What is a penetration test ?

What is penetration testing ? 

Penetration testing, often called “pentesting”,“pen testing”, “network penetration testing” or “security testing”, is the practice of attacking your own or your clients’ IT systems in the same way a hacker would to identifysecurity holes. Of course, you do this without actually harming the network. The person carrying out a penetration testis called a penetration tester or pentester.

Let’s make one thing crystal clear: Penetration testing requires that you get permission from the person who owns the system. Otherwise, you would be hacking the system, which is illegal in most countries – and trust me, you don’t look good in an orange jump suit.

In other words : The difference between penetration testing and hacking is whether you have the system owner’s permission. If you want to do a network penetration test on someone else’s system, we highly recommend that you get written permission. In this case, asking first is definitely better than apologizing later!

You can become a penetration tester at home by testing your own server and later make a career out of it. At Rapid7, we have a team of professionals that pentest government and enterprise IT systems for a living. And let me tell you, they enjoy their job!