How to get the most out of your pen test remediations

Security often feels like an uphill battle. Suppose your organization has taken foundational steps – obtaining Cyber Essentials certification and starting regular penetration testing. Congratulations – you’re well-positioned to prevent most opportunistic attacks. However, once the pen test report arrives, many businesses encounter a new challenge: how to manage the remediations effectively.

Pen testing companies often highlight that there are always more remediation tasks than resources, a common concern for every security manager. The crucial question is: how do you prioritize limited resources for maximum security impact? Effective and efficient remediation efforts are essential, and that’s where data becomes invaluable.

The key to effective remediation is recognizing that not all findings have the same level of importance. Target Defense's penetration test reports include a crucial 'effort to fix' metric, and by analysing data from thousands of tests, we've identified opportunities for quick wins.

Analysing this data reveals that nearly all critical and high-severity flaws are low to medium effort to fix. This makes them a clear priority for remediation efforts. Addressing these critical and high importance issues first ensures maximum impact with minimal effort. But once these easy wins are tackled, what's next?

You now face a crucial decision: should you allocate your remaining remediation budget to fix the remaining few critical and high importance issues, or address a larger number of medium-severity findings? This is where data must be considered alongside context. The distribution of severity by the category of the finding can influence your prioritization. We've outlined the severity by category, along with some helpful insights on why you might prioritize certain findings over others.

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