Pentest - Who would you recommend?
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@Carnival-Boy The only issue with sec-1 is they are a Claranet company. Claranet...their culture is really poor, they've kept making mistakes on ISP projects, support failures and for one client, Claranet actually held their service to ransom by switching off the connection before a migration to a competitor, the client buckled and re-signed for 2 years and within 10 minutes the service was back up.
Sec-1 might just be owned by Claranet and they are fantastic on their own but its a bit like LogMeIn owning LastPass, LastPass is great, LogMeIn, not so much.
@Jimmy9008 - Yep, it was a response to a breach. A specific requirement was zero pen-test but all other reports are similar, we looked here, tried this, found this, fix it this way.
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@Jimmy9008 said
Pentest. You get our company name, that is all. Can you get in? Could you almost get in? What could/did you change? etc.
Challenge accepted.
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@Breffni-Potter said in Pentest - Who would you recommend?:
@Jimmy9008 said
Pentest. You get our company name, that is all. Can you get in? Could you almost get in? What could/did you change? etc.
Challenge accepted.
Lol, but at what cost £££
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@Jimmy9008 said in Pentest - Who would you recommend?:
@IRJ said in Pentest - Who would you recommend?:
Have you had an assessment before?
Are you in an industry that has requirements like HIPAA, SOX, GLBA, etc?
Roughly how big is the company?
What is the exact scope of work? Are you really looking for a pen test or a security audit?
All these should factor in to who you choose for you pentest.
No previous assessment.
No industry requirements.
25 -35 employees. Thousands of customers.
Pentest. You get our company name, that is all. Can you get in? Could you almost get in? What could/did you change? etc.
You definitely don't want a pen test, you need a security assessment. There will be plenty of things to fix, and after securing the network then you could do a pen test the following year.
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@Jimmy9008 said in Pentest - Who would you recommend?:
@Breffni-Potter said in Pentest - Who would you recommend?:
@Jimmy9008 said
Pentest. You get our company name, that is all. Can you get in? Could you almost get in? What could/did you change? etc.
Challenge accepted.
Lol, but at what cost £££
The fastest way to get the best pentest in the world, put out a bounty. Same way the big boys do it. If you get every type of hacker trying to crack your network for a prize, you can bet you'll find out if its secure.
This is a big problem with pen tests with many companies, how imaginative and motivated is the attacker?
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I love the Metasploit framework and also like Armitage on top of that sometimes.
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@Breffni-Potter said in Pentest - Who would you recommend?:
@Jimmy9008 said in Pentest - Who would you recommend?:
@Breffni-Potter said in Pentest - Who would you recommend?:
@Jimmy9008 said
Pentest. You get our company name, that is all. Can you get in? Could you almost get in? What could/did you change? etc.
Challenge accepted.
Lol, but at what cost £££
The fastest way to get the best pentest in the world, put out a bounty. Same way the big boys do it. If you get every type of hacker trying to crack your network for a prize, you can bet you'll find out if its secure.
This is a big problem with pen tests with many companies, how imaginative and motivated is the attacker?
Yeah, I get what you are saying, but i'd prefer to avoid challenging those that had no interest in the company, with interest, to try to 'get the goodies'. Hence asking if anybody has specific good history with any particular person...
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@Breffni-Potter said in Pentest - Who would you recommend?:
@Carnival-Boy The only issue with sec-1 is they are a Claranet company. Claranet...
They only bought them 3 weeks ago! But, yeah, one to keep an eye on, for sure.
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@Carnival-Boy said in Pentest - Who would you recommend?:
@Breffni-Potter said in Pentest - Who would you recommend?:
@Carnival-Boy The only issue with sec-1 is they are a Claranet company. Claranet...
They only bought them 3 weeks ago! But, yeah, one to keep an eye on, for sure.
Everyone knows BT are awful, Claranet manage to beat BT at being bad for double the money.
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@IRJ said in Pentest - Who would you recommend?:
You definitely don't want a pen test, you need a security assessment. There will be plenty of things to fix, and after securing the network then you could do a pen test the following year.
Same thing. What do you think an assessment will do that a pentester won't (and vice versa)?
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@Carnival-Boy said in Pentest - Who would you recommend?:
@IRJ said in Pentest - Who would you recommend?:
You definitely don't want a pen test, you need a security assessment. There will be plenty of things to fix, and after securing the network then you could do a pen test the following year.
Same thing. What do you think an assessment will do that a pentester won't (and vice versa)?
A Pentester is more focused on actually breaking into your network. They will show you the security holes and vulnerabilities they found while exploiting your network, but their focus is exploitation.
An assessment will take everything into account on your network and interview various people about policies and procedures. There more of a focus on finding security vulnerabilities and how to fix them vs breaking in.
So you should only get a pen test when you consider your organization ready for it. Otherwise it can be a waste if there are holes galore in your network.
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Ok, so how does an assessment find out if your applications are vulnerable to SQL injection (for example)?
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@Carnival-Boy said in Pentest - Who would you recommend?:
Ok, so how does an assessment find out if your applications are vulnerable to SQL injection (for example)?
It's all in the scope of work. You just need to state that you want web apps to be included in the report. Companies ask for this type of stuff quite often. There are plenty of tools that Cyber Security personnel use for this purpose.
The scope of work is the single most important thing you and whatever your company chooses need to agree on.
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That's not what I'm asking. I'm asking how does an assessment find out if your applications are vulnerable to SQL injection?
Literally, how, if not by pen testing them?
