Penetration testing is the process of finding vulnerabilities, malicious content, flaws, and security risks in your IT infrastructure. It involves manual as well as automated tools and techniques to make sure your cyber security does not have any loopholes.
Ethical hacking is a cyber security practice having the same purpose but diverse applications. It is the integrated approach to protecting your IT infrastructure from prevailing cyber risks. It involves different sets of tools and methodologies, even penetration testing comes under this comprehensive term.
of hackers attack their victims just for learning and practice.
of attackers have the purpose to make money.
of hacks are targeted at websites making Web Application Pentesting a necessity.
of hacking experts use their skills to protect and defend businesses and individuals from cyberattacks.
Penetration testing is a type of security test to determine the strength and resilience of an organization’s IT infrastructure against cyber-attacks. Businesses hire a certified professional or a team for the job. They assess the whole infrastructure for any kind of security vulnerability or loophole that might lead to a successful attack. Moreover, penetration testing involves on-site audits.Here the tester gets some inside information and privileged access to the IT systems in question. There are a few types of penetration testing such as Internal, External, Wireless, Network, Cloud, and Web Application Pentesting.
Ethical Hacking is a simulated attack on the said system, network, or infrastructure to check its resistance against the actual cyber-attacks. The purpose of ethical hacking is to uncover the hidden vulnerabilities in your IT systems that might serve as a gate for hackers. The term ethical here separates this process from criminal hacking. The individual or team asks for the permission of the concerned organization before penetrating the systems. Businesses hire ethical hackers to identify flaws that they might miss but the hackers can exploit. The use of ethical hacking becomes more crucial when a major update is released. As a lot of features are unknown, it is necessary to check what can go wrong when you encounter a real attack on your infrastructure.
Arguably, penetration testing is a subset of the holistic setup of ethical hacking. Therefore, if you choose ethical hacking, you cover it all. You will get a thorough assessment of your infrastructure and will know the security flaws present in the systems that are available. However, it will cost just as much. While penetration testing will only focus on system weaknesses and the vulnerabilities that mightget exploited by the attackers. So, if that is what you need only, then penetration testing is the better option for you.