Penetration testing: Death on Mount Everest…Part Two

Let’s pick up on our Everest story from the previous article in the series…  

At the same time Rob Hall and his team were making their way up the mountain, there was another team of climbers that were descending.

They were not descending because they had reached the summit, they were doing so because they had sensed the danger that Rob’s team failed to perceive.

Like Hall’s team, the team led by David Breashears was also headed for the summit.

However, when David noticed the amount of traffic on the mountain, he concluded it was too risky to continue climbing.

Second, he ensured that his team had enough oxygen canisters for the climb.

David stocked five times the amount of oxygen they needed for the climb.

In fact, it was his oxygen rescuers used to save the surviving members of Rob’s team.

This is a classic example of the fact that we might not be in the position to prevent natural disaster, but we have the ability to reduce the impact it has on us through meticulous preparation.

How Prepared is Your Organisation for Cyber Attack?

Cyber attack is definitely man-made.

However, cyber attack might as well be considered a natural disaster because, to a large extent, organisations have almost no control over it.

When I was doing my ethical hacking training, I met dozens of hackers who had no intention of engaging in ethical hacking.

With the level of sophistication and advanced tools available to hackers, cyber attack will continue unabated.

The security forces and the legal system are woefully unprepared to tackle the problem of cyber attack.

But this does not mean that your organisation needs to become a victim.

There are countermeasures you can put in place to harden your network against cyber attack.

One of those countermeasures is to conduct periodic penetration testing.

Penetration testing allows your IT administrators or in-house cyber security team to identify vulnerabilities within your network before they get spotted by hackers.

Penetration testing allows your in-house cyber security team to patch those vulnerabilities before they become known to hackers.