4 Reasons Why Businesses Need Internal Network Penetration Needed?

With the ubiquitous cybercriminals continuously searching for vulnerabilities, it’s imperative to remember that conforming to the requirements of the PCI DSS might allow your organization to pass its annual valuation, in most of the cases, it’s not enough to avert a breach from arising and should aid as an absolute bare minimum.

From the simple and comparatively economical web application scans, to more pro-active, manual, red-team active and targeted forced entry attempts, many activities have previously been classified as some form of penetration testing. The most secure organizations have usually elected for manual penetration tests, trusting that having a skilled penetration tester or a group of testers most precisely signifies the type of actual attacks played out against organizations on an everyday basis.

Penetration testing is a common practice for assisting organizations in taking a proactive approach to defending against cyber threats. According to a survey in 2017, 92% of organizations with a cybersecurity program in place conduct penetration testing. As the attack techniques used by cybercriminals have evolved, the approaches of pen testing that organizations have should also evolve. Nowadays, there are a variety of penetration testing methods organizations implement to recognize and resolve potential weaknesses in their cybersecurity programs.

One most important method that is becoming increasingly important for businesses in every industry is the network pen testing.

What is Internal Network Pen Testing?

Organizations have been using external penetration testing to evaluate the possibility of a remote attacker getting into the internal network and is the traditional and common approach to pen testing. Though, in today’s world, external threats aren’t the only areas of apprehension.

Internal network penetration testing helps organizations alleviate the increasing probability of internal threats by emulating what an insider attack could achieve.

Why Do Businesses Need Internal Network Pen Testing?

Organizations these days have an effective infrastructure for monitoring external threats, but their internal exposure capabilities are missing. Having a rogue employee in your midst isn’t probable, ensuring that the critical internal systems are protected is important. Here are some details why an organization needs internal network penetration testing.

1. Cybercriminals these days are using internal methods for penetrating organizations. In today’s world, various cyber attackers target people within the organization. They work toward compromising the technology through phishing techniques and then move horizontally through the entire organization. Without proper protection, it’s easy for them to circumnavigate through the intrinsic trust controls your organization has built within your internal systems and methods.

2. Attacks caused internally can be much more devastating. Though insider threat events are characteristically less common than external attacks, insider threats frequently pose a much higher sternness of risk for organizations when they happen.

3. It is possible that internal attacks go undetected for long periods of time. Per industry reports, the average time it takes for U.S. companies to detect a breach is nearly half a year.

4. Today’s cyber attacks don’t look like external threats. They look like internal users who are irregularly retrieving systems and services. Internal network pen testing is one of the best methods to protect your organization from undergoing momentous destruction from these types of threats.