As technology continues to advance, cybersecurity has become a critical concern for businesses and individuals alike. One of the key components of a robust cybersecurity strategy is regular testing of systems and networks to identify and mitigate potential vulnerabilities.

As a result, many vendors now offer different services, especially regarding vulnerability scanning and penetration testing. But there is great confusion between the two of them as they are used interchangeably with one another.

Let’s dive deep into the article and find the difference between vulnerability assessment vs penetration testing and their different methodologies.

What is Vulnerability Assessment?

The term itself is a self-explanatory Vulnerability Assessment search system for predicted vulnerabilities. It is the process of estimating and accessing the vulnerabilities in your application, website, devices, or network. They are done using an automated vulnerability scanner which scams the system for known vulnerabilities and exposures by referencing a vulnerability database. This assessment’s primary advantage is its affordability, making it an attractive option. 

What is Penetration Testing?

Penetration testing is to find malicious content, vulnerabilities, risks, and flaws. It’s the process of simulating an attack against the system to find and fix faults in its security. It’s a manual process done by security experts (ethical hackers) with years of experience. These experts use several tactics (hacker-like) to get into your system and explore those ways to figure out how much damage could be done through them. 

Who Needs Vulnerability Assessment?

Anyone willing to run an internet-facing business needs regular vulnerability assessments. Every business has unique security needs and budgets, so it might be the right decision to provide recommendations or best practices on when to use each type of testing. It’s necessary if you’re trying to operate under specific security regulations like SOC2, PCI-DSS, or HIPPA. Some benefits of vulnerability assessment are quick and high-level look at possible susceptibilities, affordable, automatic, and fast to complete. However, the vulnerability scan has some limitations, like incorrect positives, which don’t confirm that a vulnerability is exploitable; businesses must manually check every exposure before testing again. 

Who Needs Penetration Testing

Penetration testing is best for companies with complex applications and much lucrative data. It’s for businesses with the best security features and must find and remove defects. This testing involves security experts prospecting through your system to find exploitable faults. But it is a more expensive method compared to vulnerability scanning. So, this method is for companies that have sizeable security budgets.

Differences Between Vulnerability and web application Penetration Testing

As discussed earlier, both tests separately, it’s time to discuss their differences. The main aim is here to pick the discernible features in both.

Let’s have a look at the differences:

Execution Speed– Speed is one of the critical benefits of vulnerability scanning. It takes a few minutes to a few hours to complete the scan. Penetration testing is a more prolonged procedure that takes some weeks to complete. Its process is divided into stages: recon, exploit, scan, planning, reporting, and remediation.

Testing Depth– There’s the issue of false positives in automated vulnerabilities. Automated vulnerability scanners can’t always detect logic errors and vulnerabilities that are specific to certain environments. Penetration testing is generated to find complex vulnerabilities.  

Risk Analysis– A vulnerability assessment report conveys the CVSS scores for both vulnerabilities. Penetration testing is best as it exploits the variabilities present in the system.

Pricing– Vulnerability scans are more affordable as compared to manual pentest. A quality vulnerability assessment costs you between $100 and $200 monthly.

Conclusion

In conclusion, network security is a pervasive network as the internet has emerged as one of the highest-profile data security issues. As a result, many cyber security assessment services are available, especially vulnerability scanning and penetration testing. Both are best in their own way, but if you are looking for the cheaper and more affordable one, you can go with the vulnerability scans.