What is Penetration Testing?

The best way to know what a hacker can do, is to hire a hacker.

Penetration testing involves ethical hackers simulating a controlled cyber attack on your systems from an attacker's perspective. Using the same tools and methods as real attackers, we identify vulnerabilities and weaknesses in your business. This proactive approach allows you to address any issues before they can be exploited by a malicious attack, ensuring your business stays protected against potential threats.

Identify

Identify critical business assets needing fortification
Determine technologies and systems used for each asset
Prioritise assets by their business impact

Assess

Assess the environment through penetration testing
Locate vulnerabilities and weaknesses
Evaluate the risk level of each identified issue

Address

Provide a detailed report outlining the findings
Categorize and prioritize the vulnerabilities based on their severity
Offer actionable recommendations to mitigate vulnerabilities

Penetration Testing

The best way to know what a hacker can do, is to hire a hacker.

Penetration testing involves ethical hackers simulating a controlled cyber attack on your systems from an attacker's perspective. By leveraging the same tools and techniques as real world hackers, we uncover vulnerabilities and weaknesses within your organisation. This proactive approach enables you to address security gaps before they can be exploited, ensuring your business remains protected against potential threats.

Initial Review

We review the provided scope and plan our approach

Assessment Phase

We simulate real-world attacks and assess configurations to uncover vulnerabilities and weaknesses

Reporting

We deliver a comprehensive report detailing each finding with prioritised and actionable remediation strategies

Services

Web ApplicationExternal NetworkMobile ApplicationCode Review
Phishing SimulationThick ClientOSINTAPIInternal NetworkWireless NetworkCloud
SOEVOIPPhysicalBreakoutLLM

Web Application

Your web application is accessible to anyone online, making it a prime target.

If vulnerabilities or misconfigurations exist, attackers may be able to:

  • Extract the database

  • Compromise user accounts

  • Steal sensitive company or client data

  • Shut down the website

  • Access internal company servers

Statistic:
Web application breaches account for 25 percent of all breaches.
Web-based attacks were responsible for 50% of all ransomware incidents in early 2024.

External Network

Your external network is exposed to the entire internet, making it critical to ensure it’s secure.

Misconfigurations or vulnerabilities in this perimeter could allow attackers to:

  • Compromise business operations

  • Extract sensitive data

  • Spoof emails to mimic company employees

  • Hijack web applications

  • Gain access to internal resources

With cyber threats constantly evolving, it's only a matter of time before your network becomes a target.

Mobile Application

Mobile applications face similar risks as web applications, but they also present unique challenges.

Vulnerabilities in mobile apps can expose businesses to significant risks, including:

  • Extract the database

  • Compromise user accounts

  • Steal sensitive company or user data

  • Install malicious software

Statistic:
According to a 2022 report by Zimperium, 43% of mobile applications contained critical vulnerabilities that could lead to serious breaches.

Code Review

Your application codebase contains the logic and functionality that powers your application, user experiences, and data handling processes. Software vulnerabilities often originate in the code itself, with issues like insecure authentication, improper input validation, or flawed business logic.

Insecure code can lead to:

  • Application compromise

  • Account takeover

  • Web server control

  • Insecure network configurations

Statistic:
According to OWASP, fixing a security vulnerability during the coding phase costs up to 30 times less than addressing it after the application is in production

Phishing Simulation

Phishing attacks remain one of the most common and effective methods used by cybercriminals to gain access to organisations. Often, the weakest link in security is people. Phishing simulations help identify how vulnerable your employees are to social engineering attacks and provide valuable training on how to recognise and report suspicious emails.

Without proper awareness, phishing attacks can result in:

  • Credential theft, granting attackers access to internal systems

  • Compromised user accounts, leading to unauthorised data access

  • The spread of malware or ransomware

  • Financial losses from redirected transactions or fraudulent activities

By conducting phishing simulations, your organisation can

  • Measure employee responses to phishing attacks

  • Identify training gaps and reinforce security best practices

  • Reduce the risk of successful phishing attempts

Statistic:
According to a 2024 report by Proofpoint, phishing accounted for 80% of all social engineering attacks.

1 in 3 employees are likely to click the links in phishing emails.  

Regular simulations have been shown to reduce successful phishing exploits by up to 95%.

Thick Client

Thick client applications, running on users' devices, present their own security risks. While they operate locally, they often connect to backend servers, making them a potential target.

If vulnerabilities or misconfigurations exist, attackers may be able to:

  • Breach the database

  • Extract sensitive business or customer data

  • Manipulate data being transmitted

  • Gain unauthorised access to internal systems

Statistic:
A study by Veracode found that 70% of thick client applications contained at least one serious security flaw that could be exploited for unauthorised access.

OSINT

OSINT involves gathering publicly available information from the internet and other open sources. Sensitive data might be scattered across the web, waiting for attackers to leverage.

This could include:

  • Information about internal systems and the technologies in use

  • Leaked credentials in documents or database breaches

  • Sensitive IT files accidentally left in publicly accessible storage

  • Employee details

  • Building plans

  • Any other data that could help attackers achieve their objectives

Even seemingly trivial information can be pieced together by attackers to form a comprehensive profile of your organisation, increasing the likelihood of targeted cyberattacks.

‍Statistic:
A 2023 report from Recorded Future revealed that 60% of cyberattacks utilised OSINT to gather information about their targets before launching an attack.

API

APIs are the backbone of modern applications, responsible for the transport of data between your application and other servers. However, this also makes them prime targets for attackers.

