What is Penetration (Security/Pen) Testing and why is it important?
Penetration Testing is a key part of maintaining and developing your security profile of the systems you employ.
A penetration test, or pen test, is a simulated attack against your web application or supporting infrastructure. Previously, penetration testing was mostly performed on networks, rather than the applications and systems running on those networks.
The purpose of a pen test is to identify vulnerabilities which are exploitable from an outside (or internal) attacker. Penetration testing can be performed against the various types of code and systems used in your application, such as APIs and servers.
Knowing where, how and to what degree your systems are vulnerable, is key to being able to remediate in a timely fashion, thus maintaining the security of your systems.