Pentest | Manual vs. automated explained:

Penetration testing, often simply referred to as “pentesting,” is crucial for organizations that want to assess their resilience against potential cyber threats and are concerned with identifying weaknesses in their network, application, platform or OT environment.

At DeepBlue Security & Intelligence, our teams of highly experienced specialists simulate real-life attacks on your organization's digital infrastructure to discover security vulnerabilities before they can be exploited by malicious actors. We do this in any desired form. And always in teams of at least 2 hackers to be able to verify quickly and minimize the burden on your organization.

When it comes to pentesting, organizations have, in addition to variants such as 'Black box' or 'White box', two different approaches to consider first: a manual or an automated penetration test. Each approach offers unique strengths and limitations that should align with the specific security objectives of your organization. Whether it’s to gain a comprehensive picture of the current cybersecurity level or to just meet regulatory requirements (the well-known ‘check mark’), selecting the right method is crucial to maximizing the value of your investment.

Penetration Testing According to OWASP

With a pentest according to the OWASP standard, we help your organization gain insight into the security of applications, networks or OT environments. OWASP, the Open Web Application Security Project, offers clear guidelines and methods to map security risks in a structured manner. During a pentest, we look for vulnerabilities such as weak spots in the code, configuration errors and other risks that an attacker could abuse. This thorough approach gives you a clear picture of the security status of your application, network or OT environment and allows you to take targeted measures to make your digital environment more secure. The result is stronger protection against potential attacks and improved cybersecurity.

• Planning and Investigation
• Scanning
• Exploitation/Gaining Access
• Maintaining Access
• Reporting
• Retesting

This structured approach helps our specialists detect security holes and weaknesses.

Manual Penetration Testing

In contrast to automated scans, a manual pentest provides much more insight because our specialists investigate potential vulnerabilities with creativity and experience. Our approach takes place in carefully defined phases, from exploration to exploitation, in which we identify unique risks that are specific to your organization. In doing so, we not only detect technical weaknesses, but also complex logical errors that automated tools often miss. This approach provides an accurate and complete analysis of your digital environment, leading to an accurate and detailed insight into the cybersecurity level of your application, network, platform or OT environment.

A manual penetration test includes:

Hacking with experience: A manual approach enables adaptive testing methodologies that are tailored to the infrastructure, application logic, and known threat profiles specific to your organization.

Comprehensive analysis and verification: Every discovered vulnerability undergoes real-time validation, reducing the risk of false positives and providing robust, actionable information for remediation.

Contextual Risk Analysis: Our hackers provide a risk perspective that goes beyond just identifying a weakness. We provide a comprehensive analysis of the weakness including a technical description for mitigation.

Automated Penetration Testing

Automated penetration testing, on the other hand, relies on pre-configured software tools designed to scan and evaluate known vulnerabilities. This approach is known for its speed and cost-effectiveness and is primarily for organizations that are looking to “check the box” or have limited budgets or resources to invest in extensive testing.

Key features of automated testing include:

High Scalability: Our automated testing tools allow us to quickly cover large systems and deliver consistent results across large-scale infrastructures.

Efficiency: Automated penetration testing requires minimal setup time, allowing your organization to perform regular security assessments with relatively low overhead.

Cost-Effectiveness: Compared to manual testing, our automated tests are a more budget-friendly option, especially when continuous monitoring is required.

However, these benefits come with limitations. Automated tools may not detect logical errors, contextual security issues, or complex vulnerabilities that require human insight. In addition, automated scans frequently produce false positive results, which can overwhelm security teams with additional (validation) tasks and ultimately erode confidence in the results.

When should you choose which option?

To determine the best approach, you need to determine your organization’s unique needs, objectives, and risk appetite, and of course, budget.

Manual Penetration Testing: Ideal for organizations with complex digital environments, regulatory compliance requirements, or those needing to validate high-value applications, personal data, and sensitive data flows, for example. Our manual testing provides a highly detailed and nuanced view of your organization’s security vulnerabilities, delivering actionable intelligence that is absolutely essential for a robust security strategy.

Automated Penetration Testing: Suitable for rapid, frequent testing of extensive digital footprints where budget is limited. Automated penetration testing provides a high-level, broad overview, keeping your organization continuously informed of known vulnerabilities in the network, especially for less complex assets.

So?

The choice between manual and automated penetration testing depends on understanding your organization’s security goals, risk exposure, budget, and compliance requirements. While automated testing can provide rapid, scalable assessments, our manual testing delivers deep insights and nuanced risk perspectives that are critical for organizations with complex, high-stakes environments.

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DeepBlue combines

Our specialists prefer to use a combination of both forms according to our hybrid model, combining primarily manual but also automated testing methodologies during our penetration testing. This combination enables us to combine the speed and scalability of automation with the experience, expertise, and contextual depth of our hackers. We leverage AI-driven insights alongside human validation, providing comprehensive vulnerability assessments with context while maintaining the cost-effectiveness and rapid assessment capabilities of automated testing.

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Would you like to know more about our approach with regards to pentesting?

‍www.deepbluesecurity.nl || info@deepbluesecurity.nl || 070-800 2025

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