5 Reasons to choose Python Programming Language

Software developers have more than hundreds of languages to go ahead with that makes it difficult to come to the best options. However, the developers understand the importance of choosing the right programming language that can affect the outcome of software. While choosing the programming language, developers consider the scalability, place of work, complexity, and type of application followed by a maintenance cycle.

Hence, comes Python.

Python is considered a high-level and flexible programming language that is easy to interpret, focusing on code readability. This makes developers opt for the Python programming language that can help them create top-notch applications.

Here are a few reasons that make software developers opt for the Python programming language.

1. No budget

Python is an open-source and free programming language that makes it easier for programmers to get supporting libraries and modules along with other tools. The programming language is affordable for developers and for businesses of all sizes that want to kickstart their operations.

2. Great Integration

Python developers usually love the integration features that make it easier to develop web services. It offers robust control and works well with markup languages that can work on app development. Developers can easily take up the certification for Python to get hold of the programming language.

3. Trendy

Python programming language allows developers to get fast and easy applications that makes it a trendy language. It can be used by veterans and beginners easily because of simple syntax and clear code.

4. Easy to use

Python is extremely easy to use with extensive support and easy to integrate features. The programming language is easy to understand and read making it easier for beginners to start their coding career.

5. Limitless support

Python is a great programming language that can polish up the skills of developers. This also offers extensive guide and support libraries for the developers. Along with this, Python has a helpful community that is ready to help out in case of obstacles.

Source: techgig.com

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Is It Cybersecurity or Cyber Security?

Currently, the job outlook for information security analysts is growing at one of the fastest rates for all occupations in the nation. The average job outlook growth across all occupations sits at 5% through 2028, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. However, positions for information security analysts will expand at an impressive rate of 32% over the next eight years, creating a need for more than 35,000 trained candidates.

This is just one of the exciting positions that educated professionals with a degree like the University of Nevada at Reno’s Online Cybersecurity, Master of Science program can pursue. Through this type of higher education degree program, students will gain in-depth knowledge and experience into a range of important cybersecurity and information security concepts, including the main buzzwords seen and used throughout the industry.

Read More: 312-96: EC-Council Certified Application Security Engineer (CASE) - Java

This brings us to one of the first questions many students and professionals with an interest in data security and threat protection ask themselves: Is cyber security one word or two?

Beyond that, is there a difference between cybersecurity and information security? Additionally, what importance do these concepts hold in the larger information technology sector?

Cybersecurity vs. cyber security: A definition

Before we get into the actual spelling, let’s lay the foundation with a definition of this concept.

According to Gartner’s Information Technology terms glossary, cybersecurity (spelled as one word) refers to the systems, technologies, processes, governing policies and human activity that an organization uses to safeguard its digital assets.

“Cybersecurity is optimized to levels that business leaders define, balancing the resources required with usability/manageability and the amount of risk offset,” Gartner’s glossary definition stated. “Subsets of cybersecurity include IT security, IoT security, information security and OT security.”

Cybersecurity is the overarching, umbrella term that includes everything from digital protections to the company’s internal data governance policies and employees’ digital activity.

Cybersecurity vs information security

Where Gartner defines information security as a subset of the larger category of cybersecurity, BitSight author Jake Olcott argued that cybersecurity focuses on threat prevention and risk management of digital data only. Information security, on the other hand, is specifically about ensuring “the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of your data,” including both digital assets and physical documents.

“Info security is concerned with making sure data in any form is kept secure and is a bit more broad than cybersecurity,” Olcott wrote. “Cybersecurity is all about protecting data that is found in electronic form (such as computers, servers, networks, mobile devices, etc.) from being compromised or attacked.”

The main difference here lies in the distinction between protecting the entirety of an organization’s information and data (information security), as opposed to just the data residing within digital systems (cybersecurity).

Cybersecurity: A brief history

According to our above definitions and industry experts, information security practices have been around a lot longer than cybersecurity protections. This is particularly true given the fact that enterprises had to secure their file cabinets and other paper documents long before these items were digitized.

