Security incidents have been on the rise for the past few years in India. In fact, the number of cybersecurity incidents in India grew by 117 percent in 2015. As Indian organizations move more services online, the risk of a data breach will only increase. It is necessary to keep continuous tabs on your organization’s security posture and monitor any vulnerabilities before cybercriminals get a chance to exploit them.

Think Like a Cybercriminal

One of the best ways to check the security of your IT system is to test it yourself. By performing penetration tests, you can replicate the types of actions that a malicious attacker would take to compromise your IT systems, giving you a reasonably good representation of your security posture.

Penetration testing measures the security of an IT environment by exploiting its vulnerabilities in a safe and proactive manner. It is probably the only way to ensure that your IT infrastructure is impenetrable to external attacks — and even then there are no guarantees.

The process simulates cyberattacks by mimicking the actions of cybercriminals. It aims to push the cyberdefenses of your organization to their limits, help assess its immunity to attacks, discover vulnerabilities and provide recommendations to secure your environment.

Identifying Vulnerabilities

Penetration testing involves testing your complete IT infrastructure, including your network devices, operating systems, web applications, databases, wireless systems, mobile devices and so on. However, not many organizations have the required skills internally to carry out effective penetration testing.

For this reason, most organizations turn to third parties for their expert help. It is important to choose a partner equipped to provide an end-to-end security service — from penetration testing and identifying gaps to advising and implementing solutions to address any shortcomings.

In addition, a third-party partner should be able to provide vulnerability analytics, since penetration tests and vulnerability scans generate a large amount of data. Vulnerability analytics help identify the trends and map your organization’s risk posture much faster and more accurately than other methods.

Stay Ready With X-Force Red

Readiness is the key. Penetration testing can be one of the most beneficial tools in any organization’s repertoire in its quest to secure its IT environment. By behaving like a cybercriminal, an organization can find security flaws in their systems so that they can plug the holes before the bad guys exploit them. It is imperative to select the right partner to help you solve these security testing problems.

IBM recently introduced a new service designed to do just that. X-Force Red is a group of security professionals and ethical hackers whose goal is to help businesses discover vulnerabilities in their computer networks, hardware and software applications before cybercriminals do.

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