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CERTIFIED PENETRATION TESTING SERVICES

Penetration Testing Services

Certified penetration tests are suitable for organisations of all sizes who wish to keep their networks and systems secure from cybersecurity threats.

An organisation’s technical environment presents threat actors with a variety of opportunities for breach and lateral movement. With reliance on technology growing in volume and complexity, even the most diligent security team can miss vulnerabilities in people, processes, and technology. This can lead to a cyber-attack which brings reputational, financial, and legal problems.

WHAT IS PENETRATION TESTING?

Penetration testing, also known as pen testing or ethical hacking, is a controlled test of the security of your network. A pen test provides insight into any security risks on your environment, including:

  • Infrastructure
  • Software applications
  • Servers
  • Workstations

A pen test gives you the information you need to protect your business-critical information and your organisation’s reputation from an external or internal attack. Insights provided by the penetration test can be used to fine-tune your WAF security policies and patch detected vulnerabilities.

Testing should play a crucial role in your cybersecurity strategy. After a penetration test is completed and an organisation’s vulnerabilities are exposed, security controls can be enhanced to prevent future threats.

Certified Penetration Testing Services

CERTIFIED PENETRATION TESTING WITH SAPPHIRE

Experienced

With 25 years of experience in Cybersecurity, our pen testing team has a significant understanding of how to approach different environments via ethical hacking, leading to better quality results for your organisation.

Analytical

Each pen test comes with comprehensive management and technical reporting, which can apply to historical results to understand an organisation’s security maturity journey.

Comprehensive

Sapphire’s penetration tests utilise agile and adaptive techniques to adjust to your organisation’s requirements. A wide range of pen testing, including internal and external network level testing, web and mobile application assessments, security audits, vulnerability assessments, testing for standards such as CE Plus and NCSC CHECK, Red Teaming, and more.

CERTIFIED PEN TESTING IN THE UK

We want to ensure you have the confidence in Sapphire to keep your organisation secure. That is why our testers adhere to the strict standards of several accreditations in the UK.

Sapphire’s team of ethical hackers and penetration testing experts have the skills, experience and ability to identify cyber threats.

From CREST to Tigerscheme accreditations, we are committed to offering the best service.

SAPPHIRE’S PENETRATION TESTING SERVICES

EXTERNAL PENETRATION TESTING

Our external penetration tests are a comprehensive manual assessment of specified hosts. Every penetration test aims to identify, but not exploit, potential security vulnerabilities in the system (email, software, unrestricted data flows, or operating system). Manual penetration testing reduces false positives and provides comprehensive and legible reports.

INFRASTRUCTURE & NETWORK-LEVEL TESTING

Performing internal infrastructure and network-level penetration tests locally on specified hosts assesses the effectiveness of deployed internal security. This is specifically designed to identify weaknesses in the security of computer systems connected to the internal network, including workstations, servers, and network equipment.

WEB APPLICATION SECURITY TESTING

As organisations conduct more business online, these systems become increasingly open to being exploited. Sapphire’s web application testing works to advise on security configurations and vulnerabilities by testing software and applications. Apart from the web application security testing, Sapphire also follows OWASP 2017 guidelines as well as focuses testing on the top 10 application threats.

WIRELESS TESTING

Sapphire’s wireless testing checks for common configuration errors that could allow an attacker to compromise the network. Sapphire’s wireless testing will test both guest and corporate wireless networks to find errors that a malicious attacker could potentially exploit.

FIREWALL CONFIGURATION REVIEWS

Firewalls are the front line of defence against most cyber threats, monitoring and filtering incoming and outgoing traffic and providing a barrier between a private internal network and the public internet. Sapphire reviews firewall configurations and rules to validate that they are implemented according to best practices as part of its penetration testing.

BUILD AND CONFIGURATION REVIEWS

Build and configuration reviews are assessments that can be conducted on any host, network device, or server. Sapphire will audit your key IT assets’ security configuration based on industry-standard benchmarks, as well as Center for Internet Security (CIS) guidelines, and ensure that each component is compliant.

