Penetration Testing
Simulate attacks. Uncover vulnerabilities. Stay secure.
Identify Weaknesses Before Attackers Do
Penetration Testing gives you a clear, evidence-based view of where your security controls could fail, before a real attacker finds out.
By safely simulating real-world attacks, penetration testing helps organisations understand their exposure, prioritise remediation, and strengthen cyber resilience over time.
What is Penetration Testing?
Penetration (or Pen) Testing is a proactive cyber assessment that identifies vulnerabilities across your infrastructure, applications and cloud environments. It combines automated tools with experienced human testing to uncover weaknesses that scans alone often miss.
Without regular testing, businesses risk leaving gaps in their defences, exposing sensitive data, and facing costly breaches. At Red Helix, we provide you with expert-led penetration testing to help organisations uncover weaknesses, strengthen security controls, and stay one step ahead of attackers.
Rather than producing a long list of theoretical issues, penetration testing focuses on what actually matters. It shows how vulnerabilities could be exploited in practice and what steps will most effectively reduce risk. At Red Helix, we provide expert analysis, actionable recommendations, and a clear roadmap for improving your defences.
Why Penetration Testing Matters
Penetration testing plays a vital role in building modern cyber security frameworks. By identifying system vulnerabilities, organisations can build an incident response plan for potential scenarios. As organisations grow, migrate to the cloud or adopt new technologies, gaps can appear even in well-designed defences. A one-off test quickly becomes outdated. Regular assessments mean that this can be constantly updated and improved alongside emerging threats.
Pen testing also reinforces the importance of cyber security best practises. Seeing first-hand how attackers can infiltrate systems and exploit vulnerabilities increases awareness across your organisation and promotes vigilance against phishing or social engineering attacks. This means that employees are better equipped when dealing with sensitive data.
| Type | Focus | Ideal for |
|---|---|---|
External Network Testing | Attacks from outside the organisation | Internet-facing systems |
Internal Network Testing | Insider or compromised device scenarios | Corporate networks |
Web & API Testing | Application logic and authentication flaws | Customer-facing services |
Wireless & IoT Testing | Weak configurations and protocols | Smart and connected devices |
Social Engineering | Phishing and impersonation | Organisation-wide testing |
Cloud Testing | Misconfigurations and IAM risk | Cloud and hybrid platforms |
Improving Security Beyond the Test
Penetration testing plays an important role in improving organisational awareness and preparedness.
Seeing how attacks succeed in realistic scenarios helps teams refine incident response plans, improve detection capabilities and reinforce secure behaviours across the business. Over time, this enforces more resilient security programs rather than reactive fixes.
Penetration Testing for Supporting Compliance and Assurance
Penetration testing is a key requirement for many standards and regulations, including ISO 27001, PCI DSS and Cyber Essentials Plus.
Penetration testing helps organisations meet these compliance requirements by providing documented evidence that the organisation is actively assessing and improving its security posture. It also builds customer and stakeholder confidence by demonstrating a commitment to security, reducing the risk of reputational damage from a cyber incident.
Penetration Testing Best Practices
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Conduct regular tests (at least annually, or when major changes occur).
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Combine automated and manual techniques.
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Include social engineering where relevant.
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Use realistic attacker scenarios.
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Work with remediation teams to apply fixes.
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Maintain strong communication, legal clarity, and safe execution.
Choosing the Right Penetration Testing Provider
When selecting a pen test provider, ensure they offer:
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Experienced ethical hackers with certifications (OSCP, CREST, etc.).
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Clear methodology aligned with standards like OWASP, NIST SP 800-115, ISO 27001.
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Scope flexibility: internal, external, web app, cloud, IoT, social engineering.
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Transparent reporting & prioritisation of findings.
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Post-test support: retesting, guidance, and remediation advice.
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Confidentiality, legal safeguards, rules of engagement clearly established.
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Integration with your security stack (vulnerability management, incident response).
Penetration Testing with Red Helix and Risk Crew
With the help of expert consultants, Risk Crew, Red Helix delivers expert-led penetration testing across internal and external networks, applications, cloud environments and social engineering scenarios. Our CREST-accredited team focus on real risk reduction, clear reporting and actionable outcomes that improve cyber resilience and support compliance.
Red Teaming: Test Your Defences the Way Real Attackers Do
Red Teaming is designed to show how your organisation would stand up to a real-world adversary, using realistic attack simulation to uncover gaps that traditional testing often misses.
By safely emulating how modern threat actors operate, Red Teaming helps organisations move beyond theoretical risk and understand what would actually happen during a real breach.
What Is Red Teaming?
Red Teaming is an adversary simulation exercise that tests your organisation’s ability to prevent, detect and respond to real-world attacks. Rather than focusing on individual vulnerabilities, Red Teaming looks at the full attack lifecycle, all the way from initial access and lateral movement through to impact.
The goal isn’t to “break in at all costs,” but to assess how people, processes and technology perform together under realistic attack conditions. This makes Red Teaming a critical capability for organisations focused on cyber resilience and breach readiness.
| Area | Penetration Testing | Red Teaming |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Identify specific technical vulnerabilities | Test real-world attacker behaviour and organisational response |
| Scope | Clearly defined and limited | Broad and flexible, based on realistic attack paths |
| Approach | Finds and validates individual weaknesses | Uses controlled attack simulation that adapts as defenders respond |
| Focus | Systems and applications | People, processes and technology together |
| Realism | Simulates potential weaknesses | Replicates how real adversaries operate |
| Outcome | List of vulnerabilities and remediation actions | Insight into detection, response and overall cyber resilience |
| Business Impact | Shows where you could be vulnerable | Shows whether an attacker would succeed, and be stopped in time |
FAQs
Penetration Testing (pen testing) is the simulation of real-world cyber attacks on an organisation’s systems to find potential vulnerabilities.
It is important for proactively identifying and fixing vulnerabilities before they can be exploited by bad actors. It assesses existing security measures to see where needs improvement. This helps with understanding and prioritising risks, ensuring compliance, and protecting organisation’s from reputational harm.
Penetration Testing is required when an organisation needs to assess their current cyber security posture. This is especially important after big IT changes, or regulatory compliance demands.
Penetration Testers carry out Pen Testing. These are security professionals who use hacking tools and techniques to identify security weaknesses and help organisations fix them.
Penetration Testing works by cyber security experts simulating real-life attacks in a controlled environment. This is done to recognise vulnerabilities within systems, networks, applications, and other digital assets.
Identify, Protect, and Stay Ahead of Cyber Threats with Red Helix Pen Testing
Proactively identify vulnerabilities, strengthen security controls, and stay one step ahead of cyber threats with expert-led Penetration Testing
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