The need for penetration testing has become evident in today’s society as George Orwell depicted in his book 1984 relating to advances in technology.
In 1949, Eric Arthur Blair wrote a science fiction novel called “1984” under his pseudonym, George Orwell. The Science fiction novel presents a view of the world which is unnervingly realistic of today’s world. George Orwell foresaw advances in technology, the complete surveillance of society, the decomposition of history, and the limiting of freedoms. In today’s businesses advanced technology and data is persistently at risk of attack. Penetration testing is a necessity.
Our lives are evolving in to a digital playground, we reveal more information about ourselves personally and through business than ever before in the history of mankind.
In company networks everything is recorded and traceable. Privacy is never totally secure and needs to managed and monitored. Nothing is secret. Technology makes this possible. Do we believe we actually have privacy? Well it depends on how secure your network is. We need to deal with all potential risks of attacks. Two ways to do this are a vulnerability assessment and penetration testing.
Vulnerability Analysis/Assessment is the process of identifying vulnerabilities on a network.
Penetration testing is focused on actually gaining unauthorized access to the tested systems and using that access to the network or data.
We are all familiar with Google? Use it at work at home? Google knows you, your computer history, personal information, and your private e-mails and work e mails. We think we are able to delete, “clear history”, wipe out things we do not want anyone to see, but actually we don’t. Attackers can still access our information.
In the digital playground we all play in anyone can get our information so easily. Including the government and even your business competitors, attackers can access easily if there is a slight flaw on the underlying network, operating system or database etc.
This is what was written in Orwell’s “1984.” The government was checking in on people with their technology. They watched your every move and read your mind. In today’s government, if you do something suspicious or write something “unacceptable” on the internet, then there will be consequences by the government. Fiction has become reality.
The risk of attack is always imminent and risk analysis is paramount in your business. If your business needs help with security reviews, penetration testing or web security consulting services, please contact Krypsys on 01273 044072 or [email protected].