CREST CERTIFIED NETWORK TESTERS
Network Penetration Testing Services in Australia
Penva Security delivers CREST-certified, manual network penetration testing for Australian businesses — testing external infrastructure, internal networks, firewalls, VPNs, Active Directory, segmentation and exposed services for exploitable attack paths that automated scanners and AI-only tools often miss.
Every network security test is performed by a human OSCP- and CREST-qualified offensive security expert, delivered with an audit-ready report for ISO 27001, SOC 2, PCI DSS, HIPAA and APRA CPS 234 — and includes a free remediation retest within 60 days.
Certified Network Testers
Audit-Ready Network Reports
Manual Network Testing
What Is Network Penetration Testing?
Network penetration testing is a controlled, manual security assessment where CREST-certified ethical hackers simulate real-world attacks against your external infrastructure, internal network, VPN, firewall, servers, cloud network and Active Directory environment. The goal is to identify exploitable weaknesses such as exposed services, weak credentials, insecure protocols, misconfigured access controls, segmentation gaps and lateral movement paths before attackers find them.
Unlike automated vulnerability scanning, a true network penetration test validates whether weaknesses can be exploited, chained and used to move deeper into the environment. A skilled tester turns scan results, misconfigurations and access paths into a short, prioritised list of confirmed, exploitable findings with proof-of-concept evidence, business impact and practical remediation guidance.
For Australian businesses, network penetration testing is strong evidence for ISO/IEC 27001:2022 controls A.8.8 and A.8.29, SOC 2 Trust Services Criterion CC7.1, PCI DSS Requirement 11.4, APRA CPS 234, and customer security reviews.
To understand our wider security service, visit our penetration testing services at Penva Security.
When You Need a Network Pentest
Most Australian businesses engage Penva Security for one of six clear network risk triggers – each maps to a compliance requirement, customer assurance request, infrastructure change, or high-impact security event.
Pre-Launch Assurance
Annual Compliance
After Major Changes
Vendor Security Questionnaires
APRA CPS 234
Post-Incident Review
Network Penetration Testing Approach
Every Penva Security network engagement follows NIST SP 800-115, PTES, MITRE ATT&CK and industry-recognised infrastructure testing practices. We test external and internal networks the way attackers do: by chaining exposed services, weak credentials, misconfigurations, privilege escalation and lateral movement paths to demonstrate real business impact.
Our Four-Phase Network Pentest Process
Aligned to NIST SP 800-115, MITRE ATT&CK, the Penetration Testing Execution Standard (PTES), and infrastructure security testing best practices.
Benefits of Network Penetration Testing Service
With Penva’s human-led, AI-assisted network penetration testing services, you can find exploitable infrastructure weaknesses before attackers do, reduce lateral movement risk, strengthen client and stakeholder confidence, and prove your network security posture with a clear, audit-ready report.
Find Hidden Weaknesses Before Hackers Do
Penetration testing uncovers hidden weaknesses in your system before real attackers can exploit them, allowing you to address issues promptly.
Avoid Costly Data Breaches
A single cyberattack can lead to stolen customer info, lawsuits, or fines. Penetration testing helps prevent this.
Meet Legal Requirements & Compliance in Australia
Industry standards (such as ISO 27001) and Australian regulations, including the ACSC Essential Eight and the Privacy Act 1988, mandate regular security checks. Penetration testing ensures compliance and helps avoid fines and data breaches.
Build Customer Trust
Customers feel safer knowing you care about their data, and It boosts your reputation as a secure and reliable business.
Penva vs AI-Only and Generic Pentest Firms
Fully AI-driven scanners and autonomous pentesting platforms find known patterns at machine speed – but they consistently miss the vulnerabilities that cause real breaches. Here’s how Penva Security compares.
What You Receive After a Network Penetration Test
You receive an audit-ready network penetration testing report with confirmed vulnerabilities, proof-of-concept evidence, affected hosts, services, CVSS risk ratings, business impact and practical remediation guidance, giving your team and stakeholders clear evidence of your network security posture.
