Penetration Testing vs Vulnerability Assessment: Top 6 bold differences

Penetration testing and vulnerability assessment both are essential for an organization’s cyber security. But most organizations or individuals can’t decide which service they need for their infrastructure. Penetration Testing vs Vulnerability assessment represents the difference between these two services so that organizations or individuals can understand which service they need.

Penetration testing refers to a simulated cyber attack against a computer system to find out all possible security vulnerabilities in that system. Penetration testing is also known as pentesting.

Vulnerability assessment refers to the automated process of identifying all possible risks and vulnerabilities in a computer system. Vulnerability assessment is also known as automated security testing.

In this article we will explain penetration testing vs Vulnerability assessment.

Penetration testing vs Vulnerability assessment:

Penetration Testing	Vulnerability Assessment
Penetration testing is a combination of manual and automated testing. (mostly manual)	Vulnerability Assessment mostly automated testing.
Simulate a cyber attack against the assets.	Just find the vulnerabilities don’t simulate a cyber attack.
It ensures zero false positive vulnerabilities.	It is nearly impossible to conduct zero false positive testing.
It rarely misses any logical vulnerabilities.	It barely can detect logical vulnerabilities.
Not good for an instant report and fix.	Gives an instant report and fix.
Time consuming and expensive.	Take less time and less expensive.

When do you need a penetration testing service?

Penetration testing is important for anyone running an online business or even any modern organization. Penetration testing is very important before a system release or after an update. Penetration testing can be done on networks, cloud, mobile applications, web applications, etc. any other computer system. Penetration testing should be done seasonally not every day. To know how experts conduct pentesting read this article, The Process Of Pentesting: How Experts Pentest Your Application.
Penetration testing:

• Penetration testing gives you long time protection.
• Focus on in-depth security issues.

When do you need a vulnerability assessment service?

In a perfect environment vulnerability assessment should be done regularly. Vulnerability assessment helps to detect security vulnerabilities instantly. Vulnerability assessment keeps you secure from regular cyber-attacks and malware. To know more about vulnerability assessment, Vulnerability Assessment Guide: A Comprehensive Approach

• Vulnerability assessment gives you instant detection of cyber threats.
• Saves you from any new kind of cyber threats.
• Good protection against updated malware.
• budget-friendly.

Penetration testing vs Vulnerability assessment (the showdown):

In previous table, we make a short description of penetration testing vs vulnerability assessment. Here we will brifely discuss of penetration testing vs vulnerability assessment ‘s main topics:

1. Time: Penetration testing takes at least a week longer for a medium-sized application, it may take more time depending on the size of the scope. But it takes much longer than vulnerability assessment.
   Conducting the vulnerability assessment only took a few hours. It is much less than penetration testing.
2. Depth of testing: Penetration testing is an in-depth testing method. A tester will try to dig as deep as possible to find vulnerabilities.
   Vulnerability assessment testing is not so in-depth testing it protects you from all known and updated security issues.
3. Resource of testing: Most are done by a human tester. But the tester can take the help of some automated tools. The more experienced the tester, the better the test.
   Vulnerability assessment is a bot-based test. Automated tools scan for vulnerabilities. Anyone with a little knowledge can do it. The better the automated tool the better the test.
4. Pricing: Penetration is very expensive. Hard to find a well-experienced pentester.
   Vulnerability assessment is less expensive than penetration testing. A good automated vulnerability scanner is also hard to find.
   

In conclusion, both penetration testing and vulnerability assessment play crucial roles in an organization’s cybersecurity strategy. While they serve different purposes and offer distinct advantages, their combined use can provide comprehensive protection against cyber threats.

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