PKF Audit Azerbaijan Now Offers Pen Testing
Pen (penetration) testing is the practice of testing a computer system, network or web application to find security vulnerabilities that an attacker could exploit. Member firm PKF Audit Azerbaijan now offers this service, making use of the unique expertise of local cybersecurity specialists.
The customer base for pen testing mainly consists of banks, financial institutions, payment processing centers and state organizations, because these types of organisations have mandatory requirements imposed by their respective regulatory authorities.
PKF Audit Azerbaijan has worked with many such organisations, and its largest clients so far have been Kapital Bank (largest regional bank), Komtec (largest regional payment processing center), and Premium Bank, amongst others.
PKF Audit Azerbaijan is helping to expand PKF’s knowledge base and customer base by sharing its expertise in pen testing for joint projects with PKF offices in the CIS and Middle East. The firm also offers training to other PKF firms after several projects, so that they develop their own expertise to carry out this type of work.
Competitors are mainly mature IT integrator companies with focus on cybersecurity (of which there are few, in the CIS there are only two such companies – JET InfoSystem and Solid Lab) and the Big Four.
PKF’s fees for this work varies from $8K to $60K, while the cheapest competitor’s price on average starts from $17K. The result is an audit report with a summary of issues discovered, with recommendations provided so that the customer can improve their cybersecurity procedures. This work can be carried out annually or semi-annually in order to rotate the auditor. A quarterly procedure is also offered where there is a large volume of data and greater risk exposures.