72 Hours To Know If You're Hackable

The Traditional Pentest Problem

Let's talk about traditional penetration testing, and why it's fundamentally broken for most organizations.

The Classic Pentest Timeline

• Week 1-2: Procurement and vendor selection
• Week 3-4: Scheduling and scoping
• Week 5-7: The actual penetration test (1-3 weeks)
• Week 8-9: Report writing
• Week 10: Report delivery (50-200 page PDF)
• Week 11-20: Remediation

The Cost

Traditional Pentest Pricing:

• Small scope (1-2 applications): $8,000-$15,000 CAD
• Medium scope (full network segment): $20,000-$40,000 CAD
• Large scope (entire organization): $50,000-$100,000+ CAD

The Problem With This Model

• Too Slow: By the time you get results, new vulnerabilities may have been introduced
• Too Expensive: Most SMBs can only afford one pentest per year, if that
• Too Rare: Annual pentests leave 364 days of uncertainty
• Too Late: Vulnerabilities have likely existed for months

How Automated Pentesting Works

Automated penetration testing combines the best of both worlds: the thoroughness of human-led pentests with the speed and frequency of automated scanning.

The Technology Stack

Layer 1: Automated Reconnaissance

• External footprint mapping
• DNS enumeration
• Port scanning
• Technology fingerprinting
• SSL/TLS analysis
• Web crawling

Time: Hours instead of days

Layer 2: Vulnerability Identification

• Known vulnerabilities (CVEs)
• Configuration issues
• Web application flaws
• API vulnerabilities
• Business logic flaws

Time: Hours to 1 day

Layer 3: Exploitation Attempts

• Safe exploitation (proof without damage)
• Authentication bypass testing
• Privilege escalation attempts
• Data access verification
• Lateral movement testing

Time: 1-2 days

Layer 4: Human Validation

• Security experts review findings
• Filter false positives
• Validate exploitability
• Assess real-world risk
• Provide remediation guidance

Time: 4-8 hours

The ThinSky Automated Pentest Process

• Hour 0: Kickoff (30 minute scoping call)
• Hours 1-24: Automated testing (reconnaissance, scanning, exploitation)
• Hours 24-48: Analysis (expert review, validation, prioritization)
• Hours 48-72: Report delivery (executive summary + technical findings)

What You Get in 72 Hours

Let's walk through an actual report from a ThinSky automated pentest.

Client: Canadian E-Commerce Company

Background:

• 80 employees
• $10M annual revenue
• 500 transactions per day
• Last security assessment: 18 months ago

The Report Structure

Executive Summary

Summary: We identified 23 security vulnerabilities. 3 are critical, 7 are high severity. We successfully exploited 2 critical vulnerabilities, gaining unauthorized access to customer data and administrative functions.

Business Impact:

• Customer PII accessible without authentication
• Payment processing logs exposed
• Administrative functions accessible to unauthenticated users

Immediate Actions Required:

1. Patch SQL injection in customer portal (CRITICAL - 24 hours)
2. Fix authentication bypass in admin dashboard (CRITICAL - 24 hours)
3. Enable rate limiting on API (HIGH - 48 hours)

Finding Example: SQL Injection in Customer Search

Severity: Critical (CVSS 9.8)

Location: https://portal.example.ca/search

Description: The customer search functionality does not properly sanitize user input, allowing SQL injection attacks.

Business Impact:

• Customer data breach
• PIPEDA breach notification required (10,000+ individuals)
• Potential for account takeover
• Regulatory fines and reputation damage

Remediation: Implement parameterized queries for search function (code example provided in report)

Fix Vulnerabilities Faster

The true value of fast pentesting isn't just knowing your vulnerabilities quickly—it's fixing them quickly.

The Vulnerability Lifecycle

Traditional Pentest:

• Discovery: Month 1
• Report: Month 2
• Triage: Month 3
• Remediation: Months 4-6
• Re-test: Month 7
• Total: 7+ months

Automated Pentest:

• Discovery: Day 1
• Report: Day 3
• Triage: Week 1
• Remediation: Week 2-3
• Re-test: Week 4
• Total: 1 month

Real Stories of Close Calls

Story 1: The 3-Day-Old Vulnerability

Client: Healthcare telemedicine platform
Scenario: New video consultation feature launched Monday

Tuesday: Routine automated pentest scheduled
Wednesday: Critical finding - authentication bypass in new video feature
Thursday: Fix deployed, verified, crisis averted

Story 2: The Contractor's Backdoor

Client: Financial services firm
Scenario: Former contractor left 6 months ago

Automated Pentest Found:

• SSH key still active on production server
• Contractor's admin account still enabled
• No MFA on contractor account
• Full database access

Former contractor could have accessed systems for 6 months. If credentials had leaked, full breach would have occurred.

Conclusion

You don't have time to wait 3 months to find out if you're hackable. Attackers aren't waiting—they're scanning your systems right now.

What 72-Hour Pentesting Gets You

• Speed: Results in days, not months
• Frequency: Monthly or quarterly testing
• Affordability: $2,000-$3,000 per test
• Accuracy: Real exploitation, not just scanning
• Actionability: Clear remediation guidance with code examples

The Numbers