Penetration Testing Infrastructure is the best method to assess your firm’s security infrastructur
According to the latest cyber attack, there is a new way that attackers might gain entry into your system without triggering any alarm.
Penetration Testing Infrastructure is the best method to assess your firm’s security infrastructure, as it identifies the vulnerabilities in networks and systems.A pen testing security expert needs to view networks and IT infrastructure from threats to successfully prevent, detect, and recover from cyberattacks.
This full guide focuses on penetration testing and how you can prevent your company from these harmful attacks. Learn how penetration testing exposes hidden vulnerabilities before hackers do.
What is a Penetration Test?
Penetration testing, commonly known as pentest, is an authorized attack performed on a computer system to strengthen its security. Pen testers use the latest tools and techniques as attackers find and demonstrate vulnerabilities in a business application.
Penetration testers collect various types of attacks that can harm a business. They examine whether a business’s security protocols are strong enough to withstand attacks from unauthorized sources as well as from a range of systems.
What is a Pen Tester?
A pen tester is a professional who is hired for legal hacking of computer systems or networks to find security loopholes before the real hackers do.
A pen tester does the following pen testing process:
Find security loopholes in websites and networks.
Test the login system and databases.
Report how hackers can exploit the system’s weaknesses.
Find solutions to fix the security problems.
What are the 5 stages of the Pen testing process?
In the cybersecurity penetration testing process, there are a total of 5 types of working modules, which are:
1- Reconnaissance
Reconnaissance is the first step in the penetration testing working module. In this phase, a tester will gather as much information about the target system as they can about the network topology and operating system.
The goal of this phase is to gather as much information as possible so that a tester can plan an effective attack strategy. Reconnaissance is categorized into two different sections: active and passive reconnaissance, depending upon what methods are used to gather information.
Active reconnaissance directly involves interacting with the target system to gain information about the system, and passive reconnaissance gets its information from resources that are available in public.
2- Scanning
In the scanning phase, the tester uses various tools like Nmap, BurpSuite, or Wireshark to identify the open ports as well as check network traffic on the target system. Open ports are the main entry points for attackers and testers to identify as many open ports as possible for the next testing phase.
3- Vulnerability Assessment
The third phase is vulnerability assessment, in which the penetration testers use all the gathered data in the reconnaissance and scanning process to detect potential vulnerabilities and check whether they can be exploited. Just like scanning, vulnerability assessment is a tool that is powerful when combined with other stages of testing.
Testers can use various resources to discover vulnerabilities, like the National Vulnerability Database (NVD) and a repository of vulnerability management data, which is maintained by the U.S. government that analyzes vulnerability which are published in the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures database.
4- Exploitation
Once the vulnerability is identified, now is the time for exploitation. The tester attempts to access the target systems and exploit the identified vulnerabilities, which can be used with tools like Metasploit to simulate the vulnerability in the real world.
5- Reporting
Once the exploitation stage is completed, the tester provides a report in which they document the testing’s findings. The generated report is the final penetration testing stage, which can be used to fix any vulnerability found in the system and strengthen the organization’s security protocols. Building a cybersecurity penetration testing report requires clearly written vulnerabilities and putting them into context so that the organization can rectify its security risks.
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How many penetration testing types are there?
There are mainly three aspects of penetration test types, which are discussed below:
Black Box
When a black box penetration testing is done, a tester is given little information in regard to the IT infrastructure of a business. The main purpose of this testing is to trigger a real-world cyber attack, where the tester takes the identity of an unidentified attacker.
A black box test can take up to six weeks to finish, making it one of the longest penetration testing attacks. Businesses can pay up to $10,000-$25,000 due to the level of effort involved in planning, testing, and finishing the report.
White Box
White box penetration testing can be done when the pen tester has full knowledge about the access, source code, and environment of the system. The main goal of white box testing is to conduct an in-depth audit of the system and provide the pen tester with as much detail as possible.
The white box pentest process can take up to three weeks in general and can cost between $4,000-$20,000.
Grey Box
When a grey box pentest happens, a pen tester has some knowledge about the internal application they’re working on. The tester might start with the user privilege on a host and can be told to escalate their privileges to a domain admin, or they can be asked to get access to a software’s code, as well as the system architecture diagrams.
Benefits of Penetration Testing
Penetration testing is a long-term investment strategy that can save a million dollars for an organization. Below are the benefits of penetration testing:
Costly Breaches
Being non-compliant with local laws and regulations like PCI and HIPAA can result in penalties in the range of thousands of dollars per incident.
Cyberattacks can halt operations for days or weeks. Identifying and fixing vulnerabilities will reduce the risk of revenue loss due to disruption in the working process.
Customer Trust
A security breach not only causes financial loss, but it also harms the reputation of the brand, as well as breaks the bond with customers. Many clients require evidence of security testing before doing business with your company.
Security Investment
Penetration testing shows whether your firewall and intrusion detection system are blocking real-world attacks. With the latest tools, overlooked vulnerabilities can generate exploited entry points.
Incident Response Preparation
By performing real attacks, a pen tester shows how quickly your security system team can detect and respond to the incoming threats. By responding quickly, you can safeguard your company.
4 Best Penetration Testing Tools
There are various penetration testing tools that can be considered by IT Support NYC penetration testers. Below are some popular tools:
Nmap:
Nmap is a powerful network scanning tool that can scan for open ports and services. It includes the main features for the identification of vulnerable applications. It supports Linux, Windows, and BSD variants like Mac OS and AmigaOS. It provides users with a CLI and a GUI interface.
Testers can use Nmap to understand which of the hosts can be accessed on a network, what services can be exposed, which frameworks they’re running, and what type of firewalls are in use.
Wireshark:
Wireshark is a network monitoring tool that captures and analyzes network traffic from a variety of communication sources. Penetration testers can automatically read real-time data from different networks, such as Ethernet, loopback, and asynchronous transfer mode connections.
Wireshark enables testers to investigate security on a network, identify elements of a network that are not working properly, that can be exploited, and detect configuration errors.
Hashcat:
Hashcat is a password-cracking application that can crack high and complex passwords. It does it by combining multiple password cracking methods. The main method used by Hashcat is by manipulating hash keys, which are generated by algorithms like MD5, SHA, NTMLv1, and NTMLv2.
Hashcat converts readable data into a hashed state and attempts different methods, which include dictionaries and rainbow tables, to identify a hash that matches the discovered password and crack the password.
Burp Suite:
Burp Suite is a suite of applications that is developed by Portswigger. The suite includes the popular web proxy Burp Proxy. Burp Suite allows penetration testers to conduct man-in-the-middle attacks between a server and a browser. It allows inspection of network traffic, which can be detected and exploit vulnerabilities as well as data leaks in the web application.
Key Takeaways
Penetration testing is no longer a matter of choice; it has become one of the essential components of modern cybersecurity. As cyber threats become more sophisticated and numerous in 2026, companies need to go beyond simply reacting to security incidents and implement a proactive defense strategy.
Penetration testing allows you to find the vulnerabilities in the real world, check the security of the existing measures, and lower the risk of expensive data breaches that happen before the attackers get a chance to exploit the weaknesses.
Penetration testing gives up-to-date and very helpful information to the security team, which cannot be achieved by automated tools alone. It can be network, web application, cloud, or mobile security; in all cases, regular testing is a necessity for compliance with international security standards, a lever for incident response readiness, and a trust builder towards users.