Penetration Test Report
A comprehensive document detailing identified vulnerabilities, potential risks, and prioritized recommendations.
Includes Executive summary alongside technical evidence like attack paths and severity scores (CVSS) for your IT team.
Remediation Plan and Support
Provides step-by-step instructions and direct collaboration with the dev team to implement fixes, ensuring risks are eliminated.
If required, receive a follow-up report confirming all issues are resolved for accountability and compliance.
Certification of Testing
Official validation that your systems were rigorously tested and meet industry security standards.
Offers formal documentation (e.g., compliance with GDPR, PCI DSS) to demonstrate due diligence to clients, auditors, or regulators.
Audit-Ready for Every Major Framework
Every Penva Security report is purpose-built to satisfy auditors, with the executive summary, CVSS 3.1 scoring, evidence appendix, and formal letter of attestation that compliance assessors require.
ISO/IEC 27001
SOC 2 Type II
PCI DSS v4.0
APRA CPS 234
Essential Eight
HIPAA
GDPR & Privacy Act
ST4S
Pentest Results that Pass Audits
How Penva Security helped businesses pass ISO 27001 and SOC 2 audits with penetration testing reports that satisfied assessors, closed critical gaps, and gave clients the confidence to scale securely.
Why Choose Us
We have partnered with organizations across critical sectors, including finance, education, e-commerce, and healthcare, to enhance their security posture, meet compliance requirements, and confidently pass audits.
We’ve identified critical vulnerabilities in 70% of tested applications, including server compromises and leaked credentials, and helped secure their applications and infrastructure.
Accreditations & Certifications
Brand Name
Certification
Certification Worth
OSCP by Offensive Security
OSCP+ by Offensive Security
The OSCP (Offensive Security Certified Professional) is a highly regarded certification that validates practical penetration testing skills and is globally recognized by employers and regulators.
CREST Practitioner Security Analyst (CPSA)
CREST Registered Penetration Tester (CRT)
CREST partners with national bodies in the UK, US, Australia, and Singapore, ensuring global recognition and compliance with the highest cybersecurity standards.
CRTO by Zero-Point Security
This certification demonstrates the ability to think and act like a real attacker, simulating advanced cyberattacks to help organizations identify and remediate hidden weaknesses before they can be exploited.
Penva Security holds globally recognised, specialized penetration testing certifications that take years to earn.
Reviews and Clients
Michael Wendland
Partner at Bonsai
Reliable and professional penetration testing partner
Penva Security provided a quick and efferent pentest report that satisfied our needs and certification criteria. I would highly recommend them for penetration testing, and will be using his services again in the future.
Stuart Cox
Creative Director at NorthBase
Professional, communicative, and highly reliable testers
Penva Security conducted a penetration test of our webapp and produced a report of security issues. The team was professional and communicated well throughout, including giving us the expected timeline for the work and keeping us up-to-date as we progressed. The report was well written and I can recommend them to anyone looking for penetration testing.
Daniel Scocco
Founder at InstaDelivery
Working with third or forth time with Penva Security
This is the third or fourth time we work with Penva Security. They always delivers timely and great work. One of the best security experts I know.
Our Team's Certification
Our team holds industry-recognized pentest certifications that take years to achieve.
Network Penetration Testing - Common Questions
Direct answers to the network security testing questions Australian businesses ask most often.
Network penetration testing is a controlled security assessment of your external or internal network, including exposed services, VPNs, firewalls, Active Directory, servers, segmentation, remote access, and misconfigured infrastructure. Penva simulates real attacker behaviour to identify exploitable weaknesses such as exposed management ports, weak credentials, vulnerable services, privilege escalation paths, poor segmentation, and opportunities to move laterally through the environment.
Network penetration testing in Australia typically starts from AUD $2,000 for a focused external assessment. The final price depends on the number of IP addresses, internal subnets, VPN or wireless scope, Active Directory complexity, cloud-hosted assets, segmentation requirements, and whether testing is external, internal, or both. Penva provides a fixed-price quote after a free scoping call, with the scope clearly documented before testing begins.
