Understand VAPT - Vulnerability Assessment & Penetration Testing

Importance of VAPT and how it works?

IT security is a war without defence. Despite the best efforts of IT professionals and industry experts, there are thousands of new viruses, malware, and hacks that are launched each year. Why? Because we have left the digital fortress open and vulnerable. We have not secured our ports and defences.

We cannot ignore the upsurge in demand for digital technologies across industries. Hence, IT teams are constantly on a watch and, in fact, spending extra time to ensure that not a single vulnerability is missed to be addressed and is removed from the system before time. But despite all their efforts, why are cyber crimes soaring high? 

Syncing that though, we believe it's important to regularly test the strength of your organisation's cyber security in order to stay ahead of these intruders. Since Cybercriminals have become more sophisticated, the tools, tactics and procedures they use to breach networks constantly keeps evolving.  Here’s where VAPT comes into picture

Let us understand VAPT - Vulnerability Assessment & Penetration Testing 

VAPT, or virtual application penetration testing is similar to how physical applications are tested. It has the ability to see what is not there, the ability to look beyond the obvious. Be it your integral technology assets such as servers, systems, firewalls, networks, etc. VAPT testing is conducted to analyse your system's cyber security health and helps to coin cybersecurity mechanisms to prevent future intrusions like phishing attacks and data breaches. 

So this brings us to dive deeper into the topic of what VAPT is and  its importance in taming Cyber security issues. 

Vulnerability assessment is an integral part of any cybersecurity strategy. It is a step-by-step process that identifies security flaws in your network and gives recommendations on how to fix them. This includes both physical and digital assets.

A penetration test is a more detailed version of a vulnerability assessment that tests for vulnerabilities that can be exploited by a hacker or malicious user. The main difference between the two is that penetration testing requires authorised access to all systems and applications, while vulnerability assessment only requires access to specific systems or applications.

Following are the stages of VAPT :

• Network infrastructure testing
• Wireless testing
• Application and API security review
• Remote working assessment
• Web application security testing
• Social engineering
• Mobile security testing
• Firewall configuration review

Importance of VAPT testing and Audit

Be it web applications, mobile apps, websites, cloud infrastructure or networks, the entire technology infrastructure is prone to cyberattacks. Here's when Vulnerability Assessment & Penetration Testing (VAPT) becomes a must. To check the security posture of a system or network, we need to identify vulnerabilities in the system or network and determine how they can be exploited by an attacker. Once identified, these vulnerabilities can be remediated using a combination of software patches, configuration changes and physical controls. VAPT testing is often carried out to assess the cyber and network security strength of Technology in organisations.

The term "penetration testing" refers to any activity that tests the security of an organisational environment by attempting to bypass security controls and gain access to restricted areas or data. This includes both external attacks on public-facing systems and internal attacks on private networks. VAPT is commonly used in conjunction with other types of penetration tests such as application penetration testing, wireless penetration testing and social engineering assessments.  

The results from a penetration test will help you understand what areas of your organisation are most vulnerable to hackers and which security measures need improvement. A good penetration tester will also provide recommendations for improving these areas with concrete steps you can take immediately after receiving the report.

So, How does vulnerability assessment differ from penetration testing?

Vulnerability assessment is a proactive approach to identifying weaknesses in your IT infrastructure. The purpose of conducting a vulnerability assessment is to identify potential threats and vulnerabilities that an attacker could exploit. The goal is to identify the risks associated with these vulnerabilities and develop steps to mitigate them.

Penetration testing, on the other hand, is a reactive approach used after a breach has occurred. Penetration testing uses similar techniques as those used during vulnerability assessments but focuses specifically on finding and exploiting vulnerabilities in order to determine how easy it would be for an attacker to gain access to critical information or systems.

Penetration testing goes beyond vulnerability assessments by actually trying to break into your system using real-world attacks that hackers would use in the real world. Penetration testing simulates real-world occurrences such as using social engineering tactics or brute force attacks on passwords.

Takeaway : 

It is evident that the more innovation, the older the techniques, greater the possibility of welcoming unwanted cyber risks and to sum it up, as technology evolves with more advanced features that are both faster and more powerful, the number of vulnerabilities in operating systems, software, and devices keeps increasing. With all the benefits and features VAPT offers, it is definitely worth a try. This technique is a universal solution for penetration testing of any network. And it will help you to find potential threats and vulnerabilities in your infrastructure.

If you wish to get VAPT into your cybersecurity framework, you can get in touch with the experts at ICDigital.