Testing your security system will help you determine how accurately it works and if there any vulnerabilities in it. The digital security system testing process has several different aspects to it that will help you diagnose and ultimately better protect your system. Scanning for vulnerabilities involves testing for flaws or leaks in the overall security. Penetration testing is when you actually try to break into the system from the outside. This allows a professional to actually attack the network with everything they have to give you a report on how well it actually operates.
The Vulnerabilities of Digital Security
In the world of computer security, a vulnerability is a weak point that will allow a hacker to either break through the protection on a network, or weaken it for some other type of attack. There are three main points to test a security system's vulnerability with: actual weaknesses in the network security, the knowledge a hacker may have of such a weakness, and the hacker's skill in exploiting the weakness and breaking in. To attack a system, the hacker is going to need to have either the skills or tools to successful exploit the weakness. When an attack occurs, the vulnerability is referred to as the 'attack surface'.
Why is this Testing so Important?
The technologies that hackers have is always changing and developing. The tools and tactics they use are also changing, and are varied from person to person too, so it is very hard to accurately predict how a system may be hacked in the first place. That's why testing like this is so essential. By attempting to break into a system just like a hacker would, the professional security team is able to find the vulnerabilities first, diagnose how they exploited them, and then make recommendations on how to fix them.
Conducting an Actual Test
There are a few steps involved in an actual testing of the security system. The first thing you need to do is determine what you want to attack. It may be a single server in the network, a collection of servers, or the mainframe itself. You will also need to decide how far you want them to go. You may want the team to stop at just breaking into the network, or perhaps you want them to actually attempt to bring the whole system down and steal information from you. Simulated attacks, where they recreate your system and work on that, can be useful too.
It's easy to hope that your system is powerful enough to stop hackers from stealing from you. Testing that belief will help give you a complete picture on how accurate it is. You need to find all vulnerabilities in order to remove them.
The Vulnerabilities of Digital Security
In the world of computer security, a vulnerability is a weak point that will allow a hacker to either break through the protection on a network, or weaken it for some other type of attack. There are three main points to test a security system's vulnerability with: actual weaknesses in the network security, the knowledge a hacker may have of such a weakness, and the hacker's skill in exploiting the weakness and breaking in. To attack a system, the hacker is going to need to have either the skills or tools to successful exploit the weakness. When an attack occurs, the vulnerability is referred to as the 'attack surface'.
Why is this Testing so Important?
The technologies that hackers have is always changing and developing. The tools and tactics they use are also changing, and are varied from person to person too, so it is very hard to accurately predict how a system may be hacked in the first place. That's why testing like this is so essential. By attempting to break into a system just like a hacker would, the professional security team is able to find the vulnerabilities first, diagnose how they exploited them, and then make recommendations on how to fix them.
Conducting an Actual Test
There are a few steps involved in an actual testing of the security system. The first thing you need to do is determine what you want to attack. It may be a single server in the network, a collection of servers, or the mainframe itself. You will also need to decide how far you want them to go. You may want the team to stop at just breaking into the network, or perhaps you want them to actually attempt to bring the whole system down and steal information from you. Simulated attacks, where they recreate your system and work on that, can be useful too.
It's easy to hope that your system is powerful enough to stop hackers from stealing from you. Testing that belief will help give you a complete picture on how accurate it is. You need to find all vulnerabilities in order to remove them.