Find the weaknesses before an attacker does.

Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing. The assessment finds known weaknesses across your systems; the penetration test proves which of them an attacker could actually use, and what they could reach by doing so.

A scanner produces a list of possible issues, with false positives and no proof of impact. VAPT adds manual testing, validation, business-logic checks and chained attacks, and turns the result into a ranked, evidenced remediation plan.

An audit checks whether policies and controls exist and are followed. VAPT tests whether the technology actually resists attack. The two complement each other, and many regulators and standards expect both.

No. VAPT aims to find as many exploitable weaknesses as possible in an agreed scope. Red teaming pursues a specific goal, often covertly, to test detection and response. Codec Networks offers red teaming as a separate service.

Those controls are only as good as their configuration and coverage. VAPT shows whether an attacker can get past them, through an unpatched gateway, a broken API or a weak domain account, and whether the SOC notices.

At least yearly for most systems, and more often for critical and internet-facing ones; for some regulated entities that means a half-yearly assessment. Test again after major changes and when a critical, actively exploited flaw affects your technology.

No test can guarantee that. VAPT reduces risk by finding and closing the weaknesses an attacker would most likely use, and gives you evidence of how well your controls hold up at a point in time.

Usually the CISO or IT security head, with application owners, infrastructure teams and risk or compliance involved. The Board or risk committee should see the executive summary and track closure of critical and high findings.

Web and mobile applications, APIs, thick clients, cloud-native apps, external and internal networks, wireless, cloud accounts, VPN and remote access, servers and devices, databases, Active Directory, configuration and patch status. Document 2 describes all fifteen services.

Start with what is internet-facing, what holds sensitive data or money, and what has changed recently. The scoping call ranks assets by exposure and business criticality, then matches them to the right services.

Perimeter and configuration checks usually run against production within agreed windows. Application testing often runs in a staging environment that truly mirrors production, which keeps business data and users safe while preserving realism.

For applications and APIs, yes: test accounts for each role are essential, because most serious flaws appear only after login. For external network tests, no credentials are needed. Internal tests may use a standard user account.

Enough to agree the scope and test safely: the assets in scope, the user roles to test, the contacts and any windows or exclusions. Architecture notes and API documentation help testers go deeper in the same time.

Yes, with written permission from the hosting provider or service owner where their terms require it. Major cloud platforms allow customers to test their own resources within published policies, which Codec Networks follows.

It depends on the number and complexity of assets, access readiness and testing windows. A single application takes far less time than a multi-site regulated estate. The schedule is agreed in the proposal before testing starts.

Essential suits a first test or a small estate; Professional covers several applications and the network with retesting; Enterprise covers large or regulated estates; the Annual Retainer gives year-round testing. Pricing is based on scope.

The aim is zero disruption. Methods, stop conditions and testing windows are agreed in the rules of engagement, and exploitability is proved without destructive impact. Fragile or business-critical systems can be tested in agreed windows with extra care.

They differ in what the tester knows at the start: nothing (black box), test accounts and some documentation (grey box), or full design detail and access (white box). Grey box usually gives the best depth for the time spent.

OWASP Top 10:2025, the OWASP API Security Top 10, OWASP MASVS for mobile, PTES and NIST SP 800-115 for penetration testing, CIS Benchmarks for configuration, MITRE ATT&CK for attacker techniques and CVSS for scoring.

Both. Automated tools give coverage and speed; certified testers find business-logic flaws, chain weaknesses together and validate every critical and high finding by hand before it is reported.

It goes straight to the agreed escalation contact through the route set in the rules of engagement, so containment can start at once rather than waiting for the report.

Codec Networks is certified to ISO/IEC 27001:2022. Credentials, evidence and reports are handled on a need-to-know basis and stored and shared securely; test data is used in place of real customer data wherever possible.

Yes. External tests start from the internet with no inside knowledge. Internal and application tests then add credentials and documentation so that limited test time goes into depth, not guesswork.

Yes, and it is useful. Some clients tell the SOC in advance; others keep the test quiet to see what is detected. Either way, the results show which attack steps your monitoring caught and which it missed.

An executive summary for leadership, a technical report with evidence for each finding, a remediation tracker, a retest report, risk-acceptance notes for anything deferred and, where agreed, compliance mapping and a management presentation.

On a five-level scale from Critical to Informational. Each rating starts from the CVSS base score and is adjusted for exploitability, asset criticality and business impact, so that the order of fixes reflects real risk.

Yes. Each finding includes affected assets, reproduction steps, evidence such as screenshots or request and response detail, and specific remediation guidance with references.

Yes. Clarification sessions walk your teams through each finding and the recommended fix. Where you want hands-on help, such as cloud hardening or secure code review, Codec Networks can run it as a separate engagement.

A focused second round that checks whether each fixed finding is really closed. The retest report marks every item as fixed, partly fixed or still open, and it is the evidence auditors usually ask for.

The business owner can formally accept or defer the risk. A risk-acceptance note records the business justification and the residual risk, so the decision is visible to management and auditors.

Reports are confidential. Many clients share the executive summary or a letter confirming testing and closure with customers and auditors, and keep the full technical report internal.

Use the same severity scale and asset groups each cycle. The executive summary then shows trends: fewer critical findings, faster closure and a shrinking attack surface.

Yes. Codec Networks is empanelled by CERT-In for information security auditing services, and with NICSI for application audit and compliance services in the start-up category. Eligibility is confirmed in every proposal where required.

VAPT provides technical evidence that supports compliance, but compliance depends on the full set of requirements for your entity. Regulatory references in this set are general guidance; confirm obligations against the official instruments.

PCI DSS v4.0.1 calls for regular vulnerability scanning and for penetration testing at least every twelve months and after significant changes. Codec Networks' testing and segmentation checks map directly to those requirements.

Yes. Test results and retest evidence support controls on technical vulnerability management and security testing, and SOC 2 criteria on vulnerability management and monitoring.

The DPDP Act 2023 requires reasonable security safeguards to prevent personal data breaches. Testing the systems that hold personal data is one of the clearest ways to show those safeguards work.

Yes. Findings can be mapped to ISO/IEC 27001, NIST CSF, PCI DSS, SOC 2, CERT-In guidance and RBI, SEBI or IRDAI expectations. The mapping is technical alignment, not a certification or legal opinion.

Yes, for most internet-facing, application and cloud scope. Internal network, wireless and segmentation tests are done on site or through a secure connection or provided device, depending on policy.

Book a scoping call with Codec Networks. We agree the assets, objectives and engagement model, issue a proposal, sign the rules of engagement and start testing on the agreed date.