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What Is Penetration Testing and How Much Does It Cost?

A controlled attack on your network to find exploitable weaknesses before criminals do.

Penetration testing is an authorized, simulated attack on your network, systems or applications, performed by security professionals to find weaknesses that a real attacker could exploit. Unlike an automated scan, a pen test uses human judgment to chain small issues into a real path to your data.

Types of penetration tests

  • External network. Attacking from the internet: firewalls, VPN appliances, exposed services, public websites.
  • Internal network. Starting from inside, as a compromised laptop or a malicious insider would, to see how far an attacker could move.
  • Web application. Testing your customer portal or line-of-business app for flaws.
  • Wireless. Attacking Wi-Fi from the parking lot.
  • Social engineering. Phishing and pretext calls against staff, with permission.

What you receive

A report that lists each finding, how it was exploited, the business risk, and specific remediation steps, ranked by severity. A retest after fixes is common and worth including.

What drives the cost

Scope (number of external addresses, internal hosts, applications), depth (automated-assisted vs fully manual), whether a retest is included, and reporting requirements for compliance. Small business external tests are far less involved than enterprise internal engagements.

How often

At least annually, and after significant changes such as a new firewall, an office move or a cloud migration. PCI DSS, CMMC, cyber insurers and many customer contracts set their own expectations.

Pen test vs vulnerability scan

A scan is automated and frequent; a pen test is manual and deep. You need both, on different schedules. See vulnerability scanning vs penetration testing. A broader look at your controls is a security risk assessment, and a review of the network itself is a network security audit.

Mentis Group provides network penetration testing in Dallas-Fort Worth as part of our Enhanced Cybersecurity services, alongside vulnerability scanning and recurring framework audits.

Have a question about your own environment? Schedule a consultation with Mentis Group or call (866) 901-7808.