Cybersecurity risks seem to be increasing every day in an ever-growing digital world driven by global connectivity and cloud services. The days when business owners would simply set up firewalls or antivirus software are long gone. Nowadays, businesses have to employ modern methods of cybersecurity to protect their information.
To make sure your business is well protected, it’s important that you conduct a simulated cyber-attack to identify gaps in your networks and the strength of your web security systems. Here’s why your business requires penetration testing.
1. Find Out Where Unknown Vulnerabilities Are
Even big tech conglomerates, despite their investment and efforts, experience major hacks and cybersecurity breaches every year. It is, therefore vital, that all businesses whether big, small, or average, involve themselves in penetration testing. This will help them unravel unanticipated or unknown security risks so they may fix the gaps and prepare themselves better.
Nearly half of all small businesses in the United States are targeted by cyber attackers. If they’re not well prepared, their business operations may be seriously impaired.
2. Get a Rough Idea of the Possible Damage from a Cyber Attack
Penetration testing can help you identify the financial impacts of cyber-attacks. This includes assessing potential lost revenue as well as the expenses of hiring a penetration testing company to remedy the situation or strengthen the online infrastructure of your business.
Identifying the possible impacts well in advance can help you take the right steps to avoid such attacks on your business from happening as well as creating a disaster recovery plan.
3. Minimize Costs and Business Downtime
The costs of remediation after a security attack can be rather expensive and may cause a major inconvenience for your business operations. A breach might even make your customers lose trust in your ability to do business effectively.
A pen-test can help you unearth the existing vulnerabilities before a cyberattack happens, implement solutions fast, and restore operations for your business.
4. Establish Yourself as a Reliable Business
Security breaches are becoming an everyday concern for customers especially considering they submit personal information to businesses such as their residential locations and personal contacts. A pen-test can help your business appear more credible and professional among customers as well as shareholders.
5. Compliance with Cybersecurity Protocols
Pen-tests on a constant basis can help you comply with security measures as per industry standards such as ISO 27001, PCI, and HIPAA. This will ultimately help you avoid the heavy fines that come with non-compliance.
For example, the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) state that companies involved in voluminous transactions should perform regular penetration testing every year. This helps improve brand loyalty among a business’s clientele base.
Prevention is Better Than Cure
Effective cybersecurity is crucial for your company to stay in business. Results from pen-testing can reveal what existing vulnerabilities you have, how prepared you are in handling cyber breaches, and also whether your networks are airtight or not.
Hire a penetration testing company today to conduct pen tests instead of waiting until a hacker breaches your networks for you to act.
Interesting related article: “What is Cybersecurity?“