The danger of cybercrime never ceases to loom over the business landscape. To combat such a concerning situation, organizations adopt approaches like implementing penetration testing. This is one of the best ways to identify the susceptibilities of your IT infrastructure and address them before they are exploited.

Although pen testing is a beneficial strategy, it can result in undesired consequences if it goes wrong. Getting services from an unreliable partner or implementing an unplanned execution can ruin your purpose. It is associated with frequent outages and increased exposure to security issues.

These problems can worsen the condition instead of addressing your problems. If you are eager to learn how a wrong approach can affect your business, keep reading. This article will shed light on the flawed pentesting risks businesses must know.

Top 5 Consequences When Pen testing Goes Wrong

Penetration testing has long been a favored approach for businesses that want to strengthen their IT infrastructure. It can reveal vulnerabilities and provide credible solutions. However, you must watch out for the dire consequences of flawed penetration testing. It can decrease productivity and give false negatives, leading to undesired circumstances. Let’s focus on the top five consequences when pentesting goes wrong:

Frequent Outages

One of the most concerning outcomes of the wrong pentesting is frequent outages. It can potentially disrupt different operations in your workplace, increasing the risk of operational inefficiencies. Such an issue can happen when your testers are inexperienced.

Not having the proper knowledge about an organization’s IT infrastructure is another prime cause of outages. As a result, they can unknowingly trigger vulnerabilities that enhance disruptions. Such a flawed approach can also exacerbate an already worse condition, causing crashes.

Due to the above side effects, your business can lose loyal customers and face decreased revenue. That is why you must not contact an unreliable tester to avoid these problems. Businesses opt for penetrating testing UAE based services to prevent outages and maintain continuity.

Increased Exposure

The prime purpose of penetration testing is to address a company’s IT infrastructure vulnerabilities. It is aimed at pointing out the potential weaknesses, so they can be resolved in time to avoid cyberattacks. Flawed penetration testing, on the other hand, can do the opposite.

It is associated with exposing your system to cyber threats instead of revealing its susceptibilities. This kind of mishap occurs when you conduct pentesting on your own or contact an immature tester. Tests taken without adequate insights and skills can worsen your system’s weaknesses.

Another reason is incorrect reporting from your partner, which can lead you to falsely believe your system’s safety against malicious actors. Incorrect testing can also expose your system’s sensitive data to unauthorized access. Due to this fact, you must partner with a reputed service.

False Negatives

A false negative is one of the out of many ways flawed pentesting can damage your business. It occurs when a vulnerability goes unchecked during a test. For some vendors, it is almost impossible to catch all the susceptibilities. Such unidentified vulnerabilities can become more dangerous.

Another reason behind false negatives is the vulnerabilities that are difficult to detect by a tester. Usually, an inexperienced service provider fails to locate such weaknesses. When the process is complete, a wrong perception of a secured IT infrastructure can give rise to many unwanted situations.

Such problems can also happen when you try to conduct testing without seeking help from a professional. This is because you might lack sophisticated tools to identify complex vulnerabilities. Opting for a trustworthy vendor is the only way to avoid false negatives.

Unethical Hacking

Unethical hacking is one of the top five consequences when pentesting goes wrong. This can happen when you contact a service provider without checking their background and reliability. It is essential to note that malicious actors can pose themselves as pentesters to trick you into giving them access.

Here are the top drawbacks of unethical hacking due to flawed pentesting:

• Compromised IT infrastructure
• Frequent data breaches
• Increased risk of cyberattacks
• Unexpected operational disruptions
• Substantial financial losses

These drawbacks can lead to a damaged reputation. For this reason, you must contact a reputed pentester. You can opt for penetration testing UAE based vendors to avert the risk of unethical hacking.

5.     Decreased Productivity

The overall purpose of conducting penetration testing is to decrease the risk of cyberattacks, increase efficiency, and enhance productivity. But, did you know that flawed pentesting can do otherwise? Decreased productivity is one of the flawed pentesting risks businesses must know.

A wrong pentesting approach can slow down your business’s progress for the following reasons:

• Frequent system downtimes
• Inaccurate reporting by the vendor
• Attacks that prevent staff from accessing the internet
• Unskilled and inexperienced testers

It is noteworthy that you must expect interruptions during penetration testing to some extent. However, contacting a reliable vendor can minimize the level of such issues.

Also Read our recent article : United States Cyber Security Market Report by SPER Market Research

Summing Up

Penetration testing is a good approach to strengthen your system against cybercriminals. It can also result in dire consequences if pentesting goes wrong. To avoid the aforementioned risks, contacting a trustworthy service provider is essential.