Ever wondered how to make your home safe from intruders? Imagine hiring someone to “break into” your house, find the weak spots, and then help you fix them so thieves can’t get in. That’s the basic idea behind penetration testing, or pentesting. In cybersecurity, pentesting is a method used to test the strength of a system’s defenses to ensure it’s hard to break into.
Pentesting: Like Checking Your Home’s Security
Think of a computer system as a house, with doors, windows, and walls as its layers of security. In a pentest, a licensed and skilled team of security professionals (ethical hackers) will look for “weak points” in the system, just as someone would check if your home’s door easily unlocks or if a window is loose. The purpose is not to cause harm but to ensure every part is secure from “intruders” or hackers with malicious intent.
A simple analogy is a safe. A pentester will try every possible way to “crack” the safe by examining codes, material strength, or any weak spots. This allows the safe owner to fix vulnerabilities before a real thief tries to do the same.
Key Steps in a Pentest
Pentesting usually involves a few main steps, which can be compared to everyday situations:
- Planning and Preparation: Imagine you want to test a friend’s house. First, you’d make a plan, deciding whether to try the front door, a window, or maybe the roof. In pentesting, this is called the reconnaissance phase, where pentesters gather information to map out potential “entry points” in the system.
- Scanning: After planning, the next step is to “scan” for specific weak spots. It’s like walking around the house, checking for any possible openings. In a system, scanning means looking for open “ports” or access points that could be vulnerable.
- Exploitation: Here, pentesters attempt to enter the system through the weaknesses found. It’s like trying an unlocked door or going through an open window. This exploitation step tests whether the vulnerabilities are truly accessible and how deep they might go.
- Reporting and Fixing: After discovering vulnerabilities, pentesters report them to the system owner, who can then reinforce the security. Just like if you find an unlocked window at your friend’s house, you’d tell them to secure it. In the real world, pentesting helps companies ensure their systems can withstand cyberattacks.
An Every-Day-Relatable Example of Pentesting
Let’s say you have a digital wallet app that stores financial data. If someone hacks this app, they could steal your personal information, or worse, your funds. A pentest for this app would simulate potential attacks, looking for weaknesses like weak passwords, insufficient firewalls, or insecure data storage. Once vulnerabilities are found, the security team can strengthen the app so user data stays safe.
Pentesting for a Secure Digital Future
Pentesting is proactive, not harmful. By testing systems, companies and system owners can fix weaknesses before hackers exploit them. It’s a smart step for securing data, assets, and reputation.
Pentesting Regulations for Banking and Fintech in Indonesia
In Indonesia’s banking and fintech sectors, penetration testing is mandated and regulated to ensure data security and system reliability. Both Bank Indonesia (BI) and the Financial Services Authority (OJK) enforce strict regulations to guarantee that financial institutions, including banks and fintech service providers, meet cybersecurity standards.
- Bank Indonesia (BI):
- Regulation No. 23/6/PBI/2021 on Payment Service Providers mandates secure and reliable payment services, including the obligation to perform pentests as part of risk management.
- Regulation No. 23/7/PBI/2021 on Payment System Infrastructure Providers includes guidelines for strengthening infrastructure functions, requiring regular pentests.
- Financial Services Authority (OJK):
- OJK requires banks to have comprehensive IT risk management and to regularly evaluate system security, with pentests as a key part of this regulation.
- Circular No. 12/SEOJK.03/2021 on Bank Business Plans mandates banks to conduct pentests as part of their efforts to secure the financial sector.
In our increasingly digital world, we rely more and more on technology, which often holds a wealth of personal data. Understanding pentesting is as essential as securing our home or social media accounts from intruders. Pentesting provides extra assurance by identifying and addressing vulnerabilities, reducing the likelihood of a cyberattack. While pentesting doesn’t guarantee an application will never be hacked, it minimizes risk and offers critical insights to the application owner about potential entry points for attackers. Ultimately, the core of cybersecurity resilience lies in risk mitigation and the ability to recover swiftly through a well-prepared Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) and Business Continuity Plan (BCP).