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@Breffni-Potter said in Pentest - Who would you recommend?:
@Carnival-Boy The only issue with sec-1 is they are a Claranet company. Claranet...their culture is really poor, they've kept making mistakes on ISP projects, support failures and for one client, Claranet actually held their service to ransom by switching off the connection before a migration to a competitor, the client buckled and re-signed for 2 years and within 10 minutes the service was back up.
Sec-1 might just be owned by Claranet and they are fantastic on their own but its a bit like LogMeIn owning LastPass, LastPass is great, LogMeIn, not so much.
@Jimmy9008 - Yep, it was a response to a breach. A specific requirement was zero pen-test but all other reports are similar, we looked here, tried this, found this, fix it this way.
So... an MSP/VAR?
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@Carnival-Boy said in Pentest - Who would you recommend?:
@IRJ said in Pentest - Who would you recommend?:
You definitely don't want a pen test, you need a security assessment. There will be plenty of things to fix, and after securing the network then you could do a pen test the following year.
Same thing. What do you think an assessment will do that a pentester won't (and vice versa)?
One is only testing penetration from a set of attacks. Most security vulnerabilities are not penetration so aren't part of that test (like SQL Injection is not penetration) plus it tests attacks, not risks.
Example.. which tells you how long it will take to break through a door, hitting it with a hammer or knowing a lot about the door? If you know enough about the door, you know where it is weak or if the hinges are about to give out. If you just hit it with a hammer, you might get lucky and get in on the first swing or you might never hit it hard enough to break the hinge.
Both are valuable, but one tells you a lot more, typically.
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@Carnival-Boy said in Pentest - Who would you recommend?:
That's not what I'm asking. I'm asking how does an assessment find out if your applications are vulnerable to SQL injection?
Literally, how, if not by pen testing them?
Pen testing doesn't even apply. You test SQL Injection risk by looking at the code. Code audit is the only reliable test for injection attack vectors and is a very standard thing.
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@scottalanmiller said in Pentest - Who would you recommend?:
@Carnival-Boy said in Pentest - Who would you recommend?:
@IRJ said in Pentest - Who would you recommend?:
You definitely don't want a pen test, you need a security assessment. There will be plenty of things to fix, and after securing the network then you could do a pen test the following year.
Same thing. What do you think an assessment will do that a pentester won't (and vice versa)?
One is only testing penetration from a set of attacks. Most security vulnerabilities are not penetration so aren't part of that test (like SQL Injection is not penetration) plus it tests attacks, not risks.
Example.. which tells you how long it will take to break through a door, hitting it with a hammer or knowing a lot about the door? If you know enough about the door, you know where it is weak or if the hinges are about to give out. If you just hit it with a hammer, you might get lucky and get in on the first swing or you might never hit it hard enough to break the hinge.
Both are valuable, but one tells you a lot more, typically.
Yes, alot of people use security assessment and pentesting as interchangeable terms but they are much different. Pen testing is only done when you feel you've already covered everything found on a security assessment.
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@IRJ said in Pentest - Who would you recommend?:
@scottalanmiller said in Pentest - Who would you recommend?:
@Carnival-Boy said in Pentest - Who would you recommend?:
@IRJ said in Pentest - Who would you recommend?:
You definitely don't want a pen test, you need a security assessment. There will be plenty of things to fix, and after securing the network then you could do a pen test the following year.
Same thing. What do you think an assessment will do that a pentester won't (and vice versa)?
One is only testing penetration from a set of attacks. Most security vulnerabilities are not penetration so aren't part of that test (like SQL Injection is not penetration) plus it tests attacks, not risks.
Example.. which tells you how long it will take to break through a door, hitting it with a hammer or knowing a lot about the door? If you know enough about the door, you know where it is weak or if the hinges are about to give out. If you just hit it with a hammer, you might get lucky and get in on the first swing or you might never hit it hard enough to break the hinge.
Both are valuable, but one tells you a lot more, typically.
Yes, alot of people use security assessment and pentesting as interchangeable terms but they are much different. Pen testing is only done when you feel you've already covered everything found on a security assessment.
Yes, doing both is definitely good. But if only doing one, it's the assessment that I'd want.
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@scottalanmiller said in Pentest - Who would you recommend?:
@IRJ said in Pentest - Who would you recommend?:
@scottalanmiller said in Pentest - Who would you recommend?:
@Carnival-Boy said in Pentest - Who would you recommend?:
@IRJ said in Pentest - Who would you recommend?:
You definitely don't want a pen test, you need a security assessment. There will be plenty of things to fix, and after securing the network then you could do a pen test the following year.
Same thing. What do you think an assessment will do that a pentester won't (and vice versa)?
One is only testing penetration from a set of attacks. Most security vulnerabilities are not penetration so aren't part of that test (like SQL Injection is not penetration) plus it tests attacks, not risks.
Example.. which tells you how long it will take to break through a door, hitting it with a hammer or knowing a lot about the door? If you know enough about the door, you know where it is weak or if the hinges are about to give out. If you just hit it with a hammer, you might get lucky and get in on the first swing or you might never hit it hard enough to break the hinge.
Both are valuable, but one tells you a lot more, typically.
Yes, alot of people use security assessment and pentesting as interchangeable terms but they are much different. Pen testing is only done when you feel you've already covered everything found on a security assessment.
Yes, doing both is definitely good. But if only doing one, it's the assessment that I'd want.
absolutely, and just like any company trying to sell you something, you will probably get both if you aren't sure what you are asking for
