What is VAPT Services and It’s Importance in Cybersecurity
VAPT stands for Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing. It is a culmination of two practices, Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing. It is implemented to identify and fix the vulnerabilities of any IT Infrastructure. This is essentially done by simulating an attack and exploiting the weaknesses of the target system. Once the weaknesses become known, they are addressed accordingly.
Why is VAPT Important for Businesses?
Due to the internet revolution, nowadays, a large amount of people have access to the internet. This also means that individuals with nefarious intentions are more capable than ever of implementing their plans to fruition. Due to this, a sharp rise in cybercrimes has been seen and hence the demand for VAPT in Cybersecurity has skyrocketed. Hence it is quite helpful to know about the basics to be better aware of this area in cybersecurity.
Irrespective of the scale of the business, it can be a victim of a cyberattack, hampering its day-to-day operations.
Keeping all these facts in mind, it is essential to ensure that regular VAPT checks are done by either the company itself, or the company outsources reliable and proficient cybersecurity experts that provide VAPT in Cybersecurity services.
Difference between Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing
Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing are the two separate methods in cybersecurity used to examine the target system for any vulnerabilities that might be present.
- Vulnerability Assessment: It is a security evaluation that is used to identify the weaknesses of the systems. This provides a roadmap to the cyber experts as to where the vulnerability exists to rectify it. It is relatively less time consuming and involves a less rigorous and more efficient scanning algorithm.
- Penetration Testing: It is essentially a simulated cyberattack that exploits the weaknesses of a system. This makes the rectification of the vulnerability easier. It is relatively more time consuming and employs a rigorous scanning algorithm. This makes it more comprehensive.
The above mentioned practices are used in conjunction to properly discover and rectify any security vulnerabilities. The area of VAPT is still constantly evolving with the advent of new security threats and attacks. Due to the high efficacy of this process, the demand for VAPT is growing exponentially.
Implications of Not Implementing VAPT in Cybersecurity
Data breaches present a huge problem, not just for companies and organizations, but also for individuals who had trusted the organization with their data. To ensure the security of your network and shield your invaluable data from the nefarious hackers, vulnerability assessments and penetration are a must.
A data breach can adversely affect the day to day functioning of a business and also result in loss of faith of the customers. This is the very core reason why security is one of the primary concerns of an organization. More serious implications include unwanted legal cases, reduced revenue due to low trust among customers and fines from regulatory authorities.
Types of VAPT in Cybersecurity
- Network VAPT: Network security is audited in this procedure. Accessing network is one of the primary ways cybercriminals gain access to a business infrastructure. Therefore, it is one of the most potent ways to detect and/or prevent a potential or ongoing cyberattack. Here, the experts specifically target the network infrastructure and analyze the outcomes.
- Web Application VAPT: This process is used to examine the integrity of a web application according to cybersecurity standards. Cyber experts attack and find the loopholes in a website so that it is safe and is out of the reach of criminals.
- Mobile App VAPT: This test penetrates a mobile system to find security weaknesses and loopholes. This test ensures the integrity and confidentiality of the data present in mobile applications. Mobile App VAPT is OS dependent and hence has different protocols and techniques for different mobile operating systems like android and iOS.
- Source Code Review: It is a process where the source code of an application is examined in order to find vulnerabilities and errors that may have been left unresolved during the initial application development. In this, a reviewer analyzes the code line by line to find potential weaknesses.
- Configuration Review: Here, the IT infrastructure of an organization is under examination. This analyzes the network and application level devices to find out any vulnerabilities. These vulnerabilities are efficiently rectified by the cyber experts.
- Server VAPT: The objective of server VAPT is to assess the security aspects of the servers. It analyzes the efficacy of existing security protocols and finds potential weaknesses in the system.
In case you are looking for any of the VAPT services a thorough job is very necessary because failing to do a flawless job can leave your IT infrastructure vulnerable and susceptible to cyberattacks. Therefore keep these points in mind while choosing your VAPT partner for protecting your business from attackers. We recommend you to go with the most trusted VAPT service providers in India.
VAPT Testing Methods
Generally, VAPT test has four major steps:
- Planning: The first step of VAPT process is planning. Here, identify the scope of testing, underline the objectives and decide the systems that are going to get tested.
- Vulnerability Assessment: The second step scans the systems for vulnerabilities that a hacker may exploit.
- Pen Testing: This component is where an attacker simulates a real-world attack on the target systems that gives an overview of the security protocols of those systems.
- Reporting: This is an important step because the reports represent a summary of observations and the rectification of these vulnerabilities.
Conclusion
In this article, you will get to know all about What is VAPT and how it is essential for a business and its day to day operations. You can also find out about the differences between vulnerability assessment and penetration testing. Also familiarize yourselves with different types of VAPT to have a thorough insight into this field of cybersecurity.