Most network penetration tests take 3 to 10 business days of active testing, plus 1 to 2 days for reporting. A small external perimeter can often be assessed within a few days, while an internal network with Active Directory, multiple subnets, segmentation testing, and privilege escalation paths can take 1 to 3 weeks. Penva shares confirmed findings progressively so your team can begin remediation early.
Yes, for most organisations with internet-facing systems, internal networks, or regulated environments. ISO 27001, SOC 2, PCI DSS, APRA CPS 234, and enterprise customer security reviews commonly expect evidence of vulnerability assessment and penetration testing. Penva provides audit-ready network pentest reports with evidence, risk ratings, business impact, remediation guidance, and retest validation for compliance and procurement reviews.
A vulnerability scan identifies known issues by signatures and configuration checks, but it often produces false positives and does not show how an attacker could chain weaknesses. A network penetration test manually validates exploitability, tests privilege escalation, checks segmentation, reviews remote access exposure, and demonstrates realistic attack paths. Penva focuses on confirmed, prioritised findings that matter to risk, not long scanner exports.
No. Penva delivers human-led network penetration testing. We use scanners and AI-assisted workflows only to support reconnaissance, service mapping, and coverage checks. Every finding is manually validated by a penetration tester before it is reported. This matters because real network compromise often comes from chained issues such as weak credentials, exposed services, privilege escalation, poor segmentation, and Active Directory abuse.
Penva follows NIST SP 800-115, PTES, OWASP guidance where web-facing services are in scope, and practical attacker-led network testing methodology. Our process covers scoping, asset discovery, service enumeration, vulnerability validation, credential and access control testing, exploitation, privilege escalation, lateral movement analysis, segmentation testing, reporting, and remediation retesting.
Penva plans network testing carefully to reduce risk to production systems, users, and uptime. We avoid destructive payloads unless explicitly approved, throttle scanning where required, coordinate testing windows for sensitive systems, and separate safe validation from high-risk exploitation. Where possible, internal testing is performed using approved test accounts, jump hosts, and agreed rules of engagement.
Yes. Every Penva fixed-price network penetration test includes one free retest within 60 days of the original engagement. After remediation, we re-check each finding and provide an updated report showing whether the issues are closed. This gives your team clear evidence for ISO 27001, SOC 2, PCI DSS, APRA, vendor questionnaires, and internal risk acceptance.
Yes. Penva’s testers hold recognised penetration testing certifications including CREST, OSCP, and CRTO experience across external infrastructure, internal networks, Active Directory, cloud, and application testing. This helps ensure network findings are not only discovered, but also validated for real-world exploitability and business impact.
At minimum, organisations should perform network penetration testing annually and after significant changes such as new VPNs, firewall changes, cloud migrations, office moves, Active Directory changes, new internet-facing services, or major infrastructure upgrades. Businesses with regulated environments, remote access, or frequent infrastructure changes should consider more regular testing.
Penva commonly finds exposed administrative services, weak VPN or RDP configurations, missing security patches, insecure SMB or NTLM settings, weak passwords, default credentials, misconfigured firewalls, poor network segmentation, excessive internal trust, Active Directory privilege escalation paths, outdated services, and cloud-hosted infrastructure exposed to the internet. The most serious risks often come from chaining several medium issues into a full compromise path.
Penva supports SaaS companies, professional services, healthcare providers, education organisations, FinTech and payments businesses, e-commerce companies, managed service providers, and government supply-chain vendors across Australia. We work with teams in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, and Canberra that need network testing for compliance, cyber insurance, procurement, or risk reduction.
Yes. Penva can sign a mutual NDA before any IP ranges, network diagrams, VPN access, internal architecture, credentials, or commercial information is shared. We can also work under your MSA, supplier agreement, data-handling requirements, or enterprise procurement process.