ITPEC FE Morning April 2019 Question 44

Penetration Testing — simulating real attacks to find vulnerabilities

Correct answer: a) Penetration test

A penetration test (pen test) involves actually attempting to exploit a system's vulnerabilities by simulating real-world attacks and intrusions. The goal is to identify security weaknesses before malicious actors do.

Why not the others:

• •b) Regression test — verifies that new code changes haven't broken existing functionality. It is a software development activity, not a security technique.
• •c) Software inspection — a static review technique where team members manually examine code or documents for defects. No attacks are performed.
• •d) Walk-through — the author of a document or code guides reviewers through it step by step. It is a review method, not a security assessment.

Key rule: If the question mentions "actually attempting an attack" or "simulating intrusion," the answer is always penetration test. Don't confuse it with vulnerability assessment (which only identifies weaknesses without exploiting them).

AI-generated — may contain errors