With the modern business adopting hybrid IT, sensitive data tends to transversely cross internal networks to the cloud platforms. Such interconnectivity brings about convenience yet it exposes people to cyber risks. Even a wrongly set one endpoint or cloud service can provide a backdoor to the attackers. To overcome them, companies need to implement not only internal network penetration testing but also cloud penetration testing. These tests are a complementary set to the security of your local infrastructure and virtual assets, finding out the weaknesses, and monitoring that your business is secured against all potential attack vectors.
Knowing the Internal Network Penetration Testing
In Internal network penetration testing, simulates an attacker from the establishment private network. It assumes that an attacker or an insider has gained partial access and has to gain more privileges or steal information. This kind of test will show the extent to which an intruder may have reached in case your perimeter defenses fail.
In an internal test, the cybersecurity experts could look at such areas:
- The User Privileges: verification whether employee accounts have too much privilege.
- Patch Management: Identifying systems and unpatched vulnerabilities.
- Network Segmentation: It is necessary to make sure that sensitive departments can be separated.
- File Sharing Systems: Locating exposed shared folders or data stores.
- Endpoint Security: These tests determine whether antivirus, detection, and response tools are effective.
The outcome will indicate the level of resiliency in your internal systems against insider or post-breach attacks. It assists the close security gaps of the IT teams that are usually unknown to everyday operations.
Learning about Cloud Penetration Testing
The cloud penetration testing had become equally important as most of the companies store sensitive data in their cloud. It analyses the cloud environment (AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud)- to identify your misconfigurations, access control issues, and exploits of the hosted services.
Key areas tested include:
- Identity & Access Management (IAM): Roles and privileges are provided in accordance with the least-privilege principle.
- Cloud Storage Protection: Identifying publicly available buckets or improperly configured databases.
- API Security: Deciding on insecure endpoints that may expose data.
- Encryption & Key Management: Checking the encryption of sensitive information.
- Network and Firewall Rules: Checking proper segmentation and control of traffic flow.
These tests are designed on real world scenarios but do not violate acceptable use policies of your cloud provider and therefore, do not make your environment unstable when it is under assessment.
Why Both Tests Are Necessary
Most organizations are strongly linked between the internal and cloud environments. The one is usually vulnerable to the other.
For instance:
- Phishing-attack may steal internal credentials, and they are utilized to obtain cloud resources.
- A poorly configured cloud-based storage system will enable the attackers to pivot their way into your internal network.
When these types of testing are conducted simultaneously, business organizations can enjoy a comprehensive security cover that will cover every potential attack pathway born out of on-premise systems all the way to the virtual resources.
Business Advantages:
- Full Visibility of risk: Find vulnerabilities in both types of infrastructure.
- Regulatory Compliance: Satisfy ISO 27001, SOC 2 and GDPR standards, with certifiable test reports.
- Incident Preparedness: Enhance your detection and response.
- Less Downtime: Avoid ransomware or misuse of cloud services.
- Customer Assurance: Show the desire to preserve the data of clients throughout the platforms.
These two-layer testing will make sure that regardless of your data being on physical servers or on the cloud it is secure and compliant.
Conclusion
The era of hybrid networks dictates the need to have a hybrid approach to cybersecurity. Internal network penetration training makes your internal systems resistant to insider threats whereas cloud penetration testing protects virtual offices against external threats. They make a continuous loop of security assurance together, and they are beneficial to you they are helping you stop breaches, keep compliant, and have your most valuable asset, trust.
