How to Pivot from Passive to Proactive Pentesting

Technology is accelerating at an unprecedented pace. New technology breeds new capability—but often, innovation comes with a cost.

An unintended side-effect of new capabilities is new vulnerabilities. Skilled hackers know the art of chaining together network misconfigurations, vulnerabilities, harvested credentials, and dangerous product defaults to create attack vectors you never imagined.

When done correctly and completely, pentests let you know whether or not your network and systems can withstand a skilled hacker. What does comprehensive pentesting entail? And what resources are needed to do it right?

What is Pentesting?

A pentest is a method for gaining unauthorized access to an Information System (IS) via digital connectivity.  The goal of pentesting is to defeat technical measures intended to prevent unauthorized access to the IS being tested.  Often, pentesting uses the same resources, techniques and procedures a malicious hacker would use but does not deploy malicious payloads.

Instead of demanding a ransom for your most valuable data, a pentest delivers a list of fix-actions required to prevent a hacker from using the same methods to exploit your network.

How Often Should Companies Pentest?

Human-performed penetration tests offer invaluable insight into an organization’s security vulnerabilities, but they are often annually performed, which may not be often enough with the pace of change all organizations experience.

Often, pentests are perceived more as a compliance requirement than an essential security measure. They are expensive, time consuming and resource heavy, creating huge barriers for many small to midsize companies who may not have the budget or the manpower for comprehensive testing.

Often, internal security teams must prioritize their time and focus on the most critical assets. These time limitations ultimately limit the scope of the pentest, meaning not every attack path is tested. For example, there may be 10 different ways to exploit your network, but your pentest ended on the first one.

Why Small to Midsize Companies are Turning to NodeZero

For a small to midsize companies, additional manpower may not be possible—but Horizon3.ai’s new NodeZero technology can offer the force-multiplier to empower your team.

NodeZero knows how attackers think and deploys at the speed of autonomy, providing all the fix-actions to better support your team. The platform enables you to pentest daily and often as you wish. If you add equipment to your domain, pentest. If you ran a patch, pentest. If you update software, pentest.

As new exploits are discovered and new ZeroDays are published, Horizon3.ai adds new attacks, features, capabilities, and fix-action reports to ensure NodeZero is just as capable as the most advanced attackers.

Enterprise and commercial-sized organizations can also benefit from the NodeZero platform, acting as a pseudo red team providing visibility into poor configurations, default credentials, or exploitable vulnerabilities.

Ready. Set. Test.

Given this fast, ever changing, complex world of IT, it is a given that there is an undeniable advantage to recurring pentests on every device of your enterprise. Our adversaries never stop, so we can’t stop improving.

Inversion6 Technologies has partnered with Horizon3.ai to provide Autonomous Penetration Testing as a Service (APTaaS). Through APTaaS, pentests can be scheduled more frequently without additional cost, reducing cycle time for remediation activities while improving visibility. Your team will gain a better understanding of how attacks occur and are chained together and how to prevent them.

Let us show you why NodeZero is the force-multiplier you need. Contact us today.