Many businesses these days have a robust online presence. Your company may have a brick-and-mortar location, or more than one. However, many of your employees might spend a lot of time online, either working from a centralized location or many different ones.
If you have a proprietary software suite or a portal through which your employees log on and do their work, that’s an excellent way to keep track of what they’re doing. It’s a way to keep them honest, particularly if they’re all working from home. Also, it’s a way for you to quickly and easily check to see where they are on various projects.
The only issue with this business model is that hackers might try to get onto your network and steal trade secrets. They may attempt to steal employee information for identity theft purposes. They might even try to sabotage your network because they have a grudge against your company.
This is why you should look into contacting a risk assessment company. These are companies that can do penetration testing to determine whether your network has any weak points.
If you hire one of these companies, though, you’ll want to make sure it’s capable of doing a few particular things. Let’s go over some of them now.
They Should Be Able to Produce Quantitative Data
As you’re interviewing or researching various information security experts, you’ll doubtless find a crowded marketplace. Several companies provide these services, and many make claims about their capabilities and what they can do for you.
However, quantitative data production is something the one you select should be able to do. You want a company that can run a penetration test, then produce hard rather than speculative data.
They must be able to provide you with an exact figure as to how much any fixes will cost, should they discover any notable security gaps, outdated methodologies, etc. The reason you want any fix’s cost in real numbers is that you’re probably operating within a budget, and you’ll want to think about how you can juggle money between departments should that be necessary.
If the online security experts you hire can tell you precisely what the problem is and how much it will cost, you can justify to your decision-makers why you’re spending that money. Your executives and peers will probably be okay with spending that revenue since they don’t want to allow hackers any access.
They Should Be Able to Use a Holistic Repair Strategy
The penetration testing company should also be able to use a holistic repair and upgrade approach. When we say “holistic,” what we mean is that the company should have a process that can fix the problem without temporarily crippling or slowing down your network or setting back your project completion dates.
They should be able to pick out any malicious employees who pose internal threats and also identify any hacker attacks that are in progress or could begin soon. They can then provide real-time system fixes and patches that should increase your confidence, so you can tackle new projects and seek out new business.
You can tell your clients with the utmost confidence that they can trust you with their trade secrets and sensitive data.
They Should Deliver an Actionable Blueprint
It does no good if the penetration testing company you hire can identify malicious activity or threats and then doesn’t know what to do to stop them. You want a company that can not only point out system vulnerabilities but can also tell you precisely what you can do to combat them.
The company you select should understand that you have clients to satisfy and deadlines to meet. They should know that you’re trying to generate revenue and satisfy investors. They should be able to bring you a prioritized list that represents a top-down online security overhaul if that’s necessary.
Apart from all that, you want a company that only hires genuine online security experts. All the company’s employees should have real-world online security experience rather than theoretical knowledge. You might ask the company whether they employ PCI Qualified Security Assessors and Certified Ethical Hackers, as well as others.
You have to know that you can trust the engineer who you are allowing to hack your network. That’s why you should do some extensive research before hiring just any penetration testing company. Once you find one you trust, they can quickly get to work securing your network.
