Benefits of Penetration Testing

Proactive security measures such as security testing can provide focus and point out areas for enhancement that can improve efficiency and reduce downtime. Penetration testing can eradicate the guesswork involved in defending your network by providing the information required to efficiently and effectively isolate and prioritize vulnerabilities.

Proof of Issue:
Penetration testing can provide ‘proof of issue’ to senior management and can provide the supporting arguments for further investment or upgrade of security technologies.  Penetration testing can both evaluate the effectiveness of existing security products and build a solid case for proposed investments.

Vulnerability Management:
Penetration testing provides detailed information on actual, exploitable security threats. By encompassing penetration testing into their security doctrine and processes, an organization can identify which vulnerabilities are critical, which are inconsequential, and eliminate those which are false positives.

Security Breach – Associated Network Downtime:
Recovering from a security breach can potentially cost millions of dollars due to IT remediation efforts, decreased productivity, and lost revenue.  The CSI study estimates recovery efforts alone to be $167,713.00 per incident.  Penetration testing allows an organization to prevent this by identifying and addressing risks before security breaches occur.

Preserving Corporate Image:
A single incident of compromised client data can be devastating. Penetration testing can help an organization avoid security incidents that can threaten its corporate image, put it’s reputation at risk and impact customer loyalty. Loss of image in the consumer market can put the entire organization at risk.

Meeting Regulatory/Audit requirements
Penetration testing as a proactive service will help you meet the auditing/compliance aspects of regulations such as HIPAA, GLBA, PCI and Sarbanes-Oxley. Organizations which fail to comply with these mandated regulations are subject to criminal penalties with fines up to $5 million and 20 years in prison.

PENETRATION TESTING
CALCULATING RETURN ON INVESTMENT (ROI)
Penetration testing does entail a monetary commitment and the direct financial costs must be justified. Today, many organizations undertake an ROI analysis for any monetary investments due to tight IT budgets and even tighter IT security budgets. Typically, returns are realized in the form of increased revenue, reduced costs or simply cost avoidance. This can be either direct or indirect cost savings, which can include employee efficiency and productivity gains. It can also include the efficient employment of, and investment in, security technologies.