The birth of cybersecurity didn’t take place until the very first computer virus came into existence in the early 1970s. Research website Cybersecurity Insiders created one of the first complete histories of cybersecurity practices, and traced the concept’s origins back to the Creeper virus. This malware affected computers connected to ARPANET, one of the earliest forms of the internet. Infected devices displayed the message “I’m the creeper, catch me if you can.”

While this virus didn’t have the sophisticated capabilities of today’s digital infections – it only displayed the on-screen message, and nothing more – this event spurred the initial awareness of the need for digital security measures to prevent these types of unauthorized access.

However, it wasn’t until more than a decade later in 1983 when the foundation for actual cybersecurity programs was formed. As Cybersecurity Insiders noted, this is the year when the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was granted the first United States Patent for a “cryptographic communications system and method.” Researchers built on this patented cryptographic system to create modern cybersecurity protections like the now-standard Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption protocol.

Cybersecurity: One work or two? – The verdict

Now that we have a more in-depth understanding of what cybersecurity is, we can get back to our main question: Is it cyber security or cybersecurity?

According to online dictionaries like Gartner’s glossary, as well as the name of the Online Cybersecurity, Master of Science program here at the University of Nevada at Reno, cybersecurity is a single word. Other spelling and grammar authorities like the Associated Press as well as Merriam-Webster agree on the single word spelling.

It appears, however, that others sources disagree – author and cybersecurity expert Craig Ford reported that during an informal audience poll at the AusCERT 2019 conference, about 70% of attendees noted that they preferred the term as two words: cyber security.

Cyber defense solution provider Threat Warrior pointed out that the one vs. two word spelling difference may simply come down to regional preference – American authors tend to use cybersecurity as one word, whereas British professionals have been known to separate the word into two.

The main point, though, is that whether it is spelled as one word or two, cybersecurity vs. cyber security, the definition and spirit of the concept remain the same.

“But the definitions don’t really waver,” Threat Warrior pointed out. “Cybersecurity and cyber security have the same meaning. (And while you might catch ‘cyber-security’ here and there, it means the same and it is not a widely used or preferred derivative).”

Threat Warrior, along with several other sources, note that while the jury seems to still be out on cyber security or cybersecurity, the important thing is to select one spelling and remain consistent in its use.

This is the approach that the University of Nevada at Reno has taken with the Online Master of Science in Cybersecurity program. You’ll notice that throughout our website and program material, we use the one-word spelling of cybersecurity, in accordance with the Associated Press, Merriam-Webster and other authorities.

Cybersecurity and its importance today

In the current digital world, the need to secure the digital assets and systems that enable daily business operations is more critical than ever before:

◉ Digital transformation is a top priority: Most organizations have already digitized their most pertinent data sets. They now use software systems, the cloud and other platforms to enable their operations. Companies are leveraging these digital assets to shift and improve the way they do business and/or deliver services, a process called “digital transformation.” Forbes reported that 70% of businesses currently have a digital transformation strategy defined, or are currently working on one. What’s more, 21% of enterprises said they’ve completed their digital transformation. However, as more focus and importance is placed upon these digital architectures, it is increasingly important to ensure that they are properly secured.

◉ Threats continue to rise: In addition to more sensitive data being digitized and accessed through connected platforms, there are also a rising number of threats to these technological assets. G Data Software reportedly identified nearly 5 million new malware samples in 2019, including variants on existing, dangerous malware like the GandCrab ransomware family.

As businesses increasingly rely on digital data and technology systems, they’ll also need to deploy robust cybersecurity strategies, including encryption, risk management and prevention of unauthorized access. As the number of digital systems in place grows and continues to become more complex, organizations will need employees specifically trained in current cybersecurity and information security best practices to safeguard their physical and digital intellectual property and data.

Career in cybersecurity

Cybersecurity is a crucial factor for businesses in every industry today. The job outlook for cybersecurity professionals is growing much faster than the average for all occupations, and is not expected to slow anytime soon. Arguably, needs for trained professionals in cybersecurity will only increase as more businesses continue their digital transformation efforts and malicious actors create new attack strategies.

Those interested in the areas of cybersecurity and information security can further their knowledge and expertise, and prepare for exciting career opportunities with a degree like the University of Nevada at Reno’s Online Master of Science in Cybersecurity.