NCSC CHECK PENETRATION TESTING

Sapphire is a member of the NCSC CHECK scheme, developed to enhance the availability and quality of IT health check services provided to the public sector and CNI in line with HMG policy. Organisations that deliver CHECK security testing services do so using consultants that have NCSC approved qualifications the relevant experience and have demonstrated that their pen-testing skills can be carried out using NCSC recognised methods. Sapphire is approved by the NCSC to provide CHECK penetration tests of IT systems to identify potential security vulnerabilities.

OPEN-SOURCE INTELLIGENCE (OSINT)

Any breadth and depth to any penetration test, Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) is a method that uses publically available information on people or organisations to identify current and future risks. Utilising OSINT investigations alongside your pen testing programme can help organisations to identify security vulnerabilities and improve organisational awareness.

Social Engineering

Social engineering has a similar function as a penetration test. However, social engineering tests the people within your organisation from trying to breach a building’s physical security to simulated phishing attacks rather than testing the exploits available on a network or IT infrastructure.

READY TO BEGIN YOUR PEN TESTING JOURNEY?

Contact our team today.

 

1. HOW IS PENETRATION TESTING PERFORMED?

Typically, carried out in 5 steps, including;

1. Planning. The pen testers receive the expectations and scope of the test from the organisation and start information gathering to understand potential attack vectors.

2. Threat modelling/ Scanning. Once a list of potential targets is identified, the pen test team will begin scanning the attack surface to determine the crucial first phase of the attack chain. Typically, this is through web-facing assets or social engineering.

3. Gain Access. In this step, the pen-tester uses the information gained in Steps 1 and 2 to access the target organisation via a simulated attack. This stage makes use of the web application attacks like SQL injection or cross-site scripting to detect the vulnerabilities.

4. Lateral movement. After gaining Access, the pen test team continues this simulated attack by moving laterally through the environment towards the target. This often involves privilege escalation and other ‘low and slow’ methods designed to remain stealthy.

5. Reporting. In the last step, the tester will provide a detailed technical report of their findings. The report will include a vulnerability assessment identified based on type and host, a solution or remediation to the issue, and the risk to the overall organisation from any external cyber-attacks.

2. WHY DOES AN ORGANISATION NEED TO PERFORM PENETRATION TESTING?

With regular pen tests, an organisation can identify flaws in people, processes, and technology before an attacker does.

Security testing improves your organisation’s security posture by identifying the security weaknesses present and targeting the patches and other improvements that you need to make to policies and procedures.

3. WHAT ARE THE TYPES OF PENETRATION TESTING SERVICES?

As a leading cybersecurity firm in the United Kingdom, Sapphire can offer:

  1. External and internal penetration testing to prevent firewall, router, proxy server, and other types of cyberattacks. External testing simulates the ability of a hacker to gain physical access from external sources while the internal test addresses what the insider or attacker can do internally.
  2. Web Application Security Testing shows vulnerabilities in web applications that hackers could use to harm an organisation’s data. This vulnerability assessment is useful for an organisation to understand its susceptibility to future cyber attacks.
  3. Remote Access & VPN Reviews
  4. Firewall Reviews
  5. Build and Configuration Reviews
  6. Device Testing
  7. Social Engineering- Testers will try accessing information by manipulating human psychology.
  8. Open Source intelligence
  9. Vulnerability Assessment and Automated Scanning
  10. NCSC CHECK Testing
  11. Cyber Essentials Plus Audit
  12. Black box testing- The tester knows very little about the target and what is publicly available. They rely on discovering vulnerabilities in the outward-facing components.
  13. White-box testing- The tester has a full understanding of the infrastructure or the application.
  14. Grey box testing- This is the most popular type and is often a combination of white-box testing and grey-box testing. The tester has limited knowledge and basic abilities in maintaining access.
  15. Application testing- These tests uncover weaknesses and vulnerabilities in mobile or web applications that could provide unauthorized access or compromise security.
  16. Network pen test/ Infrastructure pen-testing- The tester checks for logical flaws, outdated software, and misconfiguration in the organization’s systems.
  17. The red team pen test-The team aims to get the company’s data remotely or via direct contact, and they report back to the company.
  18. Cloud pen-testing- Pen testers will access your cloud configurations and identify the possible exploitable flaws.

