Penetration tests are becoming crucial to safeguarding online businesses. These tests are conducted to identify cybersecurity vulnerabilities and explore ways to mitigate cyber threats. The tests are usually conducted by security companies specializing in carrying out this task. Once they have concluded the pen tests, a report is created and delivered to the stakeholders.

However, for layman people, this report causes further confusion as they don’t understand it in the first place. To make it simple, this report contains information on whether your systems have been compromised or can be compromised.  However, with the assistance of cybersecurity experts, it’s not difficult to interpret a pen test report and respond to it.

If you also want digital protection for your business, then keep reading this article further to learn how to respond to penetration test findings.

Top 6 Ways to Act on The Pen Test Findings

Pen test findings are a great way to secure your organization. However, interpreting them and responding to them is the challenging part. The first thing to do is to find a specialist who can carry out these tests and help you understand them. Then move on to the next steps such as discussing with stakeholders, amplifying security, conducting additional tests, and more.

Let’s delve deeper to explore some ways to act on the pen test findings.

1. Understand the findings

One of the top ways to act on the pen test findings is to understand them. When a penetration test commences, experts gather a report and hand it over to the concerned individuals or all the stakeholders. This report contains useful information such as log reports, malicious infections, damage dealt, files infected, and more.

However, for layman users, this report is highly advanced and complex. They have two options to understand it. Either learn about cybersecurity terminology or hire someone who knows it already. The latter is preferred by the majority of businesses as it is easy to get a security expert onboard rather than learn everything themselves. For this, you can consult the best Penetration testing companies in UAE to get help in understanding the pen test findings.

2. Mark low, medium, and high risks

The next step on the list is to mark low, medium, and high risks. Once the pen test report is compiled and all the findings are presented to the stakeholders, it’s time to move to the next step. In this step, the findings point out threats and risks that are identified in the system.

Using this information, you can mark threats and risks according to their severity. You can categorize the risks into low, medium, and high. After marking the risks, you can then decide on taking action to contain the threat and mitigate them in the future.

3. Conduct more tests to find out the root cause

After marking the risks, it’s time to conduct more tests to find out the root cause. This step is extremely important to find out how, when, and where the risk or threat took place. In this phase, professional pen testers work to find out the root cause of the vulnerability.

For this, experts conduct various tests that let them find out the origin of weakness. Once more vulnerabilities are identified, you can head over to patch the root cause. This lets you remain protected in the future and keep operating your business safely.

4. Discuss the results with stakeholders

The next strategy is to discuss the results with the stakeholders. Once all the findings are interpreted and further tests are conducted, the next step is to discuss it with the stakeholders. The findings are presented in the form of a report or presentation in which experts guide them through all the details.

This is an important meeting between security experts and the management where they can decide on future courses of action. The severity of damage and other vital details are also discussed. Once a common ground is established, the next step is to create a rectification strategy.

5. Develop a remediation plan

After careful discussions and considerations, it’s time to develop a remediation plan. Following strategic meetings with the concerned stakeholders, the next step is to develop a remediation plan. This plan involves steps to tackle and mitigate future and existing risks.

Such a plan should be created with the help of experts. Without professionals onboard, the remediation plan wouldn’t do much benefit as it would lack technical and operational prowess. Once this phase is complete, you are ready to update your existing security plan and strategy.

6. Update your incident response plan

After all the above steps, the final thing to do is to update your incident response plan. With an effective remediation plan at your disposal, it’s time to move to the final step. In this step, you must update your organization’s incident response plan. The incident response plan outlines the steps to counter and mitigate cyber threats and their implications.

This is a critical step as it will enable you to thwart future cyber threats. This plan must be distributed among the concerned teams and individuals including the outsourced cybersecurity company. If you have transferred all your security operations to an outsourced company, make certain that it has robust real-world reviews. For this, you can contact renowned Penetration testing companies in UAE to get help in creating and implementing the best incident response plan.

Develop the Best Pen Test Response Strategy

Getting a penetration test only isn’t necessary for future safety. It comes with additional response steps such as discovering more risks, finding the root cause of threats, creating remediation plans, and updating your incident response strategy. Get in touch with the best cybersecurity companies to develop the finest penetration testing response strategy.