Penetrationtesting tests your existing cybersecurity measures to try to find vulnerabilities that attackers could exploit. Pen tests give you insight into how attackers might try to breach your networks so you can close gaps and stay one step ahead.
Pen tests can be done in house, but generally they are done by a third party who uses a variety of tools and methods to try to penetrate your network. These tests resemble real-world attack methods attackers may use. The goal is to discover vulnerabilities, misconfigurations and other security weaknesses before an attacker can exploit them and put your organization at risk.
Pen tests are a complementary component of your vulnerability assessment program. As part of vulnerability assessment, your organization should do routine vulnerability scans that give you insight into all the assets and vulnerabilities across your enterprise. Pen tests help you verify if an attacker can exploit these weaknesses and evaluate the success of your remediation efforts.
Internal testing: Internal testing gives testers access to your systems behind your firewall and simulates what would happen if an employee or a person with stolen credentials got unauthorized access to your enterprise systems.
Your organization should plan for regular pen testing. While some compliance regulations call for annual tests, you may find it more beneficial for your overall cybersecurity posture if you do them more frequently, for example, at least once each quarter.
Pen tests give you a point-in-time snapshot of your security posture. Since your attack surface constantly changes and expands, routine pen tests may help you find holes and gaps in your existing program and enable you to remedy them before an attacker can exploit them.
Penetration testing has long been a manual process that relies on the training, skills and innovative thinking of testers to try to breach your attack surface. Today, however, testers are supported by automated tools to help initiate tests on intended targets. One of them is Kali Linux.
Tenable Nessus is not installed on Kali Linux by default, but you can easily install it and then use it to support pen testing engagements. Nessus can help your pen tester find local and remote vulnerabilities, check for default credentials, assist with configuration and compliance audits, and do web application scanning. You can read more about how Nessus supports Kali Linux pen testing here: -started-with-nessus-on-kali-linux.
Nessus Expert is an effective tool to help you discover vulnerabilities across your attack surface. It supports scanning across a variety of asset types such as operating systems (MacOS, Windows, Linux), applications, network devices and more.
Nessus comes with pre-built templates for credentialed and non-credentialed vulnerability scans. These templates, together with pre-built policies, help pen testers get the most out of their testing engagements. Nessus gives testers visibility into your organization's network and testers get an upper hand by being able to quickly uncover weaknesses and vulnerabilities.
Nessus templates support compliance frameworks such as Center for Internet Security (CIS), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), Security Technical Implementation Guides (STIG) and others. You can also customize templates, including creating preferences to avoid false negatives or false positives.
Nessus has more than 189,000 plugins, which are automatically updated. It has coverage of more than 77,000 CVEs and more than 100 new plugins are released every week. That means with Nessus, pen testers get accurate, timely information about the latest vulnerabilities and malware.
3a8082e126