4 Best Penetration Testing Service Companies In India

Cyber attacks against Indian businesses and government bodies are racking up, with last year alone up until November reporting an unsettling 12.6 lakh attacks. The evolving specificity of these attacks to gain access to websites, web applications, APIs, cloud infrastructures, and mobile applications by exploiting even the slightest vulnerability affirms why businesses need penetration tests.

Penetration testing is by far the best approach to strengthen your systems from internal and external threats. Only through pen testing can businesses regularly implement all-rounded security assessments of their IT infrastructure.

However, the quality and effectiveness of a test depend entirely on the reputation, capability, expertise, and experience of the service provider you choose. We will dive deeper into the qualities to look out for to help you select the right pen test company.

Once you know what to look for in a penetration testing service provider, we will review the services of a few exceptional penetration testing companies in India and why they have made the cut as our top picks for the year.

Through this informative read, we hope you make the right choice suitable for your unique organization’s security demands to protect your cyber assets through 2023.

How to pick a good pentest company in India

Let us explore some of the essential considerations to place when selecting the ideal pen test service company.

Services

The services offered by the pentester should be your first and foremost selection criteria. Before you start reading up on the offerings of numerous companies, focus inward first to identify your unique organizational security demands.

Through this reflective process, you may suspect critical areas of the infrastructure to have weak spots, identify systems and components that pose a high-level threat to your sensitive data, or spot numerous other security issues.

Keep this information in mind, or better yet, write them down however small your security concern may be. Remember, the most devastating attacks that cause businesses severe financial and reputational losses often originate from the most minor overlooked vulnerabilities. This information will be a vital consideration when you ultimately select a service provider.

Next, decide the types of penetration testing your business and its products require. The most common types of penetration testing are internal/external infrastructure penetration testing, mobile application testing, web application testing, wireless penetration testing, build and configuration review, and social engineering.

Your business may only need some of the services mentioned above, so thoroughly review your situation to identify your organizational requirements and the tools necessary to achieve them. To avail of only the services you need, you can look for companies that provide on-demand options that allow you to pick only the pen tests that are relevant to your company.

Next is to pick the technique you wish the testers to use for the test. Your options are black box, grey box, and white box tests. Remember, each follows a different approach, with the tester having varying degrees of prior knowledge of the target system and its vulnerabilities. A recommended practice is to find a service provider that can conduct all three testing forms, so there is always the possibility to probe deeper into your systems when required.

Finally, define the pen test’s scope, goals, requirements, timeframes, and limitations. Also, decide the number of tests you wish to conduct each year. Doing so saves valuable time by covering some of the mandatory prerequisites of a penetration test before even selecting a service provider.

Once you follow the above steps and map out all your requirements, you will have a much clearer understanding of what services you need to look for in a service provider.

Experience

A penetration test is an invasive approach that allows external testers to find system weaknesses, determine the robustness of internal controls, and support compliance with data privacy and security regulations, which require probing into your business’s systems and confidential data.

It would be best if you did not entrust such a vital assignment that can potentially jeopardize your platform and data security into inexperienced hands. It is crucial to select a service provider with an experienced team of pen testers with an excellent track record in safely handling customer systems and information with the utmost confidence.

Unfortunately, several companies today that boast a wide range of offerings lack the technical expertise and experience to maintain confidentiality and safety when they access your systems. So, as a rule of thumb, research the industry experience and test cases of potential service providers before making your decision.

Reach out to potential service providers and get your queries and concerns answered. Remember, a service provider who cannot answer your questions and concerns is probably not the right fit for you.

Pricing

While spending an exorbitant amount on your IT infrastructure security is not suggested, remember that the costs most businesses incur due to publicized high-level exploits are far greater than the preventive actions you can proactively take. With that in mind, devise your budget accordingly.

Several penetration testing companies offer competitive plans and on-demand services to enable SMEs to enhance their security posture without spending millions. At this stage, calculate a reasonable budget you are comfortable with that does not hinder other business competencies and operational productivity.

Once you do this, you can compare the various service providers’ pricing plans to identify the most suitable option.

Remember, it is always a good practice to communicate with the service provider and learn directly from them what they can do for you. Many offer bundles, deals, free trials, and on-demand services that allow you to accomplish your requirements at a feasible price.

Remember, on-demand services are vastly cheaper than the typical infrastructure, equipment, and training costs for setting up and enabling an in-house IT security team to conduct penetration tests.

