External Penetration Testing | Cyber Security Services
Detect.
External Infrastructure Penetration Testing
In an ever-evolving threat landscape, identifying weaknesses before attackers do is essential.
External Penetration Testing is a proactive approach to uncovering vulnerabilities within your public-facing systems. By simulating real-world attack methods, it provides a clear understanding of your organisation’s exposure and helps fortify your defences against emerging threats.
Why External Infrastructure Penetration Testing?
External Infrastructure Penetration Testing is designed to identify and exploit vulnerabilities within your public-facing systems, ensuring robust protection against potential threats.
Our CREST, CHECK, and Cyber Scheme certified consultants simulate real-world attack scenarios to evaluate the effectiveness of your external defences.
Proactive Vulnerability Detection
Identify security gaps in your external systems before attackers exploit them. Penetration testing ensures your defences are ahead of evolving cyber threats.
Real-World Threat Simulation
Experience how your systems would hold up against genuine cyber-attacks, providing a practical assessment of your organisation's readiness to handle real-world threats.
Strengthened Security Posture
Gain actionable insights to prioritise remediation efforts and enhance the overall resilience of your public-facing systems.
Compliance and Assurance
Meet industry standards and regulatory requirements such as PCI DSS, ISO 27001, SOC 2, and GDPR while demonstrating a commitment to protecting sensitive data and systems.
External vs Internal Infrastructure Penetration Testing
| External Infrastructure Penetration Testing |
|---|
| Targets public-facing systems |
| Starts with no prior network access |
| Seeks entry points |
| Tests internet-facing assets |
| Mimics hacker activity |
| Internal Infrastructure Penetration Testing |
|---|
| Focuses on internal network vulnerabilities |
| Assumes some prior network access |
| Identifies risks of lateral movement or data theft |
| Covers internal systems like servers and workstations |
| Simulates insider threats or compromised devices |
“Once the testing phase was complete, CyberLab delivered the report quickly. A team from CyberLab, including a Senior Director, presented the results to senior executives at Nottingham City Council, answered questions and provided interpretation and context for the scores.”
– Mark Smith, Server Support Manager, Nottingham City Council
Why Choose CyberLab?
Thousands of organisations across the UK trust us, here’s why…
CREST & CHECK Accredited
We are certified for both CREST and CHECK Green Light testing - an achievement not all testing companies can claim.
CREST Infrastructure & Application Testing
We are certified in both CREST Infrastructure and Application testing, ensuring comprehensive security coverage for all your systems.
Experienced & Senior Consultants
Our team consists of highly experienced, senior consultants and penetration testers with over 15 years of industry expertise.
Outstanding Communication
We establish dedicated teams or Slack channels to ensure seamless two-way communication between project managers, testers, and your team throughout the entire project.
Clear and Concise Reports
We provide easy-to-understand reports with detailed findings and actionable recommendations.
Specialised Testing Teams
We have specialised teams for Cloud, Application, and API testing. Our app and API testers, who are former developers, communicate fluently with your development team, leveraging their coding expertise to deliver deeper, more effective testing.
We Save You Time and Money
Clients consistently tell us that we deliver higher-quality testing in less time.
Forward-Thinking Security
Our pen testing team goes beyond identifying vulnerabilities, offering proactive solutions to mitigate future risks and ensure your security evolves ahead of emerging threats.
Success Story
COP 26 Summit
Identity Events Management, the agency contracted to deliver the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), needed to ensure that their defences were secure for the conference.
‘We were delighted to be involved in the security testing surrounding the United Nations Climate Change Conference, and to work alongside Identity as they delivered hybrid event solution. At CyberLab, working securely from anywhere is ingrained in our company, and this event really encapsulated this new way of working and accessing events.’
– Gavin Wood, CEO, CyberLab
Penetration Testing: The CyberLab Approach
The way we structure our Pen Tests aligns closely with the steps taken by bad actors to target and compromise your systems. We replicate the approach of real-world adversaries to simulate and evaluate how your systems and processes respond to a cyber attack.
One of our CREST, CHECK, and Cyber Scheme certified consultants will work with you to define the scope of the engagement and ensure that our tests will fulfil your requirements.
Your assigned consultant will gather information on your organisation, including:
- IP addresses of websites and MX records
- Details of e-mail addresses
- Social networks
- People search
- Job search websites
This information will assist in identifying and exploiting any vulnerabilities or weaknesses.
Within the Threat Analysis stage we will identify a range of potential vulnerabilities within your target systems, which will typically involve a specialist engineer examining:
- Attack avenues, vectors, and threat agents
- Results from Research, Reconnaissance and Enumeration
- Technical system/network/application vulnerabilities
We will leverage automated tools and manual testing techniques at this stage.
Once we have identified vulnerabilities, we will attempt to exploit them in order to gain entry to the targeted system.
There are three phases to this stage:
Exploit – use vulnerabilities to gain access to a system, e.g. inject commands into an application that provide control over the target.
Escalate – attempt to use the exploited control over the target to increase access or escalate privileges to obtain further rights to the system, such as admin privileges.
Advance – attempt to move from the target system across the infrastructure to find other vulnerable systems (lateral movement) potentially using escalated privileges from target systems and attempting to gain further escalated privileges and access to the network.
Your Penetration Test Report will detail any identified threats or vulnerabilities, as well as our recommended remedial actions. Threats and vulnerabilities will be ranked in order of importance.
The report will also contain an executive summary and attack narrative which will explain the technical risks in business terms. Where required, we can arrange for your CyberLab engineer to present the report to the key stakeholders within your organisation.
The report will provide information on remedial actions required to reduce the threats and vulnerabilities that have been identified.
At this stage, we can provide you with the additional consultancy, products, and services to further improve your security posture.
CREST, CHECK & Cyber Scheme Certified
CREST (the Council of Registered Ethical Security Testers) is an international accreditation with a strict Codes of Conduct and Ethics. CHECK is the Government-backed accreditation from the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) which certifies that a company can conduct authorised penetration tests of public sector systems and networks.
All our penetration testers are certified by CREST, with senior consultants certified by CREST to the highest CCT Level. Our testers are also either CHECK Team Leaders (CTL’s) or Team Members (CTM’s).
Security testers that pass the Cyber Scheme exams demonstrate ‘competence and skill at the highest levels’ as defined by the National Technical Authority for Cyber Security (NCSC).
Our team have decades of combined experience and take pride in operating at the highest level of the industry – conducting a broad range of government and commercial tests – and always aim to go the extra mile.
Red Teaming vs Penetration Testing
| Red Team |
|---|
| We test systems simultaniously |
| We work to fluid, adaptable targets |
| Longer testing schedule |
| We don't tell your people what we're doing |
| Our testers will be creative and use any means necessary |
| Pen Test |
|---|
| We test systems independently |
| We define our targets before we start |
| Short term tests |
| Your people know what we're testing and when |
| Our testers use a suite of commercially available testing tools |
Speak With an Expert
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Whether you’re looking to implement basic cyber security best practice, improve your existing defences, or introduce a new system or solution, our team of expert consultants, engineers, and ethical hackers are here to help.
Our team specialise in creating bespoke security solutions and testing packages to improve and maintain your security posture.
We are 100% vendor agnostic and will only ever recommend the best products and solutions for your requirements.
If you like this, then take a look at…
Types of Penetration Test - What is the Difference?
12 Common Vulnerabilities Found During Penetration Testing
CyberLab Simulate Attack in front of Cyber Crime Police
