Penetration Testing vs Vulnerability Assessment

Penetration testing and Vulnerability assessment what actually a difference, it is a complicated topic to be discussed. People are often classified as the same thing when in fact they are not. Penetration Testing does sound a lot more exciting, but in our experience we have found that most clients actually require a comprehensive Vulnerability Assessment or V.A. and not a more intrusive Penetration Test.  

Vulnerability Assessment 

A vulnerability assessment is the process of identifying, quantifying, and prioritizing (or ranking) the vulnerabilities in a system. Examples of systems for which vulnerability assessments are performed for include, but are not limited to, nuclear power plants, information technology systems, energy supply systems, water supply systems, transportation systems, and communication systems.

                                                                                                      -WikiPedia

Penetration Testing

Penetration Testing is a process used to probe the security of a system or application to determine if there are any security vulnerabilities which could be exploited by an attacker or stumbled upon by a person not authorized to access that system or application.

                                                                      -www.queensu.ca

• Penetration Testing is focused on actually gaining unauthorized access, while vulnerability assessment used to identify the possible vulnerability on the network.

• Penetration Testing is focused on the impact of an attack, while vulnerability assessments give's the overview of the flaws on a network or web.

• A Penetration Testing simply answers the questions: “Can any External Attacker or Internal Intruder break-in and what can they attain?” While vulnerability assessment answers the question: “What are the present Vulnerabilities and how do we fix them?”