Due to the current health crisis (and Saudi-Russian oil price war) the global economy teeters between recession and depression, and the duration of the down turn is unclear. Smart companies are looking for ways to save money to hunker down and weather the storm.

Here are 6 reasons why penetration testing will actually save you money.

1. Reduce the risk of a security breach.  According to noted security researcher Larry Ponemon, the average cost of a security breach was $3.92 million in 2019, including breach response costs and lost revenues. Furthermore, there has been a spike in cyber-attacks during the COVID-19 pandemic.
2. In this economic climate, a second crisis can be overwhelming.  A thorough penetration test and security assessment will help you identify vulnerabilities that could be exploited to cause a breach, and help you avoid additional unexpected costs.
3. Penetration tests are budget friendly.  Compared with the cost of infrastructure investments, IT staff, software integration projects, etc., penetration testing is relatively inexpensive.  And compared with the cost of a breach, above, it is a far better way to spend money. 
4. Protect company morale.  Morale is key to productivity, and suffers during periods of global crisis.  A security breach is demoralizing on its own. The combination of a breach and a global crisis can be devastating. Anything you can do to protect morale is a must. 
5. Do more with less.  Infrastructure projects to modernize your operations are expensive and may take years to pay off for your organization.  In lean times, these projects may get postponed, meaning you have to rely on less modern technology with fewer security features.  A penetration test can ensure, that at the very least, the technologies you do have are robustly protected, and can delay the need to modernize, at least from a security perspective.
6. Vulnerability scanners alone may leave you exposed. In a bid to save cost, you may consider relying on vulnerability scans.  And while vulnerability scans are a good baseline for protecting your computing and information assets, they regularly fall short of identifying hidden, and often the most dangerous, vulnerabilities that can expose you to hackers and malware.  A thorough penetration test from a skilled pen testing firm can help identify risks not detected by vulnerability scanning.
7. Prioritize value-add initiatives.  Penetration tests clearly describe the remediation activities that will provide the most positive impact to your security posture, and will allow you to save on less impactful endeavors.

Take-away: Penetration tests, security assessments, and risk assessments are relatively inexpensive tools to help prioritize initiatives to cost-effectively reduce and avoid the risk of potentially costly security breaches.