43% of UK businesses have experienced a cyber security attack in the last 12 months
BSS’s penetration testing services are delivered by a world class team of CREST-certified testers. We help you identify exposures, strengthen defences, reduce risk and build confidence in your security resilience.
Demonstrable security posture
Compliance with PCI DSS and other certifications
Vulnerabilities identified and prioritised
Reassurance from thorough manual and automated tests
Post-test support and year-round insights
Speak to a Penetration Test Expert
Get in touch for more details and an obligation-free quote pentest@bss.uk.com
A thorough penetration test will reveal how well your organisation can withstand a range of cyber threats. We will test for the newest and most sophisticated threats as well as basic vulnerabilities such as unpatched software and weak passwords.
BSS’s specialist testers will run CREST-certified penetration tests across your infrastructure, applications and cloud platforms, identifying and prioritising any vulnerabilities they uncover. Thanks to our continuous research, our consultants can test for the latest threats, with the very tools and techniques used by criminals.
Businesses have typically been advised to undergo annual penetration tests in recent years. But rapid evolutions in cyber attacks call for a more flexible approach. More frequent penetration testing may be needed, with interim tests for:
We’ll protect your business against cyber threats and noncompliance with penetration testing services carried out by CREST-certified testers. And by listening to your needs, we’ll target the areas that matter most to you and your business.
Our penetration testing mimics real attacker behaviour to find and validate security gaps across your digital environment – in applications, cloud services, networks and human processes.
We combine automated scanning with expert manual testing to identify vulnerabilities, then perform attack simulations focused on the highest-risk issues to see what an adversary could actually do.
You get a prioritised report of findings, business-focused risk ratings, and remediation advice so you can start by fixing what matters most.
We offer a range of penetration testing services to help you meet your specific challenges and goals.
We’ll identify and manually test the security vulnerabilities lurking within your internal network that may be putting business-critical assets such as personal data at risk.
We’ll test the security of your external networks, and the assets and public information they hold.
Our expert testers will carry out a thorough assessment of your cloud security, taking account of the specific requirements of providers such as AWS, Azure and GCP.
We’ll test web applications and APIs using manual and automated methods against the industry-leading OWASP framework. We identify SQL injection flaws, business logic security weaknesses, cross-site scripting problems, and session management vulnerabilities. We cover both authenticated and unauthenticated scenarios.
We assess mobile applications using industry-standard development frameworks and security testing tools, providing expertise on iOS, Android and other mobile platforms.
We check how well your systems and people can detect a range of phishing exercises, with our ethical social engineering service. We can also build tailor-made scenarios to make sure you get the most out of the test.
Red team testing complements the broad coverage of our penetration testing with a deep and focused assessment of your cyber defences.
We’ll draw on our detailed learnings about your risk profile from the scoping stage to devise customised real-world tailored scenarios. Over a period of several days and even weeks, we’ll rigorously test the detection and response capabilities of your technology, your people and your processes.
Threat-led penetration testing is a requirement under DORA. It targets the threats that are most likely to hit your organisation.
This is where BSS’s customised approach to penetration testing really comes into its own. If your business is vulnerable to a nation state attack for example, then threat-led penetration testing will prioritise areas related to national infrastructure.
Recognised as one of the best ways to stay on top of cyber threats and prevent damaging data breaches, CREST-certified penetration testing services deliver a range of business benefits.
The business damage and reputational loss caused by data breaches keep many leaders awake at night. A reputable penetration testing company will strengthen your cyber security by identifying and helping to close down the risks. This gives organisations a solid evidence base for putting the necessary controls in place to minimise the risk of attacks and improve response capability.
Compliance can be a significant motivator for penetration testing. Some standards and accreditations mandate annual penetration testing as a key way to reduce information security risk. Others, such as GDPR, may not mandate penetration testing but nonetheless recommend it as best practice. Many organisations incorporate the penetration test report in their compliance audit.
Experienced and certified penetration testers are skilled at uncovering hidden vulnerabilities. Unless addressed, harmful security gaps can easily compromise your infrastructure and business-critical data. A thorough penetration test will identify vulnerabilities before attackers find them.
Our penetration testing report will itemise your current vulnerabilities, assigning a risk rating and priority to each one. This will help you direct your security budget where it’s most needed.
Many businesses get real commercial value from the security posture that CREST-certified penetration testing services give them. In many cases, a recent penetration test strengthens bids for commercial contracts and tenders when organisations are pitching for new business.
A penetration test can inspire confidence and reassurance across your stakeholder base. It demonstrates adherence to best practice and important regulations in an insecure world, and shows that the business is on the right track.
In our penetration testing, we take a systematic and thorough approach to leave no area uncovered, while keeping communication lines open with you at every step.
The early stage of a penetration test will be shaped by the organisation we’re working with. A larger firm may have a cyber strategy in place that sets requirements and a budget for penetration testing, for example.
Smaller companies are less likely to have a formalised approach. While they will understand the gravity of cyber threats, the scoping may involve an educational element on the specifics of penetration testing. Our penetration testers are experienced at working with companies of all sizes and gauging how much explanation is required.
In scoping the testing itself, we will invite you to a kick-off meeting to tailor the assessment to your organisation. We’ll discover your testing objectives and what areas to test. For example, it may be the right time for you to test your website, and underlying infrastructure may be less important at this point. We will never sell penetration testing services that you don’t need.
In line with agreed scope, our penetration testers will start work on the reconnaissance, or information-gathering, of assets. We’ll also scan your attack surface – networked assets – to audit the vulnerabilities uncovered.
