Computer systems deployed to hostile environments are automatically at risk of having their vulnerabilities exploited, with grave economic, and even physical and humanitarian, consequences. It is therefore absolutely vital that the vulnerability management industry stay on top of its game. Penetration testing and vulnerability assessment of the highest calibre is needed in order to avoid large-scale incidents of international importance, as well as countless problems for business resulting from hacking activities.
Companies and large organisations rely ever-increasingly on technology to carry out even the most core functions. This enables an unrivalled level of efficiency, but obviously it also introduces unprecedented levels of security risks. While dependence on technology grows and the level of sophistication of the technology rises, release cycles grow ever more brief, which makes the security environment an ever-changing landscape where the goalposts are constantly being shifted.
Good quality penetration testing can be a greatly rewarding cost-saving service. Attacks are simulated in a variety of ways, using various methods, in order to identify specific vulnerabilities in the system. Generally this is achieved by being able to identify the path into the network that a black hat hacker would be able to take.
The risks represented by security breaches, of course, have consequences for not only businesses, but also transport and communications systems, water and energy supply systems, and nuclear power plants, other than a huge amount of sensitive data locked in information technology systems.
An example of the latter occurred early this year, as the New York Times reported Google’s admission that hackers had successfully assaulted the internet giant’s Gaia password system. The information pertaining to Google’s various web services of millions of people and businesses are accessible through the use of a single password, and hackers were able to exploit vulnerabilities in the program. They managed to infiltrate the computers of several Google staff members in China. The incident led to a huge amount of tension between the United States and China, and culminated in Google’s withdrawal of its services in the country, with massive financial ramifications. The attack was said to be aimed at accessing the gmail accounts of human rights activists. There is a possibility, according to experts, that they were able to detect vulnerabilities in the system which Google itself is unaware of.
All types of measures are being devised by vulnerability assessment firms to cope with such a challenging situation. Vulnerability management must be performed with the use of all available means and resources, including black box, white box and grey box penetration testing in order to highlight future risks to computer systems.
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