Penetration Testing: Business Leaders’ Best Solution to Cybersecurity

With the internet heading the fourth industrial revolution, all businesses find themselves in a strategic race towards digitalization. With that, comes the careful consideration of securing intellectual data and vital information assets. In order to keep up with this pace, c-level executives and business leaders find themselves inheriting the evolving responsibility of developing and maintaining adequate cybersecurity practices and policies.

In consideration of recent cyberattacks and data breaches, business leaders must be prepared to improve their strategy when faced with this unique challenge. Furthermore, with cyberthreats showing no sign of letting up, senior leadership across industries must make informed and strategic investments into cybersecurity to improve their organizations’ readiness and resilience.

As discussed in previous blog posts, businesses are recognizing the significance of cybersecurity today more than ever. For any business leader, this is an absolute requirement. However, there are a number of organizational and structural concerns that may obscure the deployment process of risk management-based cybersecurity practices within any given organization. With that said, in order to address this obstacle, it should come as no surprise that continual support from upper management is crucial to ensuring forward progress in the management of cybersecurity risk.

Leading the War on Cybercrime

Every business organization is directed by individuals who are responsible for setting direction, establishing company priorities, and maintaining a strong influence over organizational functions. These individuals are responsible for the organization’s overall performance and stance in the marketplace. However, what should also be at the top of this list of primary concerns is the need for cybersecurity and its impact on the rapidly changing business landscape.

Business leaders have a precise role and their obligation regarding their organization’s cybersecurity revolves around managing and mitigating all cyber risks, setting effective policy controls, prioritizing and sourcing cybersecurity programs, protecting sensitive company data from malicious actors, and creating a culture of cybersecurity within their organizations.

If business leaders have a strong grasp on their organization’s vulnerabilities and a solid understanding of the critical assets at risk, they will be better equipped to make efficient strategic decisions and security investments to strengthen their organizations overall security posture and resilience to cyberthreat.

Accountability: Penetration Testing Provides a Roadmap to Success

As business organizations pilot through the changing landscape of the internet and cyber-driven world, the security of all digital assets and sensitive company data will become essential to the bottom line. Thus, to accelerate and maintain cybersecurity initiatives, business leaders must gain a firm understanding of the cyber risks to which their organization is exposed to. This is where employing a highly skilled penetration testing firm becomes absolutely crucial to maintaining company success in the short and long-term.

Penetration testing, also known as pentesting or ethical hacking, is an authorized, simulated cyberattack on a computer system that is performed to evaluate the security of the system by identifying all vulnerabilities a malicious party could exploit in a targeted effort to breach a vital system or web application. With this in mind, it is not hard to see how valuable a pen test can be for a business leader looking to secure business operations in the most effective manner possible.

At Packetlabs, once our testing phase is completed, our reporting comprehensively outlines vulnerabilities in an easy to follow manner, including details surrounding potential business impacts as well as remediation recommendations for each. This format allows business leaders to accurately prioritize security budgets for optimal cybersecurity improvements.

Our team of experts specializes in communicating all discovered security concerns to both technical and C-suite level audiences for maximum company comprehension. We have found this communication approach provides the most value to our clients and helps to drive a culture of security.

In Summary

The potential risks of cyberattacks characteristically impacts vital business functions, partners, stakeholders, and customers. Therefore, failure to adequately secure any business’s digital assets can directly damage customer trust, company reputation, as well as the security of data and critical infrastructure. Subsequently, this can all lead to higher-level issues such as maintaining competitiveness in the market, stock price, and stakeholder value.

Senior executives, board members and the C-suite leaders are required to make fast and effective security decisions that safeguard the company and business operations, both from a market and a reputation perspective, and that’s why penetration testing provides the very best solution for successful business leaders.

For information on how Packetlabs can protect your business from cyberthreats, please contact us to learn more.