Thom explains the difference between a Vulnerability Assessment & a Penetration Test
JUMPSEC cyber security expert Thom sheds some light on Vulnerability Assessments, Penetrations Tests and the differences between them.
“Vulnerability assessments typically rely on vulnerability scanning tools to identify technical vulnerabilities making use of pre-configured test cases and signatures. A penetration test takes a contextual view of the target, combining many vulnerabilities and information sources in order to craft specific attacks with the goal of finding security weaknesses. Simply put a penetration test mimics a skilled attacker, whereas a vulnerability assessment provides a baseline against common known weaknesses.”