Source: onlinedegrees.unr.edu

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6 Ways to Improve Cybersecurity in 2021

Cybersecurity Ventures predicts that a business will fall victim to a ransomware attack every 11 seconds in 2021, compared to every 40 seconds in 2016. Ransomware damages are expected to reach $20 billion next year, up from $5 billion in 2017.

Security experts say the surge is due in large part to the pandemic-driven transition to a remote workforce. Organizations were forced to make a series of hurried operational changes that often created gaps in their IT security systems.

Read More: 312-49: Computer Hacking Forensic Investigation

Securing the remote workforce should be near the top of the list. Although it may have started as a stopgap measure, remote work is likely to become a permanent feature of the business landscape. A Gartner study found that three-quarters of enterprise organizations plan to give employees the option to work from home on an ongoing basis.

There’s every reason to believe threat actors will redouble their efforts to exploit this trend. Following a year in which record numbers of ransomware attacks, phishing scams, and viruses targeted employees working from home, most analysts expect remote operations will remain the No. 1 attack vector in 2021. Some analysts predict that attacks on remote workers will rise by 40 percent or more next year.

Here are six technologies that can help improve your home and office security going forward:

Secure remote access. Remote network access technologies such as virtual private networks (VPNs) and the remote desktop protocol (RDP) enable users to access company resources from a home PC using an Internet connection. However, these technologies have known vulnerabilities that hackers exploit to gain network access.

Security fabric. Limited visibility into home office networks makes it difficult for IT teams to identify and prevent attacks on remote workers. The Fortinet Security Fabric addresses this challenge by synchronizing a variety of network and security sensors and tools to deliver a unified view of all endpoints, cloud services and applications being used by remote workers.

Endpoint protection. Remote workers can expose sensitive company information by using unsecured PCs, laptops, tablets and smartphones. Unified endpoint management (UEM) solutions allow administrators to secure, manage and provision mobile devices, desktops, laptops and tablets through a single interface. When UEM tools detect suspicious activity such as unusual data download patterns or the unexpected installation of a firmware update, the endpoint can be automatically quarantined, locked or wiped.

Multifactor authentication. MFA solutions such as Cisco Duo help prevent unauthorized access to applications, systems and services by requiring a combination of verification factors rather than just a password. Duo also provides detailed information about all devices on the network and automatically flags any devices that are out of date, jailbroken or otherwise out of compliance with company security policies.

Email security. Email is by far the most common delivery mechanism for ransomware, malicious attachments, malicious URLs, viruses and phishing attacks. Email filtering solutions block malicious incoming content before it reaches end-users. We also suggest using DNS filtering, which blocks access to malicious domains, IP addresses or cloud applications before a connection is ever established.

Data loss prevention. DLP solutions help ensure remote workers comply with company policies about data sharing. They examine outbound communications such as email and file transfers, as well as host-based activities such as copying files to removable media. DLP scans will generate alerts if any of these activities violate policies.

Source: rmmsolutions.com

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Denial of Service (DoS)

In computing, a denial-of-service attack (DoS attack) is a cyber-attack in which the perpetrator seeks to make a machine or network resource unavailable to its intended users by temporarily or indefinitely disrupting services of a host connected to the Internet. Denial of service is typically accomplished by flooding the targeted machine or resource with superfluous requests in an attempt to overload systems and prevent some or all legitimate requests from being fulfilled.

A Denial of Service (DoS) is a type of attack on a service that disrupts its normal function and prevents other users from accessing it.

The most common target for a DoS attack is an online service such as a website, though attacks can also be launched against networks, machines or even a single program.

How a DoS attack works

A DoS attack prevents users from accessing a service by overwhelming either its physical resources or network connections. The attack essentially floods the service with so much traffic or data that no-one else can use it until the malicious flow has been handled.

One way to overload a service's physical resources is to send it so many requests in such a short time that it overwhelms all the available memory, processing or storage space. In extreme cases, this may even lead to damage of the physical components for these resources.

Similarly, to disrupt a service's network connections a DoS attack can send invalid, malformed, or just an overwhelming number of connection requests to it. While these are being addressed, connection requests from legitimate users can't be completed. 

Occasionally, a DoS attack exploits a vulnerability in a program or website to force improper use of its resources or network connections, which also leads to a denial of service.

Some malware also include the ability to launch DoS attacks. When they infect a computer or device, these threats can use the resources of the infected machines to perform the attack. If multiple infected machines launch attacks against the same target, it's known as a Distributed-Denial-of-Service (DDoS)attack.

The volume of data used in a DoS or DDoS attack can be huge, up to a rate of several gigabits per seconds. Botnets are quite often used to perform DDoS attacks, as many services do not have the resources needed to counter an attack from thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, of infected devices.

For example, the largest known DDoS attack was the result of the 2016 Mirai botnet.

DoS attack used for profit

There have been numerous cases of DoS attacks being launched for personal reasons — a grunge against a user, the service, or just pure mischief. Services under attack can be slowed or crashed for periods ranging from a few hours to a couple days.

For many businesses, the forced downtime can result in significant disruption to their users, or even financial losses. Users trying to access a service that is under attack will usually perceive that it is either loading slowly, keeps getting disconnected, or can't connect at all.

There have also been cases of DoS attacks that were launched because of corporate or political rivalry. Perhaps the most notable case of an attack that was attributed to political rivalry was the 2007 attacks on Estonia, in which many of the online resources of the Estonian government were targeted.

Defending against a DoS attack

Launching a DoS attack used to require a certain level of technical knowledge and ability. This tended to limit their use to people who were skilled, or were able to find and hire someone with the necessary skills.

Nowadays however, there are simple programs or tools available for sale in online criminal forums that allow even an unskilled user to launch a DoS attack. This had made such attacks much more feasible for criminals and other parties looking to disrupt an online service.

The threat of being targeted by DoS attacks have lead many major online services to implement various strategies for handling overwhelming floods of data or traffic.

Some of the anti-DoS techniques include:

◉ Traffic analysis and filtering

◉ Sinkholing

◉ IP-based prevention

For many smaller services however, such countermeasures can be prohibitively costly.

If adequate defenses are not in place, simply restarting the service can be fruitless as long as it remains exposed to the same attack, causing it to crash again and again until the attack ceases.

Source: f-secure.com

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Top 25 Ethical Hacking Interview Questions and Answers

We have prepared the most important Ethical Hacking interview questions to help you prepare for the job interview. This detailed guide of interview questions for Ethical Hacking will help you to crack your Job interview. In this list of Ethical Hacker interview questions, we have covered all commonly asked basic and advanced hacking interview questions.

1) Explain what is Ethical Hacking?

Ethical Hacking is when a person is allowed to hacks the system with the permission of the product owner to find weakness in a system and later fix them.

2) What is the difference between IP address and Mac address?

IP address: To every device IP address is assigned, so that device can be located on the network. In other words IP address is like your postal address, where anyone who knows your postal address can send you a letter.

MAC (Machine Access Control) address: A MAC address is a unique serial number assigned to every network interface on every device. Mac address is like your physical mail box, only your postal carrier (network router) can identify it and you can change it by getting a new mailbox (network card) at any time and slapping your name (IP address) on it.

3) List out some of the common tools used by Ethical hackers?

◉ Meta Sploit

◉ Wire Shark

◉ NMAP

◉ John The Ripper

Maltego

4) What are the types of ethical hackers?

The types of ethical hackers are

◉ Grey Box hackers or Cyberwarrior

◉ Black Box penetration Testers

◉ White Box penetration Testers

◉ Certified Ethical hacker

5) What is footprinting in ethical hacking? What is the techniques used for footprinting?

Footprinting refers accumulating and uncovering as much as information about the target network before gaining access into any network. The approach adopted by hackers before hacking

◉ Open Source Footprinting : It will look for the contact information of administrators that will be used in guessing the password in Social engineering

◉ Network Enumeration : The hacker tries to identify the domain names and the network blocks of the target network

◉ Scanning : Once the network is known, the second step is to spy the active IP addresses on the network. For identifying active IP addresses (ICMP) Internet Control Message Protocol is an active IP addresses

◉ Stack Fingerprinting : Once the hosts and port have been mapped by scanning the network, the final footprinting step can be performed. This is called Stack fingerprinting.

6) Explain what is Brute Force Hack?

Brute force hack is a technique for hacking password and get access to system and network resources, it takes much time, it needs a hacker to learn about JavaScripts. For this purpose, one can use tool name “Hydra”.

7) Explain what is DOS (Denial of service) attack? What are the common forms of DOS attack?

Denial of Service, is a malicious attack on network that is done by flooding the network with useless traffic. Although, DOS does not cause any theft of information or security breach, it can cost the website owner a great deal of money and time.

◉ Buffer Overflow Attacks

◉ SYN Attack

◉ Teardrop Attack

◉ Smurf Attack

◉ Viruses

8) Explain what is SQL injection?

SQL is one of the technique used to steal data from organizations, it is a fault created in the application code. SQL injection happens when you inject the content into a SQL query string and the result mode content into a SQL query string, and the result modifies the syntax of your query in ways you did not intend.

9) What are the types of computer based social engineering attacks? Explain what is Phishing?

Computer based social engineering attacks are

◉ Phishing

◉ Baiting

◉ On-line scams

Phishing technique involves sending false e-mails, chats or website to impersonate real system with aim of stealing information from original website.

10) Explain what is Network Sniffing?

A network sniffer monitors data flowing over computer network links. By allowing you to capture and view the packet level data on your network, sniffer tool can help you to locate network problems. Sniffers can be used for both stealing information off a network and also for legitimate network management.

11) Explain what is ARP Spoofing or ARP poisoning?

ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) is a form of attack in which an attacker changes MAC ( Media Access Control) address and attacks an internet LAN by changing the target computer’s ARP cache with a forged ARP request and reply packets.

12) How you can avoid or prevent ARP poisoning?

ARP poisoning can be prevented by following methods

◉ Packet Filtering : Packet filters are capable for filtering out and blocking packets with conflicting source address information

◉ Avoid trust relationship : Organization should develop protocol that rely on trust relationship as little as possible

◉ Use ARP spoofing detection software : There are programs that inspects and certifies data before it is transmitted and blocks data that is spoofed

◉ Use cryptographic network protocols : By using secure communications protocols like TLS, SSH, HTTP secure prevents ARP spoofing attack by encrypting data prior to transmission and authenticating data when it is received

13) What is Mac Flooding?

Mac Flooding is a technique where the security of given network switch is compromised. In Mac flooding the hacker or attacker floods the switch with large number of frames, then what a switch can handle. This make switch behaving as a hub and transmits all packets at all the ports. Taking the advantage of this the attacker will try to send his packet inside the network to steal the sensitive information.

14) Explain what is DHCP Rogue Server?

A Rogue DHCP server is DHCP server on a network which is not under the control of administration of network staff. Rogue DHCP Server can be a router or modem. It will offer users IP addresses , default gateway, WINS servers as soon as user’s logged in. Rogue server can sniff into all the traffic sent by client to all other networks.

15) Explain what is Cross-site scripting and what are the types of Cross site scripting?

Cross site scripting is done by using the known vulnerabilities like web based applications, their servers or plug-ins users rely upon. Exploiting one of these by inserting malicious coding into a link which appears to be a trustworthy source. When users click on this link the malicious code will run as a part of the client’s web request and execute on the user’s computer, allowing attacker to steal information.

There are three types of Cross-site scripting

◉ Non-persistent

◉ Persistent

◉ Server side versus DOM based vulnerabilities

16) Explain what is Burp Suite, what are the tools it consist of?

Burp suite is an integrated platform used for attacking web applications. It consists of all the Burp tools required for attacking an application. Burp Suite tool has same approach for attacking web applications like framework for handling HTTP request, upstream proxies, alerting, logging and so on.

The tools that Burp Suite has

◉ Proxy

◉ Spider

◉ Scanner

◉ Intruder

◉ Repeater

◉ Decoder

◉ Comparer

◉ Sequencer

17) Explain what is Pharming and Defacement?

◉ Pharming: In this technique the attacker compromises the DNS ( Domain Name System) servers or on the user computer so that traffic is directed to a malicious site

◉ Defacement: In this technique the attacker replaces the organization website with a different page. It contains the hackers name, images and may even include messages and background music

18) Explain how you can stop your website getting hacked?

By adapting following method you can stop your website from getting hacked

◉ Sanitizing and Validating users parameters: By Sanitizing and Validating user parameters before submitting them to the database can reduce the chances of being attacked by SQL injection

◉ Using Firewall: Firewall can be used to drop traffic from suspicious IP address if attack is a simple DOS

◉ Encrypting the Cookies: Cookie or Session poisoning can be prevented by encrypting the content of the cookies, associating cookies with the client IP address and timing out the cookies after some time

◉ Validating and Verifying user input : This approach is ready to prevent form tempering by verifying and validating the user input before processing it

◉ Validating and Sanitizing headers : This techniques is useful against cross site scripting or XSS, this technique includes validating and sanitizing headers, parameters passed via the URL, form parameters and hidden values to reduce XSS attacks

19) Explain what is Keylogger Trojan?

Keylogger Trojan is malicious software that can monitor your keystroke, logging them to a file and sending them off to remote attackers. When the desired behaviour is observed, it will record the keystroke and captures your login username and password.

20) Explain what is Enumeration?

The process of extracting machine name, user names, network resources, shares and services from a system. Under Intranet environment enumeration techniques are conducted.

21) Explain what is NTP?

To synchronize clocks of networked computers, NTP (Network Time Protocol) is used. For its primary means of communication UDP port 123 is used. Over the public internet NTP can maintain time to within 10 milliseconds

22) Explain what is MIB?

MIB ( Management Information Base ) is a virtual database. It contains all the formal description about the network objects that can be managed using SNMP. The MIB database is hierarchical and in MIB each managed objects is addressed through object identifiers (OID).

23) Mention what are the types of password cracking techniques?

The types of password cracking technique includes

◉ AttackBrute Forcing

◉ AttacksHybrid

◉ AttackSyllable

◉ AttackRule

24) Explain what are the types of hacking stages?

The types of hacking stages are

◉ Gaining AccessEscalating

◉ PrivilegesExecuting

◉ ApplicationsHiding

◉ FilesCovering Tracks

25) Explain what is CSRF (Cross Site Request Forgery)? How you can prevent this?

CSRF or Cross site request forgery is an attack from a malicious website that will send a request to a web application that a user is already authenticated against from a different website. To prevent CSRF you can append unpredictable challenge token to each request and associate them with user’s session. It will ensure the developer that the request received is from a valid source.

Source: guru99.com

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What is Network Penetration Testing and How Does it Detect Security Threats?

What Is Network Penetration Testing?

Penetration testing, also referred to as pen testing is a cyber-security exercise carried out by experts with the intention of finding and exploiting vulnerabilities in an organization’s IT infrastructure.

Pen tests simulate cyber-attacks, focusing on discovering any weak points in a computer system’s defenses which cybercriminals can use to gain entry and access an organization’s sensitive information.

Due to the prevalence of cyber-attacks, it’s critical to perform regular network penetration testing to identify and resolve any vulnerability quickly. Find out more about network pen tests and why these exercises must be a critical part of your information security plan.

What Is Network Penetration Testing?

The simplest way to define network penetration testing is that it simulates the processes hackers would use to attack your business network, network applications, business website, and attached devices. This simulation aims to identify security issues early on, before hackers can find and exploit them.

When properly completed, penetration tests go beyond merely stopping bad actors from unlawful access to an organization’s network and data. It helps create real-world situations to show organizations how effectively their current security defenses would act when facing full-scale cyberattacks.

Penetration tests can also help an organization in its effort to achieve security compliance with government regulations, control frameworks and certification requirements (ex. PCI, SOC reporting).

How Does Network Penetration Testing Detect Security Threats?

Penetration tests involve a series of steps, each designed to mirror the stages hackers often utilize to breach an organization.

Here’s how it works:

Creating a scope for the test

First, an experienced developer will define the goals of the testing exercise, taking into account the network processes and systems a hacker would target. Testers then define rules for the pen test operation alongside determining the methods and tools to be used.

Scanning and reconnaissance

Here, the analysts gather intelligence on the network using various methods, such as reverse engineering, social engineering, and researching publicly available information about the organization and its systems. The goals are to get as much data as possible for identifying potential vulnerabilities to exploit and create attack scenarios for execution.