Benefits of investing in a good pentest service

While there are countless benefits of a good penetration testing service, here are some of the essential advantages that you must know:

Immediate vulnerability detection

The best service providers use a combination of automated and manual scanning to catch vulnerabilities quickly and accurately. This tactic that combines automation and human expertise is invaluable in validating vulnerabilities while eliminating false positives and negatives.

So rest assured, an excellent penetration test service provider will be able to quickly detect vulnerabilities in your systems right from the get-go. Moreover, continuous penetration tests significantly strengthen an organization from the very first stages of testing.

Strengthen security

Initiating your first penetration test will allow you to scale your system’s security measures, identify vulnerabilities, launch exploits, validate vulnerabilities, and take remediation action. You achieve all of this by closely mimicking a real-world attack scenario which means you close security gaps that a hacker most likely would leverage to attack your systems.

It is an excellent approach to devise a security strategy that optimally protects your applications, digital assets, and data while keeping you vigilant.

Stay compliant

Most businesses are often required to achieve compliance with at least one or more of the several recognized security standards and frameworks. Some globally recognized industry standards are PCI-DSS, HIPAA, ISO 27001, and SOC 2.

Let’s say hypothetically, your business operations demand that your IT infrastructure security must comply with HIPAA and ISO 27001. In such cases, penetration testing companies conduct regular penetration tests to help you ensure and certify that your security measures are consistently compliant with the appropriate industry standard.

When there are instances of non-compliance, pen tests will assist testers in instantly rooting out the source and nature of the issue and deliver quick mitigation. It allows businesses to avoid hefty penalties, sanctions, and legal ramifications.

Improve product trust

Building trust is the best way for businesses to rise above the competition and grow. Breaking this trust can lead to devastating financial and reputational ramifications that are often nearly impossible for a company to rebuild.

The primary function and idealogy behind a penetration test are to address all security gaps, vulnerabilities, and loopholes in a product to build trust with its users. Not only does the product benefit from periodic pen tests, but it also enhances the business’s reputation as one that places customer data security as a high priority.

Better ROI

According to research, a business that suffers the recovery costs, restoration costs, reputational damage, and legal fallout from a publicized exploit can take an average of 279 days to rebound from the attack.

Scheduling penetration tests at fixed intervals during the year, when rolling out a new feature, during significant milestones, and when making changes to the infrastructure are all excellent practices for maximizing your ROI by preemptively preventing attacks and their associated costs.

Top penetration testing companies in India

Now that we have a fundamental understanding of what to look out for in penetration testing companies and the advantages of pen tests, here are our top picks of the best penetration testing service companies in India.

1. SecureLayer7

SecureLayer7 is a globally renowned continuous web application penetration test company that leverages its in-house automated pen tests to quickly identify a broad range of vulnerabilities. Its services include a web application, mobile application, thick client, VoIP, on-demand, and cloud-infrastructure penetration testing.

Its strategic combination of automated and manual testing, strategic mitigation, and patch verification makes it one of the best top-tier penetration testing companies in India.

It follows a carefully designed methodology based on the successful results of multiple industry-tested and case-specific solutions. Alongside its excellent automated scanning, it additionally provides an extensive manual security testing service that identifies vulnerabilities based on industry standards, including OWASP Top Ten, PCI Compliance, and NIST 800-53.

Once completing the tests, it provides its clients with comprehensive business-oriented reports, including an executive summary, test scope, approach & methodology, critical findings summary, OWASP Top 10 summary, graphical representation of vulnerabilities, recommendations, advised prioritization, deep insights, and security recommendations.

Ultimately, SL7 performs patch verification to assess if the penetration test resolved all identified vulnerabilities, optimized security measures, and compliance issues. It offers users a free trial, and pricing plans are available upon request.

Pros

• Provides web application, mobile application, thick client, VoIP, and on-demand penetration testing.
• Provides AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Kubernetes cloud infrastructure penetration testing.
• Follows a comprehensive methodology consisting of eight strategic stages: scoping, mapping and service identification, reconnaissance and enumeration, scanning, vulnerability identification, penetration testing reporting, strategic mitigation, and verification fixing.
• Identifies vulnerabilities based on industry standards, including PCI Compliance, OWASP Top Ten, and NIST 800-53.
• Provides dynamic easy to comprehend business reports.
• Robust automated scanners detect a broad range of known CVEs in application libraries.
• Easily integratable software.
• Generates detailed business-oriented reports and dashboards.
• Stellar 24/7 customer support.

Cons

• Price plans are not clearly available.

