Cybercrime and corporate espionage are the reality. This is so primarily because statistics show that the number of cyber-attacks has been growing yearly. In their 2022 Cybersecurity Almanac, Cisco, and Cybersecurity Ventures estimated that the cost of cybercrime will hit $10.5 trillion by 2025.
We’re safe to say that attackers are more prepared than ever and are expanding their knowledge and toolset, so you should follow suit.
Therefore, securing a company’s perimeter is becoming a prevailing trend in the digital space.
Some of the standard protection practices are:
- Holding security awareness training for employees,
- Hiring cyber security experts, and
- Engaging with cybersecurity companies with impeccable SOCaS (Security Operation Center as Service).
Is all that necessary? Absolutely YES!
Is it enough to stay secure? Absolutely NO!
So, you might ask yourself now, what should you do besides that?
Well, you should test your defensive tactics!
But how? Via penetration testing and red teaming.
Penetration Testing
Penetration testing is a form of ethical hacking: a systematic process of probing for vulnerabilities in your networks (infrastructure) and applications (software).
Different penetration testing types focus on various aspects of your organization’s logical perimeter — the boundary that separates your network from the Internet.
General types of penetration testing:
- Internal network
- External network
- Wireless network
- Web applications
- Mobile applications
- Cloud applications
Red Teaming
Armies typically only know how good their defenses are in practice once tested in a war, which can lead to catastrophic consequences.
Lucky for us, in cyberspace, we can simulate real cyber-attacks through red teaming without any consequences and improve our defenses.
With red team attack simulation, there are much more attack vectors than in any other security testing. For instance, you can test how your employees would react to phishing campaigns, whether attackers can pass stealthily around your defenses and extract valuable data or check your real-world security features. You can even simulate the in-house threats.
Conclusion
With increasingly sophisticated cyber-attacks on a continuous rise, it’s more important than ever that organizations perform regular penetration testing and red teaming. It will help them identify their exposures and block holes, ensuring that cyber controls function as intended.