What Is a Threat in Penetration Testing ?

Every system is exposed to threats. A computer center located in an area where power cuts are common will find it hard to live up to any greater promises on continuous delivery. A server running on an array of hard disks that have reached years beyond their designed life expectancy is a data loss disaster waiting to happen. And an Internet facing system that has not been configured to automatically install security updates is basically a standing invitation to every imaginable type of 

hacker.

What Is a Threat in Penetration Testing ?

Threats to computer systems can be divided into the following categories:

1. Natural: Mother Nature doing whatever she finds pleasing such as creating snowstorms, fire, volcanic eruptions, and solar storms.
2. Human-made: The deliberate actions of humans such as hacker attacks, sabotage, and riots.
3. Technical: Failure related to technical systems such as data loss, disk failure, and short circuits.
4. Supply system: Heating, ventilation, water, and every other type of supply system needed for a fully operational system.

The biggest threat to a system is a human made threat more specifically, a human made threat involving a deliberate hacker attack.

Threats and Threat Agents

A threat is materialized by a threat agent. This means, for example, that a human-made threat such as a hacker attack is materialized by a hacker.

In general, the human threat agent is the most probable source of disruption. This disruption can be both intentional and unintentional. An unintentional disruption could be a planned hardware or software upgrade gone wrong that caused the system to fail.Hackers, and their actions, fit well into the intentional disruption category. One such intentional disruption caused by hackers is a denial of service attack. Other types of intentional disruptions include spreading malware, hacktivism, and phishing.

Author : Admin

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