4. WHY CHOOSE SAPPHIRE FOR PENETRATION TESTING?

Our pen testing team has a significant understanding of how to approach different environments via ethical hacking, leading to better quality results for your organisation.

Our pen testers are all ethical hackers who use custom toolkits and well-established commercial pen testing tools to target your IT systems. This provides a unique and thorough security assessment which is not possible using automated scanners.

We value customer experience. That is why we will work in partnership with you to provide the highest quality customer experience while delivering our Cybersecurity services.

Sapphire’s pen tests utilise agile and adaptive techniques to adjust to your organisation’s requirements. Our pen testers can help your organisation expose security flaws and prevent attacks. Whether you are looking for support with an on-site project or require us to deliver our pen tests remotely.

5. HOW OFTEN SHOULD PENETRATION TESTS BE DONE?

The pen testing should be done at least once a year to ensure a more reliable and effective IT system, computer system, and network security management. The penetration test report will help reveal how the emerging vulnerabilities, the newly discovered threats, or other issues can be exploited by malicious hackers.

6. WHY IS A PENETRATION TEST IMPORTANT?

Since new cyber security vulnerabilities come up every week and are being exploited by criminals, it is important to identify security weaknesses and fix them accordingly. Penetration tests carried out by security professionals will provide an understanding of the security issues you might encounter.

A regular pen testing process conducted by a pen testing company will:

  • Uncover vulnerabilities and security flaws so that you can implement controls in the system’s security based on the organisation’s response capabilities.
  • Test a new software for any bugs and risk assessment.
  • Ensure the organisation complies with the General Data Protection Regulation (GPDR) and Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA), as well as other privacy regulations and laws.
  • Check for compromised systems and ensure the existing security controls are working effectively.
  • Assure the stakeholders and investors that their sensitive data is protected at all times.
  • Gaining assurance and staying ahead of the attackers or hackers as well as the ever-changing threat landscape.

7. WHAT ARE THE PENETRATION TESTING METHODS?

There are several methodologies and frameworks for doing pen tests, for example, the Penetration Testing Execution Standard (PTES). Here are some of the techniques used in different companies:

  • External Testing- The external test targets the company assets and organisation’s systems that are on the internet, for example, the company website, domain name servers (DNS) and email servers, as well as the web application. The main aim is to get valuable data and gain access.
  • Internal Testing- The internal test allows the tester to access an application behind the firewall identifies an attack by a malicious insider. This doesn’t necessarily simulate a bad employee because the employee’s credentials might have been stolen during a phishing attack.
  • Blind Testing- When it comes to a blind test, the people testing are only given the name of the targeted organisation or enterprise. This enables the tester to have a real-time look at how the exploitable vulnerabilities would occur.
  • Double-blind Testing- For a double-blind test, the security experts lack prior knowledge of the vulnerabilities identified. In real-world attacks, the cyber security experts may not have enough time for their system’s defences before an attempted breach.
  • Targeted Testing- In a target system, both the security expert and the tester work together. The target systems provide the company with a detailed real-time report from the attacker’s view.

10. WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENTS AND PENETRATION TESTING?

While pen testing and vulnerability assessments are equally important as cyber security measures and may use the same tools, they are quite different. Vulnerability identification and assessment are made regularly (once a month), and a lengthy report is provided showing the detected vulnerabilities in the computer systems, IP addresses, web application systems, and across all devices.

On the other hand, the penetration tests are not done as regularly (every six months and they involve a detailed report of the security features, methods, the flaws found, and the security measures to be taken).