Penetration Testing (Pen Test): Realtime Method to Assess Risks
Independent Testing to Find Exploitable Vulnerabilities
Independent penetration testing, carried out mostly for PCI DSS. Our testers take no part in designing, building or running your environment, which is the organisational independence PCI DSS requires of a penetration tester. Our testers hold CREST and OSCP certifications. We run real-world simulated attacks to find exploitable vulnerabilities before attackers do, and report exactly what we find.
Frameworks we test against
Combine pen testing with compliance assessments
7 Advanced Hands-On Penetration Testing for True Risk Discovery
Real-World Attack Simulation
Our experts replicate real-world cyber attacks to uncover vulnerabilities that automated scanners often overlook.
Manual Exploitation for Accuracy
We use advanced manual techniques to validate risks and demonstrate actual exploitability, ensuring precise threat identification.
Environment-Specific Testing
Every penetration test is tailored to your unique infrastructure, applications, and business logic for maximum relevance.
Detailed Reports with Proof of Concept
Receive comprehensive documentation with evidence of exploitation, impact analysis and prioritised findings, so your team can decide how to correct them.
Post-Remediation Retesting
After you make corrections, we repeat the testing to verify they are effective, as PCI DSS Requirement 11.4.4 requires.
Compliance-Aligned Methodologies
Our hands-on testing adheres to standards like OWASP, NIST, PCI DSS, SOC 2 and ISO 27001, supporting your regulatory and audit needs.
Risk-Quantified Findings
Translate technical findings into business-relevant metrics that empower leadership to make smarter, faster, more confident security decisions.
How an Independent Pen Test Runs
Our testing follows what PCI DSS Requirement 11.4 sets out for penetration testing, from scope to retest.
Scope the Test
Agree the cardholder data environment perimeter, the critical systems, any segmentation or scope-reduction controls, and the testing methodology.
Test Inside and Outside
Network-layer and application-layer testing from both inside and outside your network, including testing that your segmentation controls actually isolate the cardholder data environment.
Report What We Find
Exploitable vulnerabilities and security weaknesses, each with evidence and severity, so your team can decide how to correct them.
Retest
Once you have made corrections, we repeat the testing to verify they are effective.
Beyond Penetration Testing: Independent Security Reviews
Independent reviews that sit alongside penetration testing, covering code, architecture and risk quantification.
Risk Quantification That Drives Strategic Security Decisions
We conduct a thorough analysis of assessment results against your organization’s unique risk profile to determine the actual probability of threats. By quantifying risk in measurable terms, we show which exposures carry the most risk, so mitigation can be prioritised on evidence.
- Prioritize security investments based on real-world risk exposure
- Enhance compliance with industry standards and regulatory frameworks
- Strengthen incident response planning with targeted insights
- Improve overall cybersecurity posture through informed decision-making
Application-Layer Vulnerability Discovery
Our source code review service goes beyond surface-level scanning to deliver a comprehensive analysis of your application’s codebase, identifying vulnerabilities and reporting each vulnerability to your developers with the evidence needed to correct it.
- Detect hidden security flaws such as logic errors, insecure coding practices, and authentication bypasses
- Understand real-world impact by correlating code-level issues with business-critical risks
- Prioritize remediation efforts based on severity, exploitability, and business context
- Strengthen application security posture before deployment or during ongoing development
Comprehensive Ecosystem Evaluation
Our IT Architecture Review service provides a comprehensive evaluation of your technology ecosystem, aligning infrastructure, applications, and security controls. We report architectural weaknesses and the risk they carry, independently of whoever designed the environment.
- Assess resilience across cloud, hybrid and on-premises environments
- Identify architectural weaknesses that could lead to downtime, data breaches, or compliance issues
- Rank architectural risks by business impact and exposure
- Assess alignment with industry standards
Frequently Asked Questions about Penetration Testing
What is penetration testing?
Penetration testing is a real-time method to assess risks by running real-world simulated attacks against your systems, applications and infrastructure to unearth vulnerabilities that automated scanners often overlook.
Which compliance frameworks does the testing support?
Our hands-on testing adheres to standards like OWASP, NIST, PCI DSS, SOC 2 and ISO 27001, supporting your regulatory and audit needs.
Do you provide post-remediation retesting?
Yes. After you make corrections, we repeat the testing to verify they are effective, as PCI DSS Requirement 11.4.4 requires.
What supplementary services do you offer?
Risk quantification that drives strategic security decisions, source code review for application-layer vulnerabilities, and IT architecture review covering cloud, hybrid, and on-prem environments.
Ready to discover your real-world vulnerabilities?
Professional penetration testing services and ethical hacking assessments. Identify vulnerabilities through real-world simulated attacks, aligned to OWASP, NIST, PCI DSS, SOC 2 and ISO 27001. Coverage across New Zealand, Australia, Asia Pacific, Europe, USA and Canada.