Thanks Dean. As always, your input is much appreciated. :-)

<Ajas Mohammed />
http://ajashadi.blogspot.com
We cannot become what we need to be, remaining what we are.
No matter what, find a way. Because thats what winners do.
You can't improve what you don't measure.
Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention,
sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents
the wise choice of many alternatives.


On Tue, Jan 5, 2010 at 6:27 PM, Dean H. Saxe <[email protected]>wrote:

> I spent the past 5 years doing pen testing for a living and there are
> many, many companies out there performing this service.  You get what
> you pay for!  So ask yourself this question:  What do I want to know
> from a test?  Do you want to know what can be found by a machine
> running automated scans, which will likely miss things like
> authorization flaws and stored cross-site scripting (cheapest,
> includes a test of the server the code runs on)?  Do you want a human
> to test the site thoroughly  only finding what can be discovered
> remotely (mid-range, includes a test of the server the code runs on)?
> Do you want a code review to discover all code-level vulnerabilities
> and suggest fixes (most expensive, most detailed, lacks any review of
> server configuration).  Also, why do you need a test?  If you are
> seeking PCI compliance, you need to find a vendor who can offer PCI
> specific services.
>
> For a reputable company to do a manual pen test, you can expect to pay
> $10 - $15k/week of testing.  Most small sites can be tested in a week,
> two tops.  Larger sites may require many weeks of assessment.  A code
> review will run you about the same, but the timeframes are longer.
> Figure 1 week for 10KLOC of code, 3 weeks for 50KLOC of code and
> beyond that expect a good vendor to want to do a threat model first so
> the code review can be more narrowly scoped.
>
> So who would I recommend to do your testing?  Here are some reputable
> companies that I would hire based on personal knowlege of their
> testing teams:
>
> Intrepidus Group
> Foundstone, A Division of McAfee
> VerSprite (a local ATL based company)
> WhiteHat (a SaaS model, not a one-time targeted test)
>
> I won't publicly state who I won't hire... but there are a lot of mom
> & pop type infosec shops out there that are not worth a damn.  There
> are a lot of consultancies that are large... but not very good.
>
> Hope this helps!
> -dhs
> --
> Dean H. Saxe
> "A true conservationist is a person who knows that the world is not
> given by his fathers, but borrowed from his children."  -- John James
> Audubon
>
>
>
> On Tue, Jan 5, 2010 at 1:35 PM, Ajas Mohammed <[email protected]> wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I have heard of http://www.coresecurity.com/ who do security testing for
> web
> > applications etc. Does anyone know of this company or any similar
> companies
> > who do security/penetration tests for web applications. Needless to say,
> our
> > applications are CF based.
> >
> > Is there anything to worry about or to be aware of, since these people if
> > hired, perform penetration testing on the production sites, which of
> course
> > would be on weekends.
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > <Ajas Mohammed />
> > http://ajashadi.blogspot.com
> > We cannot become what we need to be, remaining what we are.
> > No matter what, find a way. Because thats what winners do.
> > You can't improve what you don't measure.
> > Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention,
> > sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it
> represents
> > the wise choice of many alternatives.
> >
>
>
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