Continuous Penetration Testing Made Simple

Penetration testing, also known as pentesting, involves simulating a controlled attack on systems to assess vulnerabilities before they can be exploited by adversaries. This process can be executed through two distinct approaches: manual and continuous testing.
In the contemporary landscape, where products and services need rapid deployment to stay competitive in a fast-paced market, continuous pentesting emerges as a strategic solution. By leveraging manual pentesting and automation, organizations can enhance the pace of their security assessments, allowing them to outpace competitors and swiftly adapt to the evolving threat landscape.
In this article, we will explore what continuous pentesting is, its advantages, and more.

What is Continuous Penetration Testing?

Continuous penetration testing involves simulating real-world attacks on a system, network, or application to identify security weaknesses and potential vulnerabilities that could be exploited by malicious actors.
Penetration testers, also known as ethical hackers, attempt to exploit vulnerabilities in the same way an attacker would, but with the goal of discovering weaknesses before they can be exploited, and a breach occurs.

Penetration testing is defined based on how much the testing team knows about the target based on different techniques such as White Box, Black Box, or Gray Box testing.

Penetration Testing Techniques

Pentesting, by their nature, offer a snapshot of your security posture at a specific point in time. They analyze the vulnerabilities present in your systems and applications at the moment of testing. Pentesting techniques include:

Manual: Using human ethical hackers
Continuous: Penetration testing using automation

Such pentesting techniques may include web assessments exploiting vulnerabilities such as Cross Site Scripting (XSS) or network assessments to exploit vulnerabilities such as insecure protocols, services, and applications.

Vulnerability Scanning

Often, continuous penetration testing is confused with vulnerability scanning. Continuous pentesting and vulnerability scanning are both important components of a robust cyber security strategy, but they serve different purposes and employ different methodologies.

Vulnerability scanning involves using automated tools to systematically scan networks, systems, and applications for known vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and security weaknesses. Vulnerability scanning typically compares the configuration and software versions of target systems against known vulnerabilities and may also check for common misconfigurations that could pose security threats.

Vulnerability scans can be scheduled to run periodically (e.g., daily, weekly, or monthly) or triggered manually as needed. They provide a snapshot of the security posture at a given point in time.

While both continuous pentesting and vulnerability scanning are essential, they serve different purposes and should ideally be used in conjunction to provide a layered approach to security testing and risk management.

Key Differences

Continuous penetration testing covers a wide range of activities designed to identify vulnerabilities and assess the security posture of a computer system, network, or application. These activities are manual but are often used in tandem with automation – such as vulnerability scanning – using specialized tools and scripts, allowing for efficient and systematic testing. Here are some key differences between the two:

• Manual vs. Automated: Penetration testing involves manual testing conducted by skilled professionals, while vulnerability scanning is largely automated, relying on specialized tools to identify vulnerabilities.
• Simulation vs. Detection: Penetration testing simulates real-world attacks to uncover vulnerabilities actively, whereas vulnerability scanning primarily focuses on detecting known vulnerabilities and misconfigurations.
• Depth of Analysis: Penetration testing often involves a deeper analysis of vulnerabilities, including potential exploitation scenarios, whereas vulnerability scanning may provide less detailed information about the nature and severity of identified vulnerabilities.
• Frequency: Penetration testing is typically performed on a continuous or periodic basis to proactively identify and address security weaknesses, while vulnerability scanning can be conducted more frequently and at scale to ensure ongoing visibility into the security posture of systems and networks.

Why Continuous Penetration Testing Is Important

There are many reasons continuous penetration testing has gained popularity and is a preferred method of security testing alongside vulnerability scanning.

Speed and Efficiency

Automated tools can scan vast networks and complex systems much faster than manual testing. This acceleration is crucial in today’s rapidly evolving threat landscape, allowing organizations to identify and address vulnerabilities promptly.

Consistency

Continuous penetration testing ensures a consistent and standardized approach across multiple tests. This consistency is challenging to achieve with manual testing, where human error and variability may come into play.

Scalability

As organizations grow and expand their digital footprint, the scalability of continuous penetration testing becomes a significant advantage. These tools can adapt to the increased complexity and size of networks without a proportional increase in manpower.

Repeatable Testing

Automated tests can be easily repeated, allowing organizations to conduct regular and routine security assessments. This is essential for maintaining a proactive cybersecurity posture, and assessing benchmarks and progress, especially in dynamic and evolving digital environments.