If your API is not properly secured, attackers could exploit vulnerabilities to:

  • Extract sensitive company or customer data

  • Compromise user accounts

  • Manipulate or delete critical data

  • Gain unauthorised access to internal systems

  • Conduct Denial of Service (DoS) attacks to disrupt operations

Vulnerable APIs can act as an open door to your systems, providing attackers with easy access.

Statistic:
API security incidents have more than doubled in the past year due to the rapid increase in API usage.

Research from Salt Labs found that attackers are able to bypass authentication protocols, with 61% of attackers being unauthenticated.

Optus, Dropbox, Twitter & Zendesk are just some of the breaches that involved a lack of API security.

Wireless Network

Wireless networks, while convenient, can also be vulnerable entry points for attackers if not properly secured.

Weak encryption, misconfigurations, or poor access control can enable attackers to:

  • Gain access to the internal network

  • Intercept sensitive data being transmitted across the network

  • Use your network to launch attacks against other systems

  • Disrupt operations by launching Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks.

Statistic:
According to a 2023 study by Palo Alto Networks, 30% of wireless networks were found to have significant vulnerabilities, with 20% of businesses reporting wireless network breaches.

Cloud Pen Test

Simulates real-world attacks to uncover vulnerabilities in your cloud infrastructure. While cloud environments offer flexibility and scalability, they also introduce significant security challenges.

During a pentest, attackers may attempt to:

  • Exploit misconfigurations or inadequate access controls to gain access

  • Extract sensitive business or customer data

  • Compromise virtual machines, databases, or cloud storage

  • Move laterally into on-premise internal networks or other cloud systems

  • Launch Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks to disrupt operations

By simulating attacks, a pentest helps identify gaps that may not be visible through routine security checks, providing a comprehensive view of your cloud environment’s resilience against threats.

Statistic:
According to a 2023 IBM report, 45% of data breaches involved cloud infrastructure.

SOE

A Standard Operating Environment (SOE) ensures that all devices across your organisation are consistently configured to meet security standards. Once an attacker gains access to an employee's laptop or a company server, their first move is often to escalate privileges. An SOE review assesses the operating system to identify and remediate privilege escalation vulnerabilities.

Misconfigured SOEs can allow attackers to:

By standardising configurations for business assets, you reduce the risk of unauthorised access and ensure that each device adheres to a secure baseline.

VOIP

VoIP systems are integral to modern business communication, but they are also prime targets for cyberattacks if not properly secured. The most significant concern is toll fraud, a costly form of VoIP exploitation. Alongside toll fraud, businesses must also guard against other forms of attack that can compromise their VoIP systems.

Toll Fraud
Toll fraud occurs when cybercriminals gain unauthorised access to your VoIP system to make calls to high-cost, premium-rate numbers. This can lead to substantial charges on your phone bill, with the telecommunications industry losing an estimated $39 billion annually. For small businesses, the financial impact can be devastating.
‍
Denial-of-Service (DoS) Attacks
Attackers flood your VoIP server with excessive requests, overwhelming its bandwidth and preventing legitimate users from accessing services or making calls.

Spoofing
Cybercriminals impersonate trusted entities, tricking users into providing sensitive information or accessing malicious services.

Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) Attacks
Attackers intercept and monitor communications between two parties, stealing sensitive information such as login credentials, account details, or financial data.
‍
Statistic:
Telecommunications fraud continues to impact companies globally, with a 12% increase in fraud loss reported in 2023 as compared to 2021 equating to an estimated $38.95 billion lost in 2023 representing 2.5% of telecommunications revenues.

Physical

While companies often invest heavily in online security, physical security is a crucial yet frequently overlooked aspect of protecting internal networks and critical assets. After all, why spend time hacking through firewalls when an attacker can simply walk in and plug into your network?

Many organisations believe they have strong physical security, but it’s often easier than expected to bypass these safeguards.

A physical penetration test evaluates the effectiveness of your physical security measures, including:

During a physical penetration test, we assess how easily these defences can be bypassed to gain access to restricted areas, gather sensitive information, and even infiltrate your network.

Real-World Example
We were once tasked with testing the security of a high-tech building in Sydney, where we were assured that entry was impossible. Yet, we managed to gain access. Gaining access doesn’t always happen at night; often, the most successful break-ins occur in broad daylight.

Breakout

Breakout testing is a crucial security assessment that examines the effectiveness of isolation mechanisms within systems or applications designed to restrict user access.

The goal is to identify vulnerabilities that could allow an attacker to escape their controlled environment and gain unauthorised access to underlying systems or data.

This type of testing is essential for ensuring that segmented environments, whether virtual or physical, remain secure against attempts to bypass controls.
‍
Types of Breakout Testing:

Virtual Environment Breakout
In environments like virtual desktops or remote application platforms, attackers may attempt to break free from the controlled session to access the host operating system or other networked systems.
 
Kiosk & Public Terminal Breakout
Public-facing kiosks and terminals are often used for specific functions but can be targeted by attackers seeking to:

Container Breakout
Applications running in containers are isolated but can be vulnerable to attacks that gain access to the host system or other containers by exploiting vulnerabilities in container configurations.
‍
Network Segmentation Breakout
Attackers may attempt to bypass network segmentation controls to access different parts of the network, potentially compromising internal systems and data.

Large Language Model

Large Language Models (LLMs) integrated into your applications present unique security challenges. If vulnerabilities or misconfigurations exist, attackers may be able to:

AI usage is forever increasing and becoming part of our everyday life. If your organisation is integrating Large Language Models (LLMs) into applications or business processes, you need to ensure it is secure.