all the weaknesses in IT infrastructure by gaining unauthorized access to the company’s assets through the back doors.
A person performing penetration test should not only have in-depth knowledge about the possible vulnerabilities but should also know how an attacker can target the web apps. It requires different tools and experience to do pen-testing.
On the other hand, vulnerability scanning is the process done to check a known vulnerability. It is mostly an automated process that requires minimum human intervention. Vulnerability scanning is carried out as a part of the business development lifecycle and is scheduled after every code change.
As the scanning process can be automatically scheduled, these types of scans can be done every quarterly with the help of internal teams. However, the outcome of the scans also depends upon the tools and software used.
Penetration testing cannot be carried out by internal development teams, as a certain level of expertise is required in testing. The organizations usually hire people to do such testing once or more times every year as per the product development lifecycle. Since it requires more human expertise and intervention, the frequency of pen testing is less compared to vulnerability scanning.
Penetration Testing Software
If you feel your website or applications are more prone to threats, but you cannot carry out penetration testing frequently because of its expense or how time-consuming it is, then penetration testing software can be an excellent option for you.
A pen testing software can automate the process of a manual pen test. Existing vulnerabilities and weak points in your company’s network, infrastructure and applications can also be identified by a thorough pen test.
Such penetration testing software is cost-effective and allows testers to use their free time in other crucial manual testing. Regular pen testing and active action on the reports can enhance security, resulting in the company network, applications, and websites being less susceptible to cyber-attacks and threats.
Penetration Testing Software from Acunetix
The Acunetix penetration testing software can help you schedule penetration testing to test the vulnerabilities like SQL injections and XSS. Acunetix can not only test Single Page Applications (SPA) but can also understand and test web apps based on JavaScript frameworks. It comes with some solid features to speed up the testing process and making sure all regulatory requirements are met.
Support: The support of JavaScript frameworks like React, Angular, and Vue makes Acunetix test and understand the modern web apps, along with the web pages developed on traditional stacks. The lightning-fast speed makes Acunetix scan hundreds and thousands of web pages against known threats in no time.
Integration: You can also pause and resume the testing process in between, which makes it flexible to use. The ease of reporting provided by Acunetix can lessen the burden of a pen-tester. It also provides issue tracking integration with Github, Atlassian JIRA, and Microsoft Team Foundation Server (TFS).
Compliance: Another huge advantage of Acunetix is to be able to generate technical and regulatory compliance reports with ease. This enables all businesses, big or small, to stay on the right side of regulatory requirements and avoid legal hassles to the business from a data and application security perspective.
Why is the testing website against hackers important?
Testing against cyber-attacks is now an important part of business development worldwide. As per the British insurance company Lloyd’s, the damage from hacks costs businesses $400 billion a year.
Automating these tests using a penetration testing software that continuously monitors and tests business products to find the weaknesses can gradually decrease these security breach losses. The flaws found by the penetration testing software are mentioned in auto-generated reports. Such reports can help business organizations to work on their weaknesses.
Conclusion
With the use of penetration testing software, you can reduce the risk associated with your company network, web apps, websites, and SPAs. The penetration testing software can also help you increase the frequency of penetration testing by providing an automated environment.
The economic and time-saving approach to penetration testing is a must-have in today’s world, where the business organization is facing cybersecurity threats every second.
