Hacker-Powered Pen Tests and The Power of More

Traditional penetration testing is an important tool in your appsec strategy toolbox. Compliance requires it. Your CIO understands it. Your team is accustomed to it.

But they can be expensive, especially those that produce low-hanging fruit results. And even more painful when you pay the same price tag for the low-value pen test report as the report revealing multiple critical vulnerabilities.

With hacker-powered penetration testing, on the other hand, you tap into more of the best talent without a huge initial price tag.

We’ve had mixed results with traditional pen test firms in the past. With HackerOne, our Challenge was immensely successful. Beyond my expectations. - Sean MacIsaac, CIO, Yext

The hacker-powered pen testing model is different in 4 key ways:

1. You get more security professionals testing your attack surfaces. Dozens, even hundreds compared to the 1 - 3 of a traditional penetration test.

2. You get more diverse skills. A hacker-powered penetration test harnesses the power of more hackers with more diverse approaches, increasing the likelihood of finding hidden, severe vulnerabilities.

3. You get more bang for your buck. Pay for results, not time spent. Hacker-powered pen tests are a cost effective means to find as many vulnerabilities as possible, quickly, at the lowest possible cost.

4. You get more severe vulnerabilities surfaced. In one comparison of a traditional pen test to a hacker-powered pen test, the traditional firm found three vulnerabilities in the client organization. The hacker-powered pen test found those three... plus 60 others.

Our latest report, Rethink your Traditional Pentest, reviews the hacker-powered pen test model, outlining the good, bad, and ugly of traditional pen tests but also presenting a side-by-side comparison of the two; candidly sharing when one may be more applicable than the other.