With a comprehensive picture in place, we will move on to exploit those vulnerabilities, testing whether we can access target systems and data through simulated attacks. We’ll record any proof of concepts at every point.
Depending on the scope, we may attempt to compromise a key in-house account, such as an IT support engineer. Throughout this stage, we will take care not to jeopardise your systems and data or disrupt your business. We’ll make every effort to leave your environment as we found it.
Following a debrief call to discuss our findings, we’ll produce a report for you. The report is designed to make it easy for you to prioritise any remediation work.
The report will include technical details, risk ratings and remediation advice. Findings will also be scored using CVSS, an industry-standard vulnerability scoring system, alongside likelihood and impact.
BSS doesn’t deliver a one-size-fits-all penetration testing service. Besides tailoring our core penetration test to the needs of individual businesses, we offer several optional extras:
Our clients provide positive feedback on our penetration test report. Most find that it provides clarity on what remediation work to carry out and in what order. However, some will request a post-test roadmap – grouping remediation requirements by service line – which we are happy to provide.
Depending on which certification you’re targeting, we can carry out a specific penetration testing service to support compliance. We can carry out a PCI-aligned penetration test, for example, or a Cyber Essentials mock assessment, as required.
Once you, or a third party, have carried out remediation work based on our penetration testing findings, we can retest those areas for you.
Because the threat landscape changes on a daily basis, we can provide automated security scans which run on an ongoing basis.
Our fundamental approach to our work and dedication to best practice mark us out as ideal partners for today’s businesses.
We Are Qualified and Capable CREST Penetration Testers
BSS is a CREST-accredited company with a team of CREST-certified testers, committed to carrying out penetration testing services to the highest possible standard. We pride ourselves on our technical abilities and client-focused approach. And we know from our debriefs that our penetration testing services give our clients genuine peace of mind.
Our best practices extend beyond the penetration testing itself to the way we monitor evolving threats.
Our monitoring methodology is approved by CREST, and we follow leading frameworks such as OWASP and threat intelligence feeds to keep up to date with new findings.
This means we’ll know exactly what to test for – and which tools and techniques to use – to keep your business safe from the newest risks. And we place emphasis on manual testing, rather than relying exclusively on automated testing.
We Form Strategic Partnerships with Clients
We work closely with our clients, gaining a deep understanding of their goals as we become their trusted security partner.
Our approach to penetration testing is anything but a transaction. To keep you up to date, we’ll set up a communication channel on the platform of your choice. And between tests, we’ll use the same channel to alert you to the latest cyber security intelligence we think you should know, based on our understanding of your business.
We Flex Our Penetration Testing to Meet Your Goals and Challenges
We’ll carry out our penetration testing services within scope and at the level that fits with your desired outcomes – that’s what our initial kick-off call is all about. Our style of working is fundamentally consultative. And we will never try to sell you any penetration testing services that you don’t want or need.
We can scale up and down individual components of the penetration test as required. For example, clients can choose between a three-day or two-day cloud assessment and can rely on our objective guidance in making that selection. And we can help businesses make pragmatic decisions within defined budgets.
We’re flexible enough to put the right testers and skillsets in place to tackle the problems at hand. And we’re vendor-neutral – we’re not tied to specific tools; we will select the best ones for the job.
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A penetration test (or pen test) is a controlled, simulated cyber attack, designed to identify and exploit vulnerabilities across an organisation’s digital environment.
Penetration testing goes further than automated vulnerability scans by using human expertise to actively test and verify each weakness. Skilled consultants mimic the tactics and techniques of real-world adversaries.
The outcome is a detailed report with clear, prioritised remediation steps that strengthen security posture and reduce risk.
Penetration testing is essential for most organisations. It helps identify vulnerabilities and security gaps before they can be exploited by cyber criminals.
A vulnerability scan identifies weaknesses in cyber defences, whereas a penetration test goes further by actively exploiting those weaknesses to assess their real-world impact.
Penetration testing services are performed by professional testers, also known as ethical hackers. CREST-certified testers follow best practice and test for the latest threats.
Common tools include Burp Suite and Nmap. Reputable testers also follow OWASP methodologies and continuously adapt to emerging threats.
A penetration test can take anywhere between two days and four weeks, depending on scope, objectives and infrastructure complexity.
Annual testing was once standard, but many organisations now carry out more frequent testing due to rapidly evolving cyber threats.
PTaaS, or penetration testing as a service, combines human testing with automation on a dedicated platform to support continuous testing.
CREST-certified companies provide high-quality testing based on up-to-date knowledge of cyber threats and recognised industry best practice.
After testing, BSS produces a detailed report outlining vulnerabilities, risk levels and prioritised remediation actions.
Yes, remote penetration testing can be carried out depending on the agreed scope and infrastructure requirements.
A fresh perspective can uncover new vulnerabilities, so organisations should carefully consider whether to use the same supplier repeatedly.
Reputable testers minimise disruption wherever possible and aim to leave systems and infrastructure unchanged after testing.
Costs vary depending on scope, objectives, infrastructure complexity and the depth of testing required.
Critical vulnerabilities are reported immediately, then documented fully within the final penetration testing report.
Automation supports penetration testing, but human expertise remains essential for identifying logic flaws and reducing false positives.
AI is increasingly being explored within penetration testing, though many organisations still prioritise expert-led manual testing approaches.
Agile penetration testing supports fast-moving development environments by focusing testing around specific updates, deployments or changes.
A requirement under the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), threat-led penetration testing focuses efforts on those threats most likely to strike a specific organisation.
Get started on your journey to stronger cyber security posture and business resilience. Get in touch with one of our CREST-certified pen testers today. pentest@bss.uk.com
