Tips to Follow to Reduce the Business Impact during a Web Application Pentest

Tips to follow to reduce the business impact during a web application Pentest-2

From researching to buying groceries, web applications have become integral to modern life. This crucial part of life is often a target for cyber attackers who use sensitive information to gain. Hence, web application penetration testing is an essential process to detect and address vulnerabilities, ensuring protection and security for the application.

Before we move forward, you should know that a web application pentest involves careful planning, communication, and execution. Investing in effective web application penetration testing is as crucial as building an application. But while a web application pentest happens, you might wonder what the impact will be on the business. This happens because every data related to sensitive information, monetary transactions, and business reputation is at stake.

Understanding your every concern, this blog will discuss important tips and tricks for reducing the business impact during a web application pentest. Let’s dive in!

What is a Web Application Pentest?

Before we discuss the tips, you should know what a web application pentest is. A web application pentest, also known as web application penetration testing or web app testing, is a simple and systematic process for evaluating security by simulating real-world attacks. The primary goal of web application testing is to identify vulnerabilities, weaknesses, and misconfigurations before they can be exploited.

Tips & Tricks to Follow

Did you know that in the last three years, the average cost of data breaches has increased by 15% worldwide? Hence, effective web application penetration testing is the best and only way to reduce the risk of damages, financial losses, and legal repercussions. Let’s explore the tips to follow and mitigate the risk and impact on business during a web application pentest.

Pre-Test Planning

Pre-testing planning is a crucial phase before you actually start manual or automated penetration testing. This phase lets you schedule wisely and define every objective for a successful pentest, ensuring comprehensive, robust, and efficient test execution.
Conducting a successful web application pentest is certainly not a small task. For a smooth execution, meticulous planning, intricate decision-making, and internal expertise are needed. Experts say it is better to conduct tests during off-peak hours or periods with minimal critical business activities. This helps minimize disruptions to users’ and web applications’ daily operations.

Further, defining the goals and objectives of web application penetration testing makes it easy to implement. Developers can determine the depth of testing, identify the target areas to be tested, and specify any testing constraints.

Communication and Coordination

For everything one does, effective communication and coordination are vital organs for developing an application. When it comes to web application penetration testing, establishing clear channels for communication is necessary.

The internal teams of testers and other members should have regular meetings for updates. This way, you can discuss progress in a timely manner, address concerns, and make amendments if necessary. Moreover, this ensures that if there’s any potential impact on business operations, it can be addressed immediately. With clear communication, the team will better understand their roles and responsibilities, preventing misunderstandings.

In addition, having a specific point of contact with experience in IT infrastructure will help you make decisions quickly if required. This person can act as a liaison between the testers and internal and external teams for smooth coordination. Consequently, by fostering open communication, organizations can ensure an efficient and successful web application penetration process without significant disruptions.

Backup and Redundancy

Data backup and redundancy are essential components in IT, especially during web application penetration testing. Sometimes, unintended consequences may arise during testing. Hence, it is always better to ensure comprehensive backups of all critical data before initiating any test. This acts as a safeguard against corruption or data loss during penetration testing.

Further, having redundant systems for your web application’s critical components helps maintain operational continuity. This includes backing up servers and equipment and maintaining alternate storage for data. Moreover, your business operations will continue smoothly without any disruptions.

Performance Monitoring

Another tip on the list is to continuously monitor your system during a web application pentest. This proactive approach to continuous performance monitoring helps detect and mitigate any impact on functionality and user experience. By keeping a close check, testers can easily detect anomalies like unexpected behavior, slowdowns, etc., and address them promptly. Performance monitoring also ensures that there are no adverse effects on the overall performance of the application or system.

Security Measures

Ensuring the safety and integrity of a system is also important during web application penetration testing. Testers always make sure to use web application pentests that employ non-destructive testing methods. This helps prevent service interruptions and data corruption and safeguards integrity. Hence, teams identify vulnerabilities without causing harm to the operational environment.

For critical systems, it is better to consider the aggressiveness and depth of the tests. Simply, this means focusing on detecting vulnerabilities without pushing the system to breakpoints. This approach helps manage the scope and intensity of the tests and ensures critical business functions remain unaffected.

Post-Test Clean-Up

Another essential tip is to ensure that web application penetration tests do not leave any residual effects. Once the web application pentest is done, testers should make sure that changes like configurations and temporary files are completely reversed. This way, you can restore the system’s original state and prevent any residual effects.

Once the penetration testing is done, testers provide a detailed final report to recommend fixes, if any. This report includes a detailed explanation of identified vulnerabilities, potential impact, and steps for remediation. Further, this helps address the issues promptly, enhancing security from potential exploits.

Incident Response Plan

Sometimes, unexpected breaches or issues arise during web application penetration testing. This is why an incident response plan becomes an essential aspect of addressing such issues and breaches. This incident response plan should specify predefined procedures and processes for detecting, mitigating, and recovering from security incidents.

Every application has a plan tailored to the specific risks and scenarios. The key components on which every tester should focus are defining the roles and responsibilities for incidents, communication protocols, documentation guidelines, and post-resolution analysis.

Since regular web application pentest are necessary. This incident response plan ensures that the plan is aligned with potential threats. Moreover, preparing for contingencies helps minimize the impact and swiftly restore them to their original state.

Learning and Improvement

Once web application penetration testing is done, conducting a debriefing session with the teams and internal stakeholders is helpful. In such sessions, both testers and internal stakeholders can review the testing process comprehensively. This session includes a discussion of what aspects of the test went well, outcomes, and future strategies. By open dialogue, teams can learn from every test iteration and identify and mitigate vulnerabilities effectively. Moreover, the culture of continuous improvement helps to understand what could be improved in future tests.

Conclusion: Plan Success with PenetoLabs

Web application pentesting is an essential aspect of cybersecurity prevention. Not only basic security checks but also regular pentests allow organizations to proactively determine and solve vulnerabilities.

Web application penetration testing is an ongoing process that must be integrated into the development lifecycle. Regular testing and collaboration between the testing teams and internal stakeholders help remediate vulnerabilities and maintain a robust security posture.

Further, staying ahead of emerging threats and following the best practices and technologies help provide a safeguard against potential cyber threats. By following the above-mentioned tips, testers can minimize the impact on business during web application penetration testing while ensuring effectiveness.

PenetoLabs has a proven track record of offering clients the best cybersecurity services throughout a range of industries. With a team of highly professional and experienced individuals, enhance your chance to improve your security posture.

So, Connect with PenetoLabs to explore Web Application Penetration Testing and other Cybersecurity Services today!