Penetration Testing Services

How vulnerable is your business? Our pen testing services help organizations identify security vulnerabilities and build a proactive defense before attackers strike.

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Your network and portfolio of business applications continually change and grow. Employees come and go. External security threats morph and expand.

Regular pen testing services ensure that your network, applications, and overall security posture is hardened against cyber-attacks.

By looking holistically at system security through the eyes of an attacker, Centric Consulting’s penetration testing services help you establish processes that highlight exploitable vulnerabilities, have a measurable impact, and help IT teams prioritize remediation efforts. As a specialized penetration testing consulting company, our experienced consultants verify your defenses by identifying security vulnerabilities so they can be understood and solved.

Our consulting and pen testing services allow you to:

Protect your most sensitive data
Comply with industry regulations that require regular pen testing and audits
Identify vulnerabilities and gain insight into the full extent of potential flaws in your environment
Demonstrate the potential business impact of an attack to your C-suite leaders
Reinforce employee phishing training by exposing them to sophisticated attacks
Test new security controls and the security of new business applications, products, or services
Test for concerns or threats specific to your business

Shane O’Donnell

Vice President

Cybersecurity

Brandyn Fisher

V-CISO Capability Lead

Senior Penetration Testing Technical Lead

According to an IBM study. (Source: Cost of a Data Breach Report 2023)

$0M

average cost of a data breach

Types of Pen Testing Services We Offer

We provide comprehensive penetration testing programs tailored to your specific needs:

Internal, external, mobile, and wireless attacks
Physical penetration testing
Red Team, Blue Team, and Purple Team

Centric Consulting proved to be the right partner for us by bringing brought deep expertise to our penetration testing initiative, demonstrating a strong understanding of our requirements, and delivering tailored solutions with precision and ease. They worked closely with our team to design a penetration test uniquely aligned with our environment and security objectives. By maintaining clear communication throughout the engagement and delivering a comprehensive assessment with actionable recommendations, Centric enabled us to swiftly address key findings.

Carlos Escobar, VP, IS Security, Risk, and Compliance, RevMed

Why Choose Centric Consulting for Your Penetration Testing Needs

Red Team Testing

If your company has already succeeded with standard penetration testing services but is a high-profile target for cyber-attacks, consider the red team approach. Red teaming simulates what a real-world hacking team would do to attack your firm with the goal of financial gain, reputation damage or operations degradation.

Red team testing challenges your security team with an unannounced, realistic, and comprehensive security test. Once access is gained, the red team pivots to move laterally through the network and compromise critical assets. The analysis and results of the test provide the remediation steps needed to take your security posture to the next level.

We Excel at Resolving Pen Test Findings

If penetration testing uncovers security issues, our team of skilled cybersecurity consultants can work with you to quickly address and resolve your vulnerabilities.

Our Expertise and Experience in Penetration Testing

Our penetration testing experts practice highly mature pen testing methodologies, including manual reconnaissance, enumeration and exploitation. Our experience spans across industries and sectors and is supported by over 42 specialized credentials and certifications, from OSINT to OSCP, CRTO and more.

We catch the vulnerabilities the average pen test misses, resulting in 325 and counting satisfied customers who have improved their security postures.

Penetration testing methods we specialize in include network pen testing, application testing, social engineering testing, and specialized pen tests conducted in high-risk environments such as OT, IoT, SCADA, API and web services.

Ready to identify and manage your security vulnerabilities? Our experts can help.

Key Differences Between Penetration Testing and Other Security Measures

While traditional security measures, such as firewalls, antivirus software, and access controls, play a crucial role in protecting organizations from cyber threats, penetration testing services offers a unique, complementary approach to cybersecurity.

Unlike off-the-shelf solutions, our penetration testing is tailored to your environment, considering unique systems, configurations, and operational requirements. Our tailored approach ensures that the testing reflects your organization’s real-world security challenges.

Proactive vs. Reactive

Penetration testing is a proactive measure that actively seeks out vulnerabilities before they can be exploited, rather than reacting to threats after they have been detected.

Proactive pen testing strengthens your security posture by building institutional knowledge about your security landscape over time.

Simulated Attacks

Pen testing simulates real-world attacks on your systems, networks, and applications.

This provides a comprehensive assessment of your security posture by testing defenses against the same tactics used by threat actors.

Human Element

Pen testing relies on skilled ethical hackers who possess extensive knowledge of hacking tools and techniques.

