IT Health Check – ITHC for PSN Compliance

Web technologies have advanced in recent years and so have the Web Applications that we all use daily. With this advancement and reliance on web technologies, we have also been exposed to security risks associated with these applications.

The Public Services Network (PSN) is the government’s high-performance network, which helps public sector organisations work together, reduce duplication and share resources. Organisations, both public and private sector that require a connection to the PSN require to complete a Code of Connection (CoCo) application.

It is a requirement of the CoCo application to provide a recent (within 12 months) IT Health Check report that has to be performed by a qualified organisation. Pentest People, through their CREST membership and CHECK Service Provider status, are able to provide ITHC services to organisations requiring connection to the PSN.

Organisations connecting to the PSN have to perform an annual IT Health Check in order to sustain the connection.

Receive an IT Health Check Report required for annual access to the Public Services Network.

Engage with Pentest People to ensure your scope is identifed in line with the PSN requirements.

Pentest People are a CREST accredited company able to perform IT Health Checks.

Requirements of the IT Health Check

An IT Health Check requires both an External and Internal assessment. Pentest People will assign a qualified security consultant to help with scoping the engagement and delivering the project.

Depending on the size of the network and number of devices, sample testing of a minimum of 10 per cent of the estate can be performed and correct scoping is critical to ensure that the service offered meets the CoCo requirements without being over bearing and over budget.

With ITHC we can perform Internal and External Tests dependent on your business needs

External Assessment

The External Assessment part of the ITHC should include public-facing services such as email servers, web servers and other systems such as the firewalls in place to prevent unauthorised access from the public Internet into your organisation.

Any other inbound connections from the Internet such as Remote Access or Site-to-Site Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) also need to be assessed as part of the engagement. This assessment takes place for the infrastructure and authentication methods in place to protect the connections.

Internal Assessment

Internal testing takes the form of a Penetration Test and should include Vulnerability Scanning and a thorough Manual Analysis of your internal network.

At a minimum it should include:

Desktop and Server build and configuration, and network management security
Patching of Operating Systems, Applications and Firmware levels
Configuration of Remote Access solutions including Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) and the associated authentication
Build and Configuration Review of Laptops and other Mobile devices such as phones and tablets used for remote access
Internal Security Gateway configuration including the Firewall connection to the PSN network.
Wireless Network configuration

The assessment of the above look to provide assurance that your internal systems are configured in a secure manner and are being properly maintained.

How Can We Help?

Pentest People can help alleviate the risks associated with IT Security issued by performing regular internal and external assessments of your corporate infrastructure to identify the issues and to give you an ability to remediate these before an attacker would exploit.

Pentest People can provide a full engagement from scoping the assessment and carrying out both the external and internal assessments. An IT Health Check report will be presented as the deliverable of the project that can be used for your Code of Connection application for access to the Public Services Network.

The service would be delivered as part of the Pentest People Penetration Testing as a Service (PTaaS) and full access to the SecurePortal and other complementary tools would be provided.

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Key Benefits

Understand the Internal and External security issues you face through a very thorough assessment from a qualified security consultant.

Identify Security Vulnerabilities within your Web Applications allowing you to proactively remediate any issues that arise
Improve your security posture, allowing you to reduce the threat of a cyber attack occurring against your business
Comply with various regulatory bodies who mandate regular Penetration Testing be performed within your infrastructure
Be able to prove to your supply chain that you are taking the necessary precautions to ensure your strong security posture
Be able to focus efforts on important security issues by identifying the high-risk items identified in the Penetration Testing report

Frequently
Asked Questions

What is an Infrastructure Penetration Test?

An Infrastructure Penetration Test is a full consultant-led assessment of the security of your external and internal infrastructure. Pentest People use industry-leading methodologies and tools to identify the latest software and configuration vulnerabilities for all devices on your network.

What is the difference between an internal and external Penetration Test?

An Internal Penetration Test is where a consultant would be placed within your corporate environment and connected to your internal network looking for security issues from the inside.

An External Penetration Test is where a consultant looks for security issues from the outside of your network, generally over the public Internet.

What is the difference between a Vuln Scan and a Pen Test?

A Vulnerability Scan is performed by a software tool that scans the network and checks available services for known vulnerabilities. A Penetration Test takes this one step further and uses a consultant to check for vulnerabilities that an automated scanner cannot find as well as to manually confirm any identified vulnerabilities.

What is the deliverable from the service?

The deliverable from this service is a full Penetration Test Report that is uploaded to our SecurePortal and available for you to interact with.

This differs from the competition in the way this is delivered and we believe this is a much clearer way to work with an manage the results of the assessment.