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Exploring the practicalities and quality of pentesting at scale : Globally, pentest coverage is increasing but remains insufficient

Author

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  • Wong, Caroline

    (Chief Strategy Officer, Cobalt, USA)

Abstract

Over the course of the last two years, we have seen cybercrime increase during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. But despite this increase, most organisations do not do enough pentesting to combat cyberattacks. This paper explores the practicalities and quality of pentesting at scale to help organisations understand the importance of implementing a pentesting programme. Too often, development, security and operations work in silos. Organisations must work together to create a cohesive partnership. As an industry, we must decide that we want to fix things, and then we have to do it. It is not going to be easy, but it is simple. We need to work together — security practitioners and engineers — to collaboratively decide that it is important enough to get asset inventory right. Organisations must decide that it is important enough to update their software, install patches when software is vulnerable and implement a pentest programme. Security leaders must decide to look for the vulnerabilities that are exploitable and find them and fix them.

Suggested Citation

  • Wong, Caroline, 2023. "Exploring the practicalities and quality of pentesting at scale : Globally, pentest coverage is increasing but remains insufficient," Cyber Security: A Peer-Reviewed Journal, Henry Stewart Publications, vol. 7(1), pages 24-32, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:aza:csj000:y:2023:v:7:i:1:p:24-32
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    cyber breaches; security testing; pentest; pentest program; pentesting-as-a-service; PtaaS;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • M15 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - IT Management

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