This human element is crucial in uncovering vulnerabilities overlooked by automated solutions and identifying weaknesses in security policies, procedures, and employee awareness.

Comprehensive Methods

Pen testing encompasses a wide range of methodologies, including network pen testing, web application testing, wireless security testing, and social engineering.

Our comprehensive approach ensures that all potential attack vectors are addressed.

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ON-DEMAND WEBINAR

What Your Pen Test Isn’t Showing You: A Live Hack

Wonder what a cyber attacker sees when they target your organization? Wonder no more. Watch a live network attack demo simulated by an industry-leading offensive security expert. In our on-demand webinar, you’ll learn how to uncover vulnerabilities that the average pen test misses.

WATCH WEBINAR

How Our Pen Testing Services Work

Our penetration testing consulting services ensure you’re prepared for new threats and can save resources otherwise spent on remediating costly breaches. You’ll get peace of mind that comes from knowing your security posture has been rigorously tested.

By performing regular penetration testing, you achieve cyber liability compliance, a clean bill of health for an application launch, a secure attestation post-critical firewall and network system changes, and compliance with security frameworks.

Our Approach to Penetration Testing

We take a risk-based approach to scoping penetration testing engagements. This allows us to focus on your highest-risk assets while reducing unnecessary costs. Using industry metrics for benchmarking and root cause analysis, we generate detailed, actionable reports that are easy to understand.

The Phases of Our Penetration Testing Process

As a seasoned cybersecurity consultancy, we develop and document a multi-phase pen-testing approach that meticulously analyzes and synthesizes information to produce prioritized remediation plans. This approach has 5 distinct steps:

Planning & Project Scoping – establish the scope, rules of engagement, timeline and type of pen testing required.
Reconnaissance – gather information about target networks and systems including public information, information obtained via social engineering, foot-printing, port scans and more.
Vulnerability Discovery – use a host of manual and automated techniques to identify high-risk vulnerabilities and misconfigurations in target networks and systems.
Exploitation – attempt to gain access to target systems and networks.
Reporting – detail vulnerabilities, remediation recommendations and a roadmap for hardening of systems.

Our Process for Assessing Your Penetration Testing Requirements

When our pen testers assess your unique testing requirements, the first step is to establish the planning and project approach. This involves defining the assessment’s scope, which outlines the systems, applications or infrastructure components we’ll evaluate. We’ll work with you to establish rules of engagement which set the guidelines needed to ensure legal and ethical compliance.

Using a tailored combination of manual and automated techniques, our experts then discover high-risk vulnerabilities and misconfigurations in the target environment. We exploit these weaknesses, attempting to gain access to systems and networks.

Finally, we provide a comprehensive pen testing report detailing vulnerabilities identified, along with actionable remediation advice and a roadmap for hardening your defenses. This structured approach ensures a thorough, systematic evaluation and leveling up of your security posture.

We Customize Penetration Testing Based on Your Business Needs

Our penetration test services are unique — there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. We work closely with your team to identify critical assets, prioritize testing areas and methodologies, and develop customized test cases that align with your business objectives and risk appetite.

This level of customization allows us to provide you with actionable insights and recommendations that directly address your organization’s vulnerabilities and mitigate your security risks while empowering you to make informed decisions to fortify your security posture.

CLIENT STORY

Bank Reduced Audit Cycle Time by 40% – See How

A major consumer banking corporation needed help testing its IT general controls. What began as routine testing and pre-audit work quickly gave way to a much larger need for audit and compliance improvements.

We stepped in to not only provide comprehensive penetration testing and cyber risk assessments, but to assist the client in becoming the first banking institution to fully convert their controls to the cloud.

These new controls and overall improved security posture have resulted in a 30% reduction of audit staff, and a 40% reduction of total audit cycle time.

Getting Started with Centric Consulting’s Penetration Testing Services

How to Reach Out to Us for Your Penetration Testing Needs

Whether you’re already set to engage our penetration testing services or are just looking for more information, our promise is that you’ll hear back from an expert. You’ll discuss your organization’s security compliance concerns with a deeply experienced advisor with an average of 15 years’ experience in serving your industry.

TALK TO AN EXPERT

How We Scope Your Penetration Testing Engagement

When our penetration testers assess your unique testing requirements, we establish the planning and project approach together, defining the assessment scope, outlining the systems, applications, and infrastructure components we’ll evaluate, and setting the rules of engagement that ensure legal and ethical compliance throughout the engagement.

