Remediate Vulnerabilities Before an Attack Occurs
Penetration Testing Services
Validate your cyber defenses against real-world threats. Kroll’s world-class penetration testing services bring together front-line threat intelligence, thousands of hours of cyber security assessments completed each year and a team of certified cyber experts — the foundation for our sophisticated and scalable approach.
Talk to an ExpertPenetration testing, or pen testing, is a widely used testing strategy to find, investigate and remediate found vulnerabilities in your network or applications. Pen testers use the same tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) as cyber adversaries to simulate a genuine attack against your organization.
With a routine pen testing cadence, your organization can reduce cyber risk by finding vulnerabilities and addressing them before cybercriminals can compromise your infrastructure, systems, applications or personnel.
How Pen Testing Benefits Your Business
Demonstrate Compliance
Validate Your Existing Security Controls
Identify Areas for Future Security Investments
Available and Scalable: Kroll’s Comprehensive Approach to Pen Testing
Kroll has built the foundation and experience needed to handle large-scale, complex penetration testing engagements, including for the world’s top companies in industries from media and entertainment to critical infrastructure.
We’ve developed a sophisticated approach that includes a comprehensive, in-house team dedicated to providing you with the structure and management background needed to scale and adapt your pen testing program based on your business drivers.
Kroll also boasts a very unique pen testing advantage: the insights provided by our world-class incident response practice, which feed our certified cyber experts the information they need to test against the exploits attackers are executing today.
Certified to the Highest Global Industry Standards
Kroll’s Six-phase Penetration Testing Approach
Scoping Your Pen Testing Project
A successful pen testing project starts by clearly defining the goals and objectives of the assessment. Our experts work with your team to determine what type of penetration testing is needed and to define the assets that will be within the scope of the pen test.
Reconnaissance and Intelligence Gathering
Kroll collects and examines publicly available information about your company and employees, including examining public websites, social media, domain registries and dark web data, that could be used to compromise your organization.
Scanning and Vulnerability Analysis
We conduct a full assessment of network infrastructure and applications to gain a complete picture of your organization’s attack surface.
Threat Modeling Exercise
Kroll experts use the gathered intelligence to identify potential attack vectors and vulnerabilities to exploit and to then develop a plan of attack for testing.
Attack Execution
Our team of cyber investigators attack the identified vulnerabilities to attempt to access your organization’s environment using methods employed by real-life adversaries.
Reporting and Advisory
We provide a final report summarizing our actions during testing, including details on any weaknesses we identified and includes remediation guidance on how to effectively address those risks.
Our Penetration Testing Services Include:
- Web Application Penetration Testing
- Cloud Penetration Testing
- API Penetration Testing
- Mobile Application Penetration Testing
- Agile Penetration Testing
- Network Penetration Testing (External and Internal)
- IoT and Hardware Device Penetration Testing
- Container Security
Watch Jeff and Ben explain the benefits and what might qualify your organization for a red team exercise.
Do I Need a Pen Test or a Red Team Engagement?
Organizations with a high level of security maturity should, ideally, regularly perform both penetration testing and red teaming exercises.
Penetration testing focuses on exploiting specific vulnerabilities at a network or application level.
Red teaming goes further, providing a holistic assessment of how your people, processes and technology work together to form an effective defense against threats like ransomware and social engineering.
Learn More About Our Red Teaming Services
Get Started on Your Agile Pen Testing Program with the eBook. Download now.
Agile Pen Testing: A New Paradigm for Application Security
Agile pen testing, or continuous pen testing, is a method for integrating regular testing into your software development lifecycle (SDLC), rather than testing at infrequent points in time.
Whereas, traditional pen testing impacts product release cycles, Agile pen testing works with your release schedule to ensure that new features are secure and don’t translate into risk for your customers.
Learn More About Kroll’s Approach to Agile Pen Testing
Ready to Plan Your Pen Testing Program?
Get in touch with our team to learn how we can help you build a pen testing program specific to your organization’s needs.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is penetration testing?
Penetration testing, also known as pentesting, describes the assessment of computer networks, systems, and applications to identify and address security weaknesses affecting computer networks, systems, applications and websites. Some vulnerabilities can’t be detected by automated software tools. Penetration testing is a form of ethical cyber security assessment which ensures that any weaknesses discovered can be addressed in order to mitigate the risks of an attack. It is recommended that all organizations commission security testing at least once per year, with additional assessments following significant changes to infrastructure, as well as prior to product launches, mergers or acquisitions.
What are the different types of pen testing?
