Internal and External Pentesting

What is the main difference between Internal and External Pentesting?

External Penetration Testing is designed to test the Security of your organization’s Internet perimeter. Our team will be emulating an external hacker attempting to gather sensitive information, gain unauthorized access to Internet-accessible applications, or break into your internal network. For most organizations, an external attacker is one of the most significant threat vectors that they face, and an external penetration test can help evaluate vulnerabilities and the subsequent risk here.

Internal Penetration Testing looks at the security controls within your network. In this assessment, Our team will be assessing your susceptibility to the threat of a malicious insider or an attacker that has already gained a foothold on the network, through Social Engineering or some other vulnerability, or even your own employees. This is an often overlooked threat vector for organizations, but one that can have the most widespread and severe impact in a breach scenario. Internal Penetration Testing uses a different way of dealing with the attacks and comes into the picture after the completion of an External Penetration Test.

INTERNAL PENETRATION TESTING

The goal of internal penetration testing is to identify vulnerabilities within an organization’s internal network infrastructure. This requires access to the organization’s internal systems, which can be obtained through the results of external penetration testing or by granting access directly. During internal penetration testing, we examine various devices connected to the network, including IoT-connected devices, printers, workstations, servers, access points, and wireless devices, to identify any security weaknesses. The testing process involves simulating a real-world attack scenario to assess the effectiveness of the organization’s internal security measures. By examining the internal traffic and performing Man in the Middle Attacks, we can gain visibility into the internal network topology and identify potential threats that could be used by an attacker to penetrate the organization’s systems.

Internal Penetration Testing includes:

• Computer Systems
• Access Points
• WiFi Networks
• Firewalls
• IDS/IPS
• Local Servers
• Employees

EXTERNAL PENETRATION TESTING

The primary aim of external penetration testing is to provide a comprehensive evaluation of the organization’s external cybersecurity posture. This includes assessing the security of critical systems and data environments that are connected to or accessible from public network infrastructures. The scope of testing should encompass all services and systems that are exposed to the public, including websites, customer relationship management (CRM) systems, mail servers, firewalls, intrusion prevention systems (IPS) devices, virtual private network (VPN) servers, and any other systems that are accessible from the public network. The testing should cover both the application layer and network layer to ensure that all potential threats and vulnerabilities are identified and addressed. The goal of external penetration testing is to identify and mitigate any security risks that could compromise the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the organization’s sensitive data and systems.

External Penetration Testing includes:

• Configuration & Deployment Management Testing
• Identity Management Testing
• Authentication Testing
• Authorization Testing
• Session Management Testing, Input Validation Testing
• Testing for weak Cryptography
• Business Logic Testing
• Client Side Testing
• Testing for Error Handling.

To effectively safeguard against potential cyber threats, it is crucial for an organization to implement a comprehensive security approach that encompasses both internal and external penetration testing, along with other measures that reinforce the organization’s cybersecurity posture. Whether the threat originates from external sources targeting sensitive personal data, or internal weaknesses that can be exploited, it is essential for the organization to be prepared and equipped to tackle all types of security incidents, intentional or unintentional.