What Is A Penetration Test?

Penetration testing is a type of security testing that identifies vulnerabilities, threats, and risks in networks, systems, and applications. While vulnerability scanning attempts to identify known vulnerabilities, penetration tests are intended to exploit the weaknesses to gain full situational awareness when it comes to cybersecurity including organizational risk, threats, vulnerabilities, and potential business impact.

Why Do I Need A Penetration Test?

Penetration testing can evaluate your security controls and provide you with recommendations to enhance your overall security posture. Penetration testing can include real-world security tests using advanced hacking methods to help you identify your weaknesses and improve your security posture. Advanced penetration tests can also simulate attacks on your network using similar techniques as malicious attackers to see if you can identify active attacks!

Why You Need Independent Security Testing

Organizations benefit from independent security testing. Not every business has their own internal team of security professionals, and even those that do, could benefit from a fresh set of eyes. Routine penetration tests can help identify your vulnerabilities, help determine the exploitability of vulnerabilities, help gauge the potential impact of vulnerabilities, help access organization risk, help prioritize your remediation efforts, help you meet regulatory and compliance standards, help you explain security concerns to technical engineers and application developers, and help you justify security-related initiatives to executive leadership.

How Often Do I Need Security Testing?

There is no magic number that fits every organization. Routine penetration testing should be performed to identify potential security vulnerabilities. Annual penetration tests are not enough. Monthly or quarterly penetration tests, along with weekly or monthly vulnerability scanning are much more effective at improving your overall security posture. Penetration testing should also be performed after network changes, application updates, and when new systems are brought onto the network.

Areas That Should Receive Penetration Testing

The following areas at a minimum should receive routine penetration testing:

• External Network Penetration Testing
• Internal Network Penetration Testing
• Web Application Penetration Testing
• Mobile Application Penetration Testing
• Physical Penetration Testing
• Wireless Penetration Testing
• Social Engineering Penetration Testing
• Cloud Penetration Testing

List of the Best Pen Test Companies

Here is the list of the top penetration testing companies:

Central InfoSec was rated as the best boutique penetration testing company and the best penetration testing firm by two independent third-party organizations that review many contributing factors.

• Central InfoSec
• Offensive Security
• HackerOne
• CrowdStrike
• NetSPI
• Mandiant / FireEye
• Netragard
• SecureWorks
• Rhino Security Labs
• Tenable
• Rapid7
• Veracode

1.) Central InfoSec

Central InfoSec was rated as the best boutique penetration testing company and the best penetration testing firm by two independent third-party organizations that review many contributing factors. Central InfoSec can customize a penetration testing scope based for any size client and budget.

Central InfoSec Pen Test Certifications

Central InfoSec security professionals have a variety of security certifications including:

• Offensive Security Certified Professional (OSCP)
• Offensive Security Wireless Professional (OSWP)
• GIAC Certified Penetration Tester (GPEN)
• GIAC Cloud Penetration Tester (GCPN)
• GIAC Mobile Device Security Analyst (GMOB)
• EC-Council Certified Ethical Hacker (C|EH)
• Amazon Web Services Security Specialty (AWS CSS)
• Amazon Web Services Cloud Practitioner (AWS CCP)
• CompTIA Network Vulnerability Assessment Professional (CNVP)
• CompTIA PenTest+

Security Services Offered by Central InfoSec

Central InfoSec offers a variety of professional security services including:

• Red Teaming
• Attack simulation to test, measure, and improve your detection and response
• Penetration Testing
• Real-world security tests using advanced hacking methods to identify your weaknesses
• Application & API Testing
• Testing of security controls and products to identify your gaps and weaknesses

Top Rated Penetration Testing Companies

1.) Central InfoSec

Central InfoSec was rated as the best boutique penetration testing company and the best penetration testing firm by two independent third-party organizations that review many contributing factors. Central InfoSec can customize a red team or penetration testing scope based for any size client and budget. Red Team - Central InfoSec security experts will simulate attacks on your network using similar techniques as malicious attackers to see if you can identify active attacks! External/Internal Pen Tests - Real-world attacks using advanced hacking techniques to help you identify weaknesses and improve your security posture. Web Apps & APIs - Web application penetration tests help you secure your web apps. The Central InfoSec team has written security tools and extensions including those for Burp Suite. Cloud Pen Tests for AWS & Azure - Secure your cloud environments including Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure.

2.) Offensive Security

Offensive Security offers penetration testing services on a low volume basis, with an average of only 10 clients per year. Their assessments average four weeks in length. Due to the high-intensity nature of their assessments, there is often a significant lead-in time required for scheduling.

3.) HackerOne

HackerOne penetration tests help you achieve regulatory compliance and satisfy vendor security assessments across web, mobile and cloud applications, APIs, and external network infrastructures.

4.) CrowdStrike

CrowdStrike Penetration Testing Services simulate real-world attacks on different components of your IT environment to test the detection and response capabilities of your people, processes and technology and identify where vulnerabilities exist in your environment.