Next Steps After Contacting Us for Penetration Testing Services

After you’ve contacted us to discuss our pen testing services, sit back and expect a prompt and friendly reach out from one of our cybersecurity experts.

We’ll approach our initial conversations from a get to know each other better perspective, aiming to ask – and answer – the right questions that allow us to determine what your cybersecurity risk and regulatory concerns are and which penetration testing methodologies will best suit your business needs, systems and infrastructure. Our goal is that you come away with a clear picture of the scope and quality of the work that we propose.

10 Things To Look For in a Mature Penetration Test

Not all pen tests are created equal. Pen testing is a staple for many organizations as more regulations require third-party assessments and organizations perform due diligence reviews.

Unfortunately, pen testing is becoming a commoditized service as more organizations enter this space. The price for these services varies wildly and so does quality. Let’s break down how to evaluate the quality of the work being proposed.

READ THE BLOG

Our Penetration Testing FAQs

Ensuring your organization’s cybersecurity readiness is crucial as threats continue to evolve. Learn how our penetration testing services identify vulnerabilities before attackers can exploit them. These Frequently Asked Questions address some of the most common inquiries we see, shedding light on our methodology, scope, reporting, and the insights our ethical hacking experts provide to help fortify your defenses.

What is Penetration Testing?

Penetration testing, also known as pen testing or ethical hacking, is a proactive approach to cybersecurity that simulates real-world attacks on an organization’s systems, networks, and web applications. The goal is to identify and address potential vulnerabilities before they are exploited by malicious actors.

Why is Penetration Testing important?

Regular pen testing services ensure your network, applications, and overall security posture is hardened against cyber-attacks. Penetration testing strengthens your security posture by building institutional knowledge about your security landscape over time, helping IT teams prioritize remediation efforts before a breach occurs. The average cost of a data breach was $4.45 million in 2023 — proactive pen testing is significantly less expensive than reactive remediation.

What is the difference between penetration testing and vulnerability scanning?

Vulnerability scanning is an automated process that identifies known vulnerabilities in your systems. Penetration testing goes further — skilled ethical hackers actively attempt to exploit those vulnerabilities to determine the real-world impact of a successful attack. The human element in pen testing is crucial for uncovering weaknesses that automated solutions miss.

What are the different types of penetration tests?

Centric offers a full range of pen testing services, including network penetration testing (internal, external, mobile, wireless, and physical), specialized testing for OT, IoT, SCADA, and API environments, application security testing covering OWASP and DevSecOps, LLM pen testing, open-source intelligence gathering (OSINT), social engineering testing, vulnerability management, and Pen Testing as a Service (PTaaS).

How long does a penetration test typically take?

The duration depends on the scope, complexity, and type of engagement. Centric takes a risk-based approach to scoping penetration testing engagements, focusing on your highest-risk assets. Our five-phase process covers planning and scoping, reconnaissance, vulnerability discovery, exploitation, and reporting, with timelines established upfront during the planning and project scoping phase.

What should businesses expect during a penetration test?

Centric works closely with your team to define the scope, rules of engagement, and timeline before any testing begins. Using a tailored combination of manual and automated techniques, our experts discover high-risk vulnerabilities and misconfigurations, attempt to exploit them, and deliver a comprehensive pen testing report with actionable remediation recommendations and a hardening roadmap.

Who should perform penetration testing?

Penetration testing should be performed by skilled ethical hackers with proven credentials and real-world experience. Centric’s pen testing team holds over 42 specialized certifications, including OSCP, CRTO, and OSINT credentials. Our experience spans industries and sectors, and we catch vulnerabilities the average pen test misses, resulting in 325 and counting satisfied customers.

What is the role of penetration testing in compliance?

Regular pen testing helps organizations achieve cyber liability compliance, meet regulatory requirements that mandate third-party security assessments, and demonstrate a clean bill of health for application launches and post-critical system changes. Centric’s pen testing services support compliance with major security frameworks.

Our Latest Insights

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Identify security vulnerabilities and ensure you’re prepared for cyber threats with our penetration testing services.

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Penetration Testing Services

Average cost of a data breach

Types of Pen Testing Services We Offer

Network Penetration Testing

Specialized Penetration Testing

Application Security and Penetration Testing

Open-Source Intelligence Gathering (OSINT)

Social Engineering Testing

Vulnerability Management

Pen Testing as a Service and Program Management

Tailored Pen Testing with Proven Expertise