Types of pen test vary in focus, depth and duration. They can include internal/external infrastructure penetration testing, which assesses on-premise and cloud network infrastructure, wireless penetration testing, which targets an organization’s WLAN, as well as wireless protocols. Other types of tests include web application testing, which assesses websites and custom applications delivered over the web, mobile application testing which tests mobile applications on operating systems, including Android and iOS to identify authentication, authorization, data leakage and session handling issues, and build and configuration reviews which review network builds and configurations.
Why is penetration testing important?
Penetration testing is an important part of maintaining cyber security and addressing gaps in your organization’s defenses. Penetration testing should be a critical element of all organizations’ security programs to help them keep up with the fast-evolving threat landscape. With threats constantly evolving, it’s recommended that every organization conducts a penetration test at least once a year, but more frequently when making significant changes to an application or infrastructure, launching new products and services, undergoing a business merger or acquisition or preparing for compliance with security standards.
What steps are involved in penetration testing?
High quality penetration testing services apply a systematic methodology to ensure that all the relevant aspects are covered. In the case of a blackbox external network pentest, once the engagement has been scoped, the pen tester will conduct extensive reconnaissance, scanning and asset mapping in order to identify vulnerabilities for exploitation. Once access to the network has been established, the pen tester will then attempt to move laterally across the network to obtain the higher-level privileges required to compromise additional assets and achieve the objective of the pentesting engagement. The final stage is the provision of a detailed report.
How long does penetration testing take?
The duration of a penetration test will depend on the scope of the test and the nature of the organization. Factors affecting penetration testing duration include network size, whether the test is internal or external facing, whether it involves any physical penetration testing and whether network information and user credentials are shared prior to the penetration testing engagement. Your chosen vendor should discuss your options with you and agree what works best for your organization prior to starting the penetration testing.
How frequently should pentesting be carried out?
All organizations are advised to conduct a penetration test at least once a year, as well as after any significant upgrades or modifications to the company network. Given the rapid rate at which new exploits are discovered, quarterly tests are highly beneficial. Regular penetration tests are often required for compliance with regulations such as PCI DSS.
What happens after penetration testing is completed?
To help facilitate the remediation process, pen testing should be assessed to ensure that it delivers actionable guidance to drive tangible security improvements. After each engagement, the ethical hacker assigned to the test should produce a custom written report, detailing and assessing the risks of any weaknesses identified, and outlining recommended remedial actions. A provider may also offer a comprehensive telephone debrief following submission of the report.
How much does penetration testing cost?
Penetration testing costs vary widely, so it’s essential to ensure that the pen testing you select enables you to achieve the best security outcomes from your budget. Every organization has its own testing requirements and penetration testing pricing varies according to the type of test performed, as well as its overall objectives and duration. Penetration testing costs ultimately depend on the issues and requirements identified during the initial scoping phase.
How is penetration testing conducted?
Penetration testing as a service utilises the tools, techniques and procedures used by genuine criminal hackers. At Kroll, our five-phase approach incorporates two powerful sources of insight: the front-line experience of our global team of leading cyber investigators and the real-time threats gained from sophisticated technology, including our patent-protected dark web tools. For organizations whose cyber maturity is advanced, we can also provide red teaming exercises (on a onetime or periodic basis) that focus on specific objectives and scenarios provided by your team.
Will penetration testing affect business operations?
As penetration testing involves the exploitation of vulnerabilities, a clearly defined scope is needed to ensure that testing won’t impact business operations and fall foul of the law. A good pen testing provider should work closely with you to minimize any potential disruption to your business during the testing process. They should also agree in advance how to maintain the security of your systems and assets throughout the process.
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Cyber Risk
Incident response, digital forensics, breach notification, managed detection services, penetration testing, cyber assessments and advisory.
Penetration Testing Services
Validate your cyber defenses against real-world threats. Kroll’s world-class penetration testing services bring together front-line threat intelligence, thousands of hours of cyber security assessments completed each year and a team of certified cyber experts — the foundation for our sophisticated and scalable approach.
Agile Penetration Testing Program
Integrated into your software development lifecycle (SDLC), Kroll’s agile penetration testing program is designed to help teams address security risks in real time and on budget.
Red Team Security Services
Red team security services from Kroll go beyond traditional penetration testing, leveraging our frontline threat intelligence and the adversarial mindset used by threat actors to push the limits of your information security controls.
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Cyber Risk
Incident response, digital forensics, breach notification, managed detection services, penetration testing, cyber assessments and advisory.