Automated Cloud-Based Testing May Soon Replace Traditional Pen Testing

Non-security professionals achieve high-quality videos and photographs with simple video and photo editing apps on their mobile devices and with services they find on the Web. As a result, neighborhood photography studios are practically extinct. This trend doesn’t mean experienced video editors can’t make a solid living for themselves; rather, the talented and professional ones focus on the business sector since it requires better-quality output.

In fact, not a lot of people are truly qualified to work as penetration testers — well, at least not the best ones. Pen testing is way more than just utilizing cool hacking tools and producing vulnerability reports. Great pen testers have deep knowledge of operating systems, networking, scripting languages and more. They are also eager to learn new approaches and employ the new content that they learn in practice. They combine manual work with automated tools and conduct their testing in iterations, reviewing interim test results to build complicated attacks just like a cybercriminal would. However, many single-shingle security consultants and small companies offer pen testing services. Some base their services solely on the use of one or more hacking tools and produce attractive-looking reports that detail all the issues they were able to find. Instead, their results are based only on the tools they learned to operate and not on any specialized skills, which means that their customers could feasibly automate testing and save time and money by doing it themselves. So will this trend continue? Share your comments with the Cloud and Cyber Security Center.