Cyber attacks are getting more and more complex, so you need all the help you can get. It’s no longer enough to put security tools in place and cross your fingers. Lax practices and human error can expose even the most sophisticated systems to breaches. Unless an attacker brags publicly about his crime, a breach can go undetected for months.

Consider everything that’s stored in your company’s hardware and software. Would your data be of use to competitors? Would your company survive if sensitive information were taken hostage by a cybercriminal and held for ransom? Would a cyber attack bring to light facts that could damage your professional reputation? Could you continue to do business if your website were paralyzed?

The best way to be proactive against the threat of a cyber attack is to invest in penetration testing. No security system is guaranteed to be impenetrable, but yours should be daunting enough to send hackers scrambling for an easier target.

Why you need penetration testing

Penetration testing, also called pen testing, looks deeply into your business to see how vulnerable it is to hackers. It goes far beyond ordinary security assessments or compliance audits. Here are some of the ways that pen testing stands apart:

• It doesn’t merely expose weaknesses; it simulates real-world attacks to show how your sensitive data, business systems, financial assets, and employees would fare in the event of the real thing.
• It tests your system’s ability to detect breaches, whether internal or external when they occur.
• Although some functions may be automated, pen-testing relies heavily on skilled, experienced professionals who are able to analyze systems in the same way that hackers would. Many, in fact, are certified, ethical hackers. It takes one to know one.
• Cybercriminals rarely target individual security tools. Instead, they look for gaps between tools that don’t work especially well together. An in-depth pen test uncovers these gaps.
• It is completely unbiased. Sometimes, a fresh set of eyes reveals vulnerabilities that were overlooked.
• It ensures that your company is in full compliance with the new data breach notification law.