Data breaches cause 60% of small businesses to close within just six months of the breach. If you’re not working with an expert in cybersecurity in Miami yet, you need to start. Penetration testing can help protect your company from becoming just another statistic.
If you don’t know the first thing about penetration testing, we’ll explain:
- What pen tests are
- How often you need to test
- Reasons why we recommend all businesses run penetration tests
What is a Penetration Test?
What is a “pen test?” It’s a form of ethical hacking where you pay a company or security consultant to:
- Try accessing your systems
- Find security holes
- Access your systems
Your ethical hacker will use all known methods and approaches to attack your system and gain access. In essence, the pen test will replicate the same steps that a hacker will take to try and access your systems.
A pen test is often part of a greater security audit that cybersecurity companies in Miami perform.
How Often Should Your Small Business Run Penetration Tests?
Periodically. You may need to run tests more often if you plan on opening new offices and expanding operations. But the initial test is to harden your overall security and identify points of failure that need to be immediately addressed.
A general rule of thumb is to run penetration tests annually or at any time:
- New locations or offices are opened
- New cloud services or websites are launched
- Major security changes are made in the organization
- Infrastructure changes are made
4 Reasons Why Penetration Testing is a Must for ALL Businesses
1. Find Immediate Vulnerabilities
Hackers will try to use the easiest, fastest attacks to gain access to your systems and data. Penetration tests will find vulnerabilities that need to be addressed now - before a hacker attempts to exploit them.
Often, faults in your security measures are highlighted to allow you time to:
- Patch security holes
- Retest the network
Your cybersecurity may be lacking key measures that identify the vulnerabilities that a penetration test will find.
2. Test Your Cybersecurity Team
Your networks should be monitored for intruders and security professionals need to stop attacks from being successful. Pen testing will provide you with insights into the monitoring tools that you use and your team’s ability to:
- Spot a breach
- Discover malicious applications
3. Determine the Damage Risk of an Attack
Small businesses can suffer extensive damages from a single attack, with most attacks costing $200,000 or more. Your business may:
- Lose revenue
- Face fines
- Spend money to remediate systems
Penetration testing allows you to understand the true threat of an attack, such as how many customer files may be accessed, how much revenue and fines you’ll face and the cost to recover from an attack.
4. Reduce Downtime
Pen testing reduces the scrambling your team will do after an attack or business disruption. Identifying and patching vulnerabilities will reduce the risk of downtime, too.
If you want to harden your organization’s security, we’re here to help. Our company specializes in cybersecurity and will be happy to run a penetration test on your systems.