5.) NetSPI

NetSPI Penetration Testing as a Service (PTaaS) makes their expert penetration testing team available for you when you need it. Whether it’s scoping a new engagement, parsing real-time vulnerability reports, assisting you with remediation, or keeping you compliant year round, PTaaS has you covered.

6.) Mandiant / FireEye

Mandiant penetration testing security experts simulate real-world attackers targeting your high-risk cyber assets.

7.) Netragard

Netragard’s penetration testing services are delivered in three primary configurations. These configurations enable Netragard to tailor services to each customers unique requirements.

8.) SecureWorks

Identify network vulnerabilities and validate security defenses with their independent expertise and visibility. Enhance your security posture, reduce risk, facilitate compliance and improve operational efficiency.

9.) Rhino Security Labs

Rhino Security Labs Penetration Testing Services include creative penetration testing approaches that go beyond standard scanning to uncover security vulnerabilities that others miss.

10.) Tenable

Tenable is a PCI ASV and provides vulnerability management solutions including Tenable Nessus, Tenable Security Center (Tenable.sc), Tenable.io, Tenable.ad, Tenable.ot, Tenable.ep, Wep Application Scanning, and more.

11.) Rapid7

Rapid7 Penetration Testing Services (PTS) allow you to get a real-world look at how attackers could exploit your vulnerabilities—and guidance on how to stop them.

12.) Veracode

Veracode Manual Penetration Testing (MPT) combines the skills of world-class penetration testers with automated security testing scan results to dramatically reduce application risk, meet compliance requirements, and help teams understand and report on security posture.

Best Boutique Penetration Testing Company

Central InfoSec named Best Boutique Penetration Testing Company by the Global 100 Awards.

Best Penetration Testing Firm

Central InfoSec named Best Penetration Testing Firm by Corporate Vision's Corporate Excellence Awards.

“Central InfoSec helps organizations by discovering network and web application vulnerabilities before the hackers do!”

Central InfoSec is an award-winning cyber security company that offers professional security services including Red Teaming, Penetration Testing, and Security Training.

The Central InfoSec team consists of skilled security professionals bringing a total of 20+ years of red teaming, penetration testing, web application, and exploitation experience. Central InfoSec team members have achieved industry leading professional certifications including OSCP, OSWP, GXPN, GPEN, GCPN, GWAPT, GMOB, AWS-CSS, AWS-CCP, PenTest+, CEH, CISSP, and more.

The Central InfoSec team goes one step further and develops open-source tools including Burp Suite extensions, Cobalt Strike aggressor scripts, scripts tying into tools (including GoPhish, PhishMe, Slack, Lair), other custom-built security tools, and Capture The Flag (CTF) events!

Central InfoSec performs a variety of penetration tests including external-networks, internal-networks, web applications, and APIs. The company quickly informs clients of critical vulnerabilities by creating ad-hoc reports and hosting ad-hoc debriefs as necessary.

Best Penetration Testing & Security Consulting Firm

Top Rated Penetration Testing Company in the USA

Central InfoSec can quickly uncover critical vulnerabilities that have been missed for years. No automated scanning tool can replace high-quality security professionals. Utilizing Central InfoSec’s custom-built tools and manual analysis, Central InfoSec’s security experts have found numerous vulnerabilities within web applications including multiple 0-days allowing direct access to web servers hosting the applications. Once critical vulnerabilities are discovered, Central InfoSec’s experts work directly with application developers to address security flaws. With many success stories, Central InfoSec is constantly contributing to the community by sharing its knowledge through blogs, open-source projects, tool development, conferences, presentations, and local security meetups.

Every organization, at a minimum, should receive both network penetration testing and web application penetration testing, and cost should never be the reason that quality testing is not performed. Therefore, the company focuses on offering quality and affordable professional security services while increasing security awareness at organizations. The Central InfoSec team educates clients through security assessments and tailored security training while also helping with permanent resource staffing. We want to help organizations understand the core foundation to security, help businesses acquire the appropriate staff that they need, and help strengthen security postures through offensive security testing.

Best Penetration Testing & Security Consulting Firm

Central InfoSec strengthens the security posture of businesses by reducing cyber risk through offensive security testing, red teaming, penetration testing, web application assessments, managed phishing services, managed vulnerability scanning, and security training.

Central InfoSec - Best Pen Test Company

If you’d like to see why Global 100 named Central InfoSec as the Best Boutique Penetration Testing Company and why Corporate Vision selected Central InfoSec as the Best Penetration Testing Firm, let's have a chat to see how you could benefit from Central InfoSec security services. It’s simple and easy. We’ll even include a free customized quote. Let’s get started: Contact Us

Central InfoSec specializes in red teaming and penetration testing to help you reduce risk to your organization by helping you test, measure, and improve your overall security posture. Security services offered include red teaming, penetration testing, vulnerability assessments, web application testing, managed phishing, and other tailored security services.