THREAT‑WATCH
Glossary
Penetration Testing
An authorized, simulated attack against a system to find exploitable weaknesses before a real attacker does.
Penetration testing ('pen testing') is performed by security professionals under an explicit scope and authorization agreement, attempting to exploit weaknesses the way a real attacker would, then reporting findings with remediation guidance. It differs from vulnerability scanning by actually attempting exploitation rather than just flagging theoretical weaknesses.