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Penetration Testing and Vulnerability Scanning: Two Important Steps in Protecting Your Business

By Brittany Fugate, Founder

Data breaches are increasingly common, but they don’t have to happen to you. With the right protections and testing in place, you can get ahead of issues with your IT systems’ security. Vulnerability scanning and penetration testing are two crucial ways to spot and stop malicious actors who try to tamper with your IT infrastructure. 

Some business owners think vulnerability scanning and penetration testing are the same, and while these two concepts are crucial to cybersecurity analysis and closely linked, they approach finding vulnerabilities from different angles.

What’s the difference between penetration testing and vulnerability scanning?

In a nutshell, penetration testing involves a human from your IT team or managed services provider (MSP) purposely exploiting vulnerabilities in your systems. The goal is to model what a bad actor would do, exposing the risks to your business so you can address the issues properly.

Vulnerability scanning is automated scanning to detect potential flaws/threats in network systems like routers, servers, and other applications. It’s more routine — but still essential. Vulnerability scans head off zero-day vulnerabilities — flaws you didn’t realize were there until a bad actor exploits them immediately, giving you zero days to prepare or respond.

Vulnerability scanning and PCI compliance

If your business handles credit card data, you need to comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS, often called PCI for short). That means conducting vulnerability scanning quarterly, especially after making changes to your networks. 

These scans are carried out by qualified and independent personnel. Vulnerability scanning experts take full responsibility for configuring the machines for their scanning procedure. If the scan isn’t successful, you may have to reschedule another one within one month to ensure that all critical risks and vulnerabilities are patched. 

For an organization to meet PCI DSS standards, their listed items should have minimal risks. Critical or high-risk items will also need to be remediated.

Penetration testing and PCI compliance

Penetration testing requires the use of sophisticated tools and is more or less the same as ethical hacking. Cybercriminals often target small businesses, and penetration tests allow you to see how effective your existing cybersecurity solutions are and how you can improve them.

PCI DSS requirements state that penetration testing should be conducted annually or when you make any significant changes to your network systems. These tests should be performed by professionals using the appropriate tools. 

Note that penetration testers carry out live experiments when exploiting vulnerabilities. This means that the operation could affect your daily work, so you should schedule these tests outside of your working hours to avoid disruptions. 

Resolve vulnerabilities with patch management 

Patch management is the acquisition, testing, and installation of software updates to protect your systems from vulnerabilities you uncover in your tests and scans.  Examples of basic patch management tasks include installing security updates, figuring out which patches are appropriate for specific systems, and performing system installations. Patch management can be done manually or be automated. 

Patch management helps your business maintain healthy, secure network systems. Patches are also essential when you want to configure your software to work well with the latest hardware. To identify your most vulnerable endpoints and protect them, patch management should be a top cybersecurity priority.

Trust Cenetric to help you stay compliant

If you take credit cards in your business, you’re responsible for making sure compliant practices and technology are in place. But, you’re a business owner, not a tech expert, so you probably want a little reassurance about where you stand. That’s what the team at Cenetric is for.

Cenetric has the experience to help you get and remain compliant. Let’s set up a time to talk about cybersecurity.