Understand the difference between conducting an annual penetration test compared to completing a monthly vulnerability assessment in your IT environment.
Join us in today’s video as we show you Vulnerability Assessment vs. Penetration Testing: What’s the Difference? Both security testing services are valuable in ensuring network security. Vulnerability assessments are useful for maintaining security, but penetration testing uncovers genuine security flaws.
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Only a vendor that knows — and can explain — the distinction between penetration testing and vulnerability assessment can provide both services well. A competent penetration testing provider mixes automated and manual labor (with the latter taking precedence) and does not include false positives in the report. During vulnerability assessment, the same vendor should discover a wide variety of potential network vulnerabilities and report them based on severity to the business. Watch the video for the full walkthrough.
From the video
- Vulnerability assessment: Broad, repeatable scanning. Reports potential weaknesses by severity. Best for continuous maintenance — often monthly.
- Penetration testing: Manual, specialist work. Proves what is actually exploitable. Depth over frequency — typically annual or after major change.
Assessments keep the backlog visible. Penetration tests prove which items an attacker would actually use. Do not treat the scan as the test.
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