Five Reasons Why Your Organisation Should Be Penetration Testing
Modern businesses require an advanced approach to security and due diligence. Having anti-virus software and a firewall is no longer an efficient strategy to prevent highly sophisticated security attacks which can result in irreversible damage to your organisation.
A professional penetration testing service is the best way to identify the strengths, weaknesses and holes in your defences. Read on to uncover the five best reasons why your organisation needs penetration testing.
1. Protect Your Organisation From Cyber Attacks
Reports of cyber crime within Australia have increased nearly 15% each year since 2019, with the average reported financial loss per successful cybercrime incident being $50,673. Regardless of your organisational size or sector, cyber criminals view every business as a potentially exploitable prospect. The internet is continuously being scanned in search of vulnerable systems. Carrying out penetration tests will enable you to identify vulnerabilities that are most likely to be exploited, determine what the potential impact could be, and enable you to implement measures to mitigate or eliminate the threat.
2. Identify and Prioritise Vulnerabilities
Put simply, a pen test will uncover all of the potential threats and vulnerabilities that could damage your organisation’s IT assets. The resulting report prioritises these vulnerabilities from low to critical, and further categorises them by likelihood and impact. This gives your team a clear picture of your security posture, and the opportunity to mitigate the greatest threats first before moving on to less risky ones.
3. Stay Compliant With Security Standards and Regulations
Regular penetration testing can help you to comply with security standards and regulations such as ISO 27001 and PCI. These standards require company managers and system owners to conduct regular penetration tests and security audits to demonstrate ongoing due diligence and maintenance of required security controls. Not only does pen testing identify potential vulnerabilities, ensuring that you are protecting your customers and assets, but it also helps to avoid costly fines and fees connected with non-compliance.
4. Reduce Financial Losses and Downtime
Recent studies have reported that the average financial impact of a major data breach in Australia is around $3.7million per incident. This takes into account expenditures on customer data protection programs, regulatory fines, and loss of revenue due to business operability. System downtime is incredibly costly – the longer your system is down, the more exorbitant the cost. A penetration test is a proactive solution to highlight and fix your system’s most critical vulnerabilities, and ensure your team are ready to act if your systems were to go down unexpectedly.
5. Protect Your Reputation and Company Loyalty
Consumers are extremely quick to lose trust in companies and brands, and all it takes is one security breach or data leak to tarnish your reputation. Customers and partners of your organisation want to know that their private data is safe in your hands, so it is in your best interest to be aware of any vulnerabilities which may put the company’s reputation and reliability in jeopardy.
This is just a handful of reasons why organisations should carry out regular penetration tests, but there are many more. Connect with JDS to discuss your pen testing needs and get a full scope of work customised to your requirements.