Penetration Testing

1 WHAT IS PENETRATION TESTING?

Nick Furneaux

In the mid-15th century BC the Old Testament (Hebrew) Bible describes the wandering of the Israelite people who had purportedly been released from Egyptian bondage by Divine hand. Some 70 years later they stood on the edge of the so-called ‘Promised Land’, waiting to wage war on the peoples within. But before any attack, the patriarchal leader Moses ordered the first ‘penetration test’ I could locate in recorded history. In simple terms, Moses sent in spies to test out the defences of the land. This is what they reported to Moses (Numbers 13:27):

We entered the land into which you sent us, and it is indeed flowing with milk and honey, and this is its fruitage. Nevertheless, the people who dwell in ...