The Importance of Securing a Consumer Oriented Websites With Security Pen Tests

Crowdsource application security testing ( known as a Pen Test) may be a fairly new concept – but it is one that many of the world’s leading companies are now investing thousands of dollars a month into. With technologies witnessing an ever-increasing expansion and more and more businesses turning to the power of the World Wide Web for all of their promotional requirements, it won’t be surprising to hear that plenty of these organisations are falling victim to unsavoury activities, such as hacking, online fraud and theft.

As hard as many online security agencies try to protect and reinforce the security measures present within their clients’ websites, it can be all but impossible to remain protected against the latest attacks and threats. Fortunately, there are options available to website owners and company executives that can help to prevent these types of events from taking place, whilst deterring negative activities with a range of products from companies like ServiceIntegrity mystery shopping programs and other security protocols.

The aforementioned technique relating to application testing is one of these options – and after extensive utilisation, it has quickly become recognised as one of the most effective methods to protect and secure a website. It works by harnessing the skills and expertise of those that are knowledgeable in the field of hacking and exploitation; albeit it a far more savoury manner.

For example, where hackers may spend hours developing software and tools that can actively exploit the weaknesses within a website for their own gain; there are individuals willing to offer their services for the complete opposite reason – to discover any flaws and share their findings with the website’s owners, for a reward.

By crowd sourcing an application, the owner will theoretically be placing their app or website into the public eye for beta testing. During this period, it will be possible for ethical, or white hat, hackers to evaluate the digital presence, identify any flaws and then report them back to the necessary requester.

Security companies spend millions of dollars to ensure that their databases are kept up to date and relevant, but this technique goes even further than that – by taking apps and websites straight to the source of the problem; the would-be hackers. As far as consumer websites are concerned, this can be very beneficial – in fact as more and more flaws and issues are discovered, a greater volume of online businesses are turning to its potential to better safeguard their online facilities.

By doing so, they can be sure that even their most minimal of concerns will be discovered by the most experienced ethical hackers around – before putting the necessary precautions into place to ensure that these same weaknesses aren’t exploited by potential threats. Just as many businesses choose to keep their websites in a position of consistent evaluation to ensure that should any new hacking technologies arise in the future, their sites will be in a far greater position to remain threat-free, which can be very reassuring to customers.