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Network Security Penetration Testing

Proactive testing is the primary strategy to help prevent incidents before they happen. Preserve corporate image and customer loyalty: find out how we can help your organisation.

Network Testing:

A powerful tool

A network penetration test is a form of ethical hacking where an authorised individual attempts to find gaps in the network security of an organisation’s IT infrastructure, applications or processes with view to testing accessibility to crucial assets. The purpose is to review the robustness of network security controls and provide management with an assessment of the cyber health and risks involved for an organisation at the perimeter level. Gridware provides Network penetration testing in Australia and internationally, helping organisations reduce the attack surface of an organisation’s network to stop cyber attacks from occurring. They aim to validate or invalidate the efficiency of defensive controls and determine what needs to be done to bolster them.

Cyber incidents undo years of efforts

As a leading network penetration testing company, Gridware knows too well how damaging a high-risk vulnerability in your network can be. An IBM report in 2019 identified that hackers spend on average 200 days inside a company network before they are identified – astounding if you consider that the vulnerabilities are often discoverable and addressable.

Data breach and cyber crimes are the corporate nightmare of today: the dreaded scenario no one wants to face but many inevitably do. A PwC report in 2020 highlighted that 85% of customers no longer want to do business with a company if they are worried about its data practices. Each cyber incident that compromises a company’s image can be costly, negatively affecting sales and ruining reputations. Proactive testing is the primary strategy to help prevent incidents before they happen. Preserve corporate image and customer loyalty: find out how we can help your organisation.

Gridware: Leaders in Network Testing Services

Gridware is marked by its unique approach to network penetration testing services: proprietary methods that offer a robust examination of existing network infrastructure. With network penetration testers in Sydney and Melbourne, Gridware has the ability to offer our services country-wide, we’ve rapidly developed depth of experience and an enviable list of commercial and government clients.

We are proud to be CREST (Council for Registered Ethical Security Testers) Certified that are leaders in industry and infrastructure. Employing the highest quality cybersecurity talent in the market, we continue to offer our clients results that speak for themselves and have averted network attacks, financial loss, reputational damage and lost time for a plethora of organisations.

Gridware Network Security Penetration Testing Approach

Our approach helps rapidly and efficiently determine the extent to which your network is defensible against cyber threats by testing it against common exploits and vulnerabilities. We perform our testing from the perspective of an attacker, utilising in-house tools, vulnerability scanning and manual scripts to emulate attack incidents.

We collect and analyse domains associated with the network through a thorough review of the network map, DNS queries, traceroutes and search engines to identify a network’s online footprint.

We listen to ports on target hosts and APIs. Listening ports indicate services running on servers that may allow unauthorised users to access systems due to misconfigurations.

This stage involves extracting relevant information from target systems through to retrieve:

Network shares and services
IP tables and routing tables
Service settings and Audit configurations
Application and banners
SNMP and DNS Details

We use commercial tools to run systematic scans of all components of network infrastructure in order to identify any known exploits, system versions and meta-data that can be utilised in an attack.

Game-changing:

Key Benefits

Gridware’s services help organisations proactively take preventive action to avoid the cost of a cyber attack, network downtime, financial loss and reputational damage resulting from a network breach and resulting impacts. It can be a game-changing move in helping organisations take their systems from below-average to strategically in tune with the latest threats and challenges in cybersecurity.

Close poor remote access gaps that lead to ransomware attacks encrypting your data
Independent verification of an organisation’s network perimeter security
Mitigation of key cyber risks associated with network security and strength
Avoid costly data breaches, fines and irreparable reputational damage associated with network breaches
Compliance with local legislation
Build the right cybersecurity and awareness culture within an organisation
Give customers the confidence they need to do business with you

Network security penetration testing is a proactive way of shaping mature cybersecurity strategies by testing systems and processes before something can go wrong.

Gridware is proud to be CREST (Council for Registered Ethical Security Testers) certified.

Network Security Penetration Testing FAQs

We already run vulnerability scans and antivirus, why should be conduct a penetration test?

Regular scans will only check and ‘compare’ to data that is often outdated or no longer applicable with the latest developments in the security industry. You need to ‘do as they do’ and perform tests from the perspective of an attacker with the tools attackers utilise to bypass your defences.

My business uses cloud applications, why is a penetration test still required?

All business applications, even when used in the cloud, are subject to vulnerabilities and exploits. It’s only a matter a time before commonly used applications are compromised and then subsequently patched. We need to check that the patch management process is keeping up with the latest developments, and that they are being patched against exploits. The cloud will only act as a host and cannot guarantee the integrity of any application it hosts.

How much does a network pen test cost?

The cost of penetration testing will depend on the systems, infrastructure and complexity of your business applications. In our experience, most companies looking to undertake both external and internal penetration testing, can require between 7-14 days of testing and consulting to complete. There are other factors to consider that affect the price, including any regulatory or legal requirements affecting your industry which reflects into the price.

How long does it take to do a penetration test?

In our experience, Penetration testing can take anywhere between 5-15 business days to complete. When less testing is required, or if testing is focused on a single application, systems or process, testing can be completed in 2-3 business days.

What do you check when you do a penetration test?

Gridware primarily looks for security vulnerabilities at the network and host level configurations. This is a fundamental step in ensuring your systems are not publicly accessible to unauthorised users. We also focus server/cloud configuration, email servers, and all major operation system and browser exploits that are commonly seen.

Why does my company need to do penetration tests?

Penetration testing is way of demonstrating reasonable efforts made to test the integrity of your business infrastructure and applications. It shows your company has put effort into protecting confidential and sensitive business data to regulators such as ASIC or AUSTRAC. With new legislation passing in Australia, businesses are required to demonstrate they’ve regularly checked their systems are compliant with the industry standards and that checks have been made to ensure there are no vulnerabilities which can be easily utilised by attackers.

What is a penetration test?

A penetration test (or pen test) is a series of intentional attempts to gain unauthorised access through the use of specialised tools available to attackers and professionals. It is like a stress test for your business systems and applications. It assess the integrity of your business ensuring confidential data is secure, access permissions are appropriate, and that applications are compliant with the latest patches and free from vulnerability of exploits.

Why should penetration testing be done by a service provider?

Penetration tests should be conducted by an external service provider to ensure there is no bias in the testing, that it is run independently from the business by technical experts who are familiar with the latest developments in exploits and both international and industry standards.

What are the types of penetration tests that can be done?

Gridware regularly conducts external penetrations tests, from the perspective of an attacker, internal penetration testing, from the perspective of a rogue employee after restricted information and network and firewall tests to ensure the integrity of your infrastructure. We also recommend running regular penetration testing on Wireless (wifi) networks as well as testing remote social engineering in electronic attacks such as phishing or directed human effort at compromising your systems.

Are your penetration testers certified?

All our penetration testers are qualified to conduct penetration tests and are certified ethical hackers CREST, CISSP, ISO 27001 Auditors, GSEC, GWAPT and CEH.

Customer Stories

Gridware has acted for hundreds of companies and helped them recover from potentially disastrous situations. Read about how our services have helped others: