What is penetration testing? Penetration testing or pen testing is a security measure, MSPs and IT teams use to identify vulnerabilities within their system. In this video, we'll discuss how it works and the tools you can use to conduct a pen test on your network. Before we begin, be sure to subscribe to Ninja One's IT Video Hub for more tech content like this. What is penetration testing? Penetration testing is a security exercise that involves simulating a cyber attack to find exploitable vulnerabilities within a computer system or a network. It typically involves five stages. Planning testers gather information about the target system and create a plan of attack. This may include reconnaissance and social engineering tactics scanning. Next testers scan the target system for vulnerabilities and observe how it responds to the attack breaching. After this, testers attempt to bypass the target's firewalls using strategies such as cross site scripting or SQL injection burrowing. Once inside testers assess how long they can stay within the target system and how deep they can go. Analyzing. Finally, testers analyze the results of their simulation and create a comprehensive report to guide remediation and improve security posture. Think of it as conducting a fire drill to see if your building's fire alarms, exits, and other safety protocols are working properly. Now, there are three different ways to conduct a pen test. Black box method testers act as external attackers with no prior knowledge of the internal system gray box method. In this method, testers simulate an attack with limited internal access and some knowledge of the system's architecture white box method. This involves simulating an attacker where in the hackers have full access to the target source code system architecture and documentation penetration testing tools. MSPs and IT experts use MSPs and IT experts use varying tools to conduct penetration testing. These include reconnaissance tools. Testers use these programs to gather information about the target application or a system proxy tools. These applications intercept traffic between a web browser and a targeted web server to identify vulnerabilities, vulnerabilities scanners. Vulnerabilities scanners enable testers to determine which applications have known vulnerabilities. Exploitation tools. Testers use exploitation tools to carry out their planned attack. Post exploitation tools, postex exploitation tools help testers cover their tracks after the simulation. Penetration testing is a vital component of comprehensive cybersecurity. It helps evaluate your system's security protocols and its response to real world attacks. For more information, check out our official blog post on penetration testing linked in the description below.