Gain network access

After penetration testers have enumerated the system and network vulnerabilities, they exploit those flaws to enter the system. Similar to cyber attackers, they will typically start by accessing low-value assets before gradually moving up in the network, infiltrating and escalating system privileges wherever possible.

Evade detection and maintaining network access

Depending on the extent of the penetration test, pen testers are required to mimic advanced hackers by remaining persistent in their efforts to exploit networks and apply similar tactics to hide proof of their intrusion. Remaining in this stealth mode requires delicacy and time. In the real world an attacker may lay low for days, weeks, months or longer. Operating within budget constraints requires penetration testing efforts to be scoped for a certain period of time to yield useful results. These tests can help determine how long the internal security team takes to discover their simulated destructive behaviors.

Reporting and deep analysis

Penetration tests are summed up by a detailed report that analyzes the specific security weaknesses and vulnerabilities in the network. These records will also include the sensitive data the testers accessed, the duration of evading detection, and information security recommendations. This analysis can help organizations close security gaps by changing their processes or switching to new technologies.

The Difference Between Vulnerability Scans and Penetration Testing

A vulnerability scan refers to a manual or automated high-level test designed to search networks, computers, and/or business systems for security flaws. They are a passive method of addressing information security concerns since they are limited to offering reports on the detected vulnerabilities. In contrast, penetration testing simulates the actions of perpetrators trying to access your network. It’s a much more comprehensive, proactive method of determining how your security processes work when facing a threat.

Source: scasecurity.com

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Penetration Testing Vs. Ethical Hacking

Penetration testing is very closely related to ethical hacking, so these two terms are often used interchangeably. However there is a thin line of difference between these two terms. This chapter provides insights into some basic concepts and fundamental differences between penetration testing and ethical hacking.

Penetration Testing

Penetration testing is a specific term and focuses only on discovering the vulnerabilities, risks, and target environment with the purpose of securing and taking control of the system. Or in other words, penetration testing targets respective organization’s defence systems consisting of all computer systems and its infrastructure.

Ethical Hacking

On the other hand, ethical hacking is an extensive term that covers all hacking techniques, and other associated computer attack techniques. So, along with discovering the security flaws and vulnerabilities, and ensuring the security of the target system, it is beyond hacking the system but with a permission in order to safeguard the security for future purpose. Hence, we can that, it is an umbrella term and penetration testing is one of the features of ethical hacking.

The following are the major differences between Penetration testing and Ethical hacking which is listed in the following table −

Penetration Testing	Ethical Hacking
A narrow term focuses on penetration testing only to secure the security system.	A comprehensive term and penetration testing is one of its features.
A tester essentially does need to have a comprehensive knowledge of everything rather required to have the knowledge of only the specific area for which he conducts pen testing.	An ethical hacker essentially needs to have a comprehensive knowledge of software programming as well as hardware.
A tester not necessarily required to be a good report writer.	An ethical hacker essentially needs to be an expert on report writing.
Any tester with some inputs of penetration testing can perform pen test.	It requires to be an expert professional in the subject, who has the obligatory certification of ethical hacking to be effective.
Paper work in less compared to Ethical hacking.	A detailed paper works are required, including legal agreement etc.
To perform this type of testing, less time required.	Ethical hacking involves lot of time and effort compared to Penetration testing.
Normally, accessibility of whole computer systems and its infrastructure doesn’t require. Accessibility is required only for the part for which the tester performing pen testing.	As per the situation, it normally requires a whole range of accessibility all computer systems and its infrastructure.

Since penetration techniques are used to protect from threats, the potential attackers are also swiftly becoming more and more sophisticated and inventing new weak points in the current applications. Hence, a particular sort of single penetration testing is not sufficient to protect your security of the tested systems.

As per the report, in some cases, a new security loophole is discovered and successful attack took place immediately after the penetration testing. However, it does not mean that the penetration testing is useless. It only means that, this is true that with thorough penetration testing, there is no guarantee that a successful attack will not take place, but definitely, the test will substantially reduce the possibility of a successful attack.

Source: tutorialspoint.com

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