Data breaches continue to plague organizations—whether they’re targeted attacks from outside or malicious insiders. According to the 2024 IBM “Cost of Data Breach” report, 55% of breaches were caused by a malicious attack and the average total cost of a breach was $4.99 million. Many of these breaches are the result of combinations of errors or vulnerabilities, with attackers working their way through a system and exploiting any and all weaknesses they find.
This is a clarion call for organization to secure their applications and network before a breach compromises valuable data and tarnishes the brand reputation.
Pen testing is a foundational layer for enterprise security. Using a combination of automatic scanning and manual testing in a simulated real-world environment, penetration testing can identify and prioritize weaknesses from a combination of vulnerabilities to detect the highest risks. This enables developers to find and fix the weaknesses before they can be exploited.
This guide details the benefits of pen testing, what to look for in a pen testing solution, and questions to ask potential vendors.