Exploitation Frameworks

Continuous penetration testing is a specific application of exploitation frameworks designed to streamline the process by automating the identification and exploitation of vulnerabilities. This approach mimics the actions of malicious actors to assess the impact and severity of potential security breaches.

Report Generation

Automated tools typically generate detailed reports that outline discovered vulnerabilities, POCs, their severity levels, and recommended remediation steps. These reports provide valuable insights for cybersecurity teams and decision-makers.

Advantages of Choosing BreachLock’s Continuous Penetration Testing

BreachLock offers human-driven and continuous penetration testing services for small, medium, and large enterprises, depending upon their security testing requirements. With BreachLock’s continuous penetration testing, clients can benefit from comprehensive security assessments in a cost-effective and timely manner.

• Advanced Automation: BreachLock utilizes a proprietary framework that leverages NLP-based AI models to continually evaluate data, refining BreachLock’s pentesting framework to minimize the human effort in detecting, validating, and identifying common security flaws. This allows for faster and more efficient security testing.
• Adherence to Industry Standards: Based on BreachLock’s extensive pentesting experience and accumulate knowledge of potential attack paths, as well as Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs) all aligned with industry standards such as MITRE ATT&CK, OWASP, NIST, OSSTMM, and others.
• Enriched Contextual Insights: BreachLock’s experts have conducted thousands of penetration tests, accumulating a wealth of comprehensive knowledge on potential attack paths tailored to diverse context and tech stacks which is used to provide rich contextualization and proof of concepts related to vulnerabilities.
• Quick Turnaround Time: With BreachLock, clients can enjoy one of the quickest turnaround times in the industry for continuous penetration testing. This enables organizations to promptly identify vulnerabilities and take necessary actions to secure their systems.
• Full-Stack Visibility: BreachLock’s continuous penetration testing covers a wide range of systems and applications including networks, APIs, web applications, mobile applications, cloud, IoT, and more. This provides organizations with comprehensive security testing across both their internal and external attack surface.
• Achieve Compliance: Meet your compliance and business requirements and adhere to industry standards. The continuous pentesting complies with data privacy and security regulations and ensures audit readiness, for industry standards such as SOC 2, PCI DSS, HIPAA, GDPR, ISO 27001, and more.
• Continuous Monitoring and Retesting: After the initial penetration test, organizations can continue to monitor, scan, retest vulnerabilities, and generate reports for a full year. This ensures that identified vulnerabilities are promptly addressed and remediated.

FAQ

Q: Can continuous penetration testing adapt to our evolving IT environment?
A: Absolutely. One of the key advantages of continuous penetration testing is its adaptability to dynamic IT environments. These tools can be configured to accommodate changes in networks, applications, and infrastructure, ensuring that your security assessments remain relevant and effective as your organization evolves. This adaptability is crucial for maintaining a proactive and resilient cybersecurity strategy in the face of technological advancements and organizational growth.

Q: Is continuous penetration testing suitable for businesses of all sizes?
A: Yes, continuous penetration testing is scalable and can be tailored to meet the needs of businesses of all sizes. Whether you’re a small startup or a large enterprise, automated testing tools can be customized to fit the scope and complexity of your IT environment. This scalability makes it accessible and cost-effective for organizations with varying levels of resources, enabling them to fortify their cybersecurity defenses regardless of their size.

Q: How can continuous penetration testing enhance compliance and regulatory requirements?
A: Continuous penetration testing plays a crucial role in meeting compliance and regulatory standards by providing a systematic and documented approach to security assessments. Many regulatory frameworks recommend regular security testing such as penetration testing to ensure the protection of sensitive data. Automated tools facilitate the generation of comprehensive reports, demonstrating adherence to these standards. This not only helps organizations meet compliance requirements but also showcases a commitment to robust cybersecurity practices.

About BreachLock

BreachLock is a global leader in attack surface discovery and penetration testing services integrated into one seamless platform with a standardized, built-in pentesting framework. This framework serves as a safeguard for precision and quality, automating routine tasks like report formatting, proof of concept integration, and basic vulnerability identification. This also enables consistent and regular benchmarks of unique attacks, Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs), security controls, and processes to deliver enhanced predictability, consistency, and more accurate results in real-time, every time.

Know your risk. Contact BreachLock today!