Apr 7, 2023

Applying Strategic Thinking in Your Pentesting Program

Why You Need to Think Strategically It’s no secret that the tactics, techniques, and procedures hackers use evolve every day. In 2022 alone, 18,828 common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVEs) were published. At the same time, attack surfaces keep growing — the average large enterprise now spans 8,500 IPs. Keeping your attack surface secure has never […]

Why You Need to Think Strategically

It’s no secret that the tactics, techniques, and procedures hackers use evolve every day. In 2022 alone, 18,828 common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVEs) were published. At the same time, attack surfaces keep growing — the average large enterprise now spans 8,500 IPs. Keeping your attack surface secure has never been harder, and your current pentesting program probably won’t get you there.

So how do you use limited security staff and budget to find, prioritize, and remediate vulnerabilities across a growing attack surface? Adopt a risk-driven approach instead of a compliance-driven one — combining strategic and tactical pentesting. The Synack Platform’s core components give you the testing and data to secure your attack surface and meet compliance requirements:

Developing an Ideal Security Testing Strategy

Test assets across your entire attack surface, and base each test on the asset’s risk value or how close it sits to sensitive data. Run continuous penetration testing on high-value or high-risk assets, and automated scanning on lower-risk ones. Keep an asset test history — not just which tests ran, but their results and timing — so you can analyze testing over time and across programs. With this approach, fixing a root cause can have a system-wide effect.

>> DOWNLOAD: The Guide to Strategic Security Testing <<

Tactical vs. Strategic Thinking in Penetration Testing

The tactical approach — compliance-driven, one-off vulnerability remediation — is like winning a single battle. Instead, design your program to remove the root cause of vulnerabilities. That saves your team time and keeps your attack surface fortified.

We recommend using both tactical and strategic methods. Tactically, security teams use pentesting to find exploitable vulnerabilities and fix them faster — solving the immediate problem. Strategically, security leaders look for the root causes behind those vulnerabilities. Is something in code development introducing them? Are API endpoints exposed? Are cloud assets misconfigured? Does your credential authentication have gaps? Find the problem and fix it at the source.

The Synack Platform and Strategic Thinking

The Synack platform includes features that help you think both strategically and tactically. It rests on five pillars of pentesting that form the core of a strategic approach to security testing.

1) Vulnerability Management: Find and Manage Vulnerabilities that Matter
Many teams picture pentesting as discovery alone. It’s really a full process: assign asset priority, discover vulnerabilities, then report, patch, and verify.

2) Operations and Support: The Synack Quality Promise
Synack operations teams make sure remediation focuses on truly exploitable vulnerabilities by removing false positives. Support teams are on hand to save your team time and answer any questions.

3) API and Integrations: Integrating Our Data with Yours for a Complete Picture
Vulnerability management is critical, but it’s only one part of a complete security program. For a wider view, Synack integrates with leading security software, including Splunk, ServiceNow, KENNA, Microsoft Sentinel, Defender for Cloud, and Azure DevOps.

4) Reporting and Real-time Analytics: Insights Into Your Strategic Security Posture
Pentesting only matters if it produces results you can act on. Synack presents usable information. See vulnerabilities by type to find root causes (for example, 80% of exploitable vulnerabilities trace back to cross-site scripting). Use coverage analytics to see how thoroughly an attack surface is tested. And use the attacker resistance score to see how you compare within your industry.

5) Managed Community Access: On-demand Access to a Community of Expert Security Researchers
Synack manages a large community of highly vetted security researchers with the range of skills to meet any testing need. Synack LaunchPoint controls and measures researcher and scanning activity to ensure coverage, spot trends, and manage traffic.

Together, these five pillars enable a risk-based approach that helps you meet both your tactical and strategic goals.

Learn More

You can read more about Synack strategic thinking and the five pillars of the Synack platform in our new white paper, The Guide to Strategic Security Testing.