2. GetAstra

Astra pentest is an excellent cloud-based vulnerability assessment and penetration testing tool company that helps businesses perform web app, cloud security, mobile app, and API penetration tests.

It identifies potential vulnerabilities and business logic errors through automated and manual pen tests. At the end of which, it provides detailed reports explaining the test cases, prioritizing vulnerabilities, and providing accurate risk assessments. Its vulnerability scanner can test for over 3000 tests, including those documented in OWASP, SANS, and more.

The basic scan-only plan costing US$999 annually per user, offers users weekly vulnerability scans, a pen test dashboard, PDF reports, and a scan behind the login. Its mid-tier plan costs US$1999 annually per user and includes everything in the lower tier, four expert-vetted scans, automated scans, and compliance reporting.

However, the mid-tier plan does not have manual vulnerability assessment and penetration tests (VAPT), cloud infrastructure security reviews, business-logic testing, and publicly verifiable pentest certification. These features are available only in its top-tier plan alongside everything in the lower tiers, which is at a substantial US$4999 annually per user.

Pros

• Easily integratable software
• Generates Dashboard Report
• Cloud-based solution

Cons

• Manual pen tests available only in the highest tier
• Expensive pricing plans

3. eSec Forte

eSec Forte is a penetration testing service company that provides VAPT, penetration testing (automated and manual), and vulnerability assessment services.

It helps businesses identify, validate vulnerabilities, test policy compliance violations, and test the security awareness of the IT security team in the event of a breach. Its pricing plans are available upon consultation.

Pros

• Provides security assessments to identify and mitigate vulnerabilities
• Assists with compliance
• Provides expert consultation

Cons

• The software can be complicated to navigate.

4. IndusFace

Indusface’s WAS (Web Application Scanner) uses its native web application vulnerability scanner that identifies and reports threats based on OWASP Top 10. Those who opt for their manual penetration tests can avail of the automated vulnerability scanner for free for a year.

Through Indus MAS (Mobile Application Scanner), the company provides mobile application vulnerability detection and pen testing for multiple platforms, including iOS, Android, and Windows.

Its basic pricing plan is free and includes OWASP Top 10 and SANS 25 vulnerability detection, bi-weekly automated application scanning, scans behind the authentication page, detail & remediation for five detected vulnerabilities, and an AA scan seal.

Its mid-tier pricing plan costs around US$588 per year. It includes features from the low-tier plan, unlimited automated application scans, complete vulnerability details & remediation, blacklisting checks, 5 POCs, malware scans, defacement alerts, and infrastructure vulnerability scans.

Its top tier plan, priced at US$2388, includes all the features of the lower tier plans, managed penetration testing, unlimited POCs, 24/7 customer support, and scheduled daily scans.

Pros

• Provides a 14-day free trial of its mid-tier package
• Provides zero false positives assurance through zero-day protection
• Assists with industry standards such as PCI-DSS and ISO 27001
• Provides an executive dashboard that provides necessary information
• Pricing plans are reasonable

Cons

• Does not provide mobile application penetration testing
• Does not provide business-oriented reports

In conclusion, while the threats to businesses are only projected to increase over the upcoming years, it is paramount that companies take all necessary precautions and select the right service provider to ensure that their product’s cybersecurity requirements are never compromised.

Remember, you don’t have to shell out a large sum of money to avail excellent services. So take your time and pick wisely.

Get comprehensive, streamlined penetration tests with SecureLayer7

SecureLayer7’s comprehensive continuous penetration tests help customers to spot high-risk vulnerabilities such as using components with known vulnerabilities, SQL Injection, cross-site scripting, broken access control, broken identification & authentication, security misconfigurations, sensitive data exposures, XML external entities, insecure deserialization, server-side request forgery, and insufficient logging & monitoring which may result in severe attacks.

Our PaaS services include application testing, mobile app penetration testing, thick client penetration testing, and VOIP penetration testing. We are renowned amongst SMEs and large organizations that leverage our penetration testing services to perform and act on continuous pen tests.

We additionally help businesses securely maintain their cloud infrastructure by detecting and quarantining vulnerabilities in Azure, AWS, and Kubernetes systems at a reasonable cost. Our network security service ensures that your corporate infrastructure follows industry standards and complies with industry regulations reducing the risk of attacks on devices and servers.

SL7 provides full security service to your web application with automated and manual testing to identify and remediate all risks challenging your application security. Contact us to find out how we identify and mitigate all your web application vulnerabilities.