Penetration Testing
Challenging Times – Security in the Enterprise
Growing threats, increases in attack sophistication, evolving complexity of systems, continuous pressure to protect data, increased liability from security incidents and lack of due care. These are just a few of the pressures facing organizations today. Are your defenses working? How do you know?
Sword & Shield has extensive experience in Network Vulnerability Assessments and Penetration Testing. Utilizing commercial tools, public domain utilities, proprietary vulnerability analysis software, and over 10 years of industry experience, Sword & Shield can assist you in meeting your security testing needs.
Sword & Shield has a high success rate in compromising systems and data normally protected by security controls within enterprise environments through social engineering tactics.
Done correctly, penetration testing provides an organization with a real-world measure of security in the organization.
Extensive Experience and Resources
Sword & Shield offers access to world class expertise in penetration testing. Our staff is experienced in security testing of large-scale corporate IT environments and mission-critical federal systems.
Vulnerability Assessment
A vulnerability assessment shows the system’s security posture with respect to specific vulnerabilities. The focus of vulnerability assessment exercises is to perform a thorough examination of the IT environment and identity the weak points. The vulnerability assessment interprets and compares results against the various business processes to determine whether the perceived vulnerability is indeed valid, is a false positive or whether other security controls address the perceived vulnerability.
Several vantage points are used to develop a detailed analysis of how secure a network is: the unauthorized user, the authorized user, and to the extent possible, the administrative user. Trust relationships; data flows; security and application architecture; and operating system, application, and database configurations are also considered.When performing a vulnerability assessment, Sword & Shield follows a proven process that includes:
- Information Reconnaissance
- Network Mapping & Data Collection
- Vulnerability Identification
- Data Correlation & Analysis
- Detailed Report & Recommendations
Information Reconnaissance
Sword & Shield performs information reconnaissance to find out as much as possible about the customer business and supporting IT infrastructure. Internet research, such as Google hacks, newsgroups and other information sources are used. Network and system diagrams are reviewed to conduct a thorough analysis of information flows and IT assets to determine the most likely vulnerable attack vectors.
Network Mapping & Data Collection
Sword & Shield executes automated tools and/or scripts against the Customer’s network to gather the following information: system/network domain(s), IP addresses, host/network names, DNS records, operating system versions, hardware platforms, enabled TCP/UDP ports and services, applications and banner information. This assists Sword & Shield security engineers in completing a comprehensive profile of the target environment and in confirming the most likely avenues of attack.
Vulnerability Identification
Utilizing a variety of both commercial and open source vulnerability scanning tools, Sword & Shield will perform an exhaustive search for vulnerabilities on the identified hosts. When applicable and within scope, this includes an analysis of web applications, databases, wireless access points, telecommunications, and results from social engineering activities.
Data Correlation & Analysis
Sword & Shield security experts analyze all collected data to determine the vulnerabilities of the target IT environment. Using a proprietary vulnerability correlation software toolset, Sword & Shield security engineers determine, through research and experience, which vulnerabilities are most likely to lead to a compromise and rank them according to comprehensive severity level categorization system.
Detailed Report & Recommendations
At the conclusion of the assessment, Sword & Shield provides a customized, comprehensive technical report identifying all vulnerabilities and their respective (or recommended) steps to remediation. Typical reporting in commercial and public tools does not consider these scenarios. Network devices will be identified by IP address in the report to document network information and clearly identify critical vulnerabilities. This will include a detailed vulnerability matrix with actionable items for vulnerability remediation. Vulnerabilities will be ranked based on ease of exploit and Sword & Shield’s analysis of the impact to business if exploited. This report will include detailed technical, procedural and strategic recommendations based on “best practice” to minimize security risks.
Penetration Testing
Sword & Shield has developed a penetration-testing methodology that has proven to be very effective. Building on the valuable information gained from vulnerability assessment exercises, the goal of penetration testing is to determine if the protective controls of a given IT system can be bypassed by actively exploiting identified weaknesses. Penetration Testing provides evidence (sometimes to an unbelieving audience) that vulnerabilities indeed are exploitable. It brings a dose of reality and intense focus to the vulnerability assessment.
During penetration testing, attempts are made to circumvent security controls by devising penetration profiles against the most likely attack vectors based on the results of the vulnerability data correlation and analysis process. Leveraging these profiles, Sword & Shield security engineers drill down into specific vulnerabilities and combine vulnerabilities to exploit system weaknesses. Sword & Shield security engineers perform the research necessary to develop exploits specific to the highest level vulnerabilities discovered, including manual exploitation of well-known issues (such as weak or default passwords, cross-site scripting, SQL injection, etc.). Sword & Shield security engineers attempt to exploit vulnerabilities in a customer’s system or network to gain access sufficient to accomplish the customer defined objectives for testing. This can range from gaining “root” or “administrator” privileges on critical servers to gaining accessing to specific target data files (or databases).
Proven Approach
The penetration-testing methodology developed by Sword & Shield has proven to be very effective in determining the exploitable characteristics of the identified vulnerabilities in a given network or host system.
Professional Service
Sword & Shield penetration testing engineers possess a thorough and deep knowledge of a wide variety of attack techniques. While all are well skilled on the latest penetrating testing tools and have proven time and again the exemplary ability to find and penetrate system weaknesses, the real difference with Sword & Shield lies in the professionalism of every individual engineer.
Find out more:
Application Security Testing
Database Security Testing
Wireless Security Testing
Telecom/PBX Security
Social Engineering
For Information on how Sword & Shield is helping federal agencies integrate penetration testing to address FISMA mandated annual security reviews, click here.
For more information on the growing threat of VISHING attacks, click here.
If you need help with your compliance initiatives, click here.
Our Markets
We service many markets, predominantly in these sectors:
Request Consultation
To speak to a member of our team, please fill out this request form.