Retailers like Harrods and Marks & Spencer are discovering the unpleasant reality that compliance does not always equate to security.
Recent data breaches at both companies revealed user information and caused operational disruptions, even if the breaches did not involve stolen payment information.
These cases highlight an increasingly common reality for every industry that handles critical operational, financial, or customer data: cybercriminals are no longer only targeting your payment environment or network perimeter. They are going after your partners, employees, and procedures.
Furthermore, while frameworks like PCI DSS are essential for maintaining compliance and safeguarding cardholder data, they are unable to foresee every new strategy or tactic.
That’s where penetration testing comes in. It provides organizations with a point-in-time assessment of their true risk exposure, simulating how vulnerabilities could be exploited, and offering actionable insights to improve overall security maturity.
RECURRING THEMES IN RETAIL BREACHES TODAY
There are some trends among recent breaches, ranging from big-box stores to luxury brands:
Vulnerabilities posed by other parties: Cloud service providers, suppliers, and vendors frequently have reliable access to internal systems. One hacked credential or incorrectly configured server in their environment can lead to yours.
Inadequate visibility: A lot of businesses protect their cardholder environment, but they don’t realize how intertwined cloud integrations, APIs, and point-of-sale systems are.
The outcome? Retailers that operate under the guise of safety – framework-compliant yet vulnerable in other ways.
PENTESTING HELPS COMPLETE THE SECURITY PICTURE
Even in highly regulated industries, many organizations discover that their compliance reports don’t reflect the complete picture of their security posture. Penetration testing helps to fill that gap by:
- Identifying vulnerabilities. Testing aids to expose potential weaknesses in configurations, patching, or access controls that may not surface in automated scans or documentation reviews.
- Validating the effectiveness of existing controls. Even a well-designed control framework can degrade over time; penetration testing can help to validate that defenses operate as intended.
- Providing a realistic view of exposure. Each test aims to simulate how an adversary might move through your systems under controlled, ethical conditions, showing where security gaps may exist.
- Prioritizing remediation efforts. Findings are ranked by likelihood and impact, helping you direct limited security resources where they’ll make the biggest difference.
Penetration testing can reveal if security controls actually perform when challenged.
A SUPPLEMENTAL LAYER OF ASSURANCE
It’s important to recognize that penetration testing is not a replacement for compliance frameworks. Instead, it supplements those efforts by providing deeper, evidence-based insight into technical and procedural weaknesses. A couple of examples are:
- A PCI-compliant retailer may still have network misconfigurations or outdated web application components that expose customer data.
- A healthcare organization aligned with HIPAA or HITRUST® may discover unpatched APIs or mobile application vulnerabilities that compliance testing didn’t uncover.
These are precisely the issues penetration testing is designed to help detect and remediate.
HOW PENETRATION TESTING BUILDS ON COMPLIANCE
Frameworks including PCI DSS, ISO 27001, and SOC 2 concentrate on necessary controls like firewalls, encryption, access limits, and documentation.
On the contrary, penetration testing mimics the actions of real-world attackers on those same systems, revealing potential blind spots that compliance frameworks are unable to foresee.
Based on NIST SP 800-115 and supplemented with OWASP, PTES, the MITRE ATT&CK Framework, MASVS, and MASTG, 360 Advanced’s penetration testing approach goes well beyond automated scanning.
During an engagement, a four-phase approach is leveraged to include Planning, Discovery, Attack, and Documentation. This approach helps to ensure proper scoping, testing, and detailed reporting with actionable results. Some important distinctions:
- External network testing: This type of testing is aimed at identifying vulnerabilities that are accessible over the public internet before a hostile actor may take advantage of them.
- Internal network testing: Works to identify vulnerabilities within the private network space, to include potential segmentation and privilege management flaws, by simulating insider threats or compromised accounts.
- Web, API, and mobile testing: Checks for data exposure, permissive controls between users, authentication problems, and injection errors in contemporary digital stores and customer-facing services.
- Simulations of social engineering: Assesses the human component of the security stack and can help to identify gaps in training, susceptibility, and overall response to related events such as phishing, vishing, and smishing.
Remedial help and retesting are provided at the end of each engagement in an effort to guarantee that vulnerabilities are fixed rather than merely listed.
THE WIDER EFFECTS OF RETAIL ON CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE
Healthcare, manufacturing, shipping, and financial services are all being impacted by some of the same attack vectors that make headlines in retail: third-party risk and social engineering among them.
These sectors have characteristics in common that make them desirable targets:
- Big vendor networks
- Intricate legacy systems
- High reliance on data integrity and uptime
Penetration testing offers the information required to rank risk reducing initiatives for practical defense rather than just for compliance reviews.
BEYOND THE CHECKBOX: ESTABLISHING A CONTINUOUS TESTING CULTURE
Penetration testing turns into a proactive defensive tactic when incorporated into an ongoing security validation procedure that:
- Finds new risks brought forth by vendor relationships or technological advancements.
- Challenges that the controls put in place for compliance are effective when attacked.
- Increases user awareness and fortitude in the face of social engineering.
- Gives executive-level insight into practical risk mitigation.
CONCLUSION
Penetration testing does not “solve” security but strengthens it, bridging the gap between compliance requirements and real-world resilience, helping organizations of all sizes understand their true risk posture and act with confidence.
Combined with a strong compliance framework, penetration testing provides added assurance that your security investments are not only documented, but demonstrably effective.
Learn more about our 360 CYBER managed services.
