Penetration testing that ends arguments — not scanner exports.
Senior-led, manual testing that shows how an attacker actually reaches what matters, and what it would cost you — not a deduplicated list of CVEs.
- Senior-led delivery.
- Vendor-independent.
- Evidence-driven reporting.
Most organisations don’t buy penetration testing because they’re curious. They buy it because a customer’s security team is holding up a contract, an auditor has flagged annual testing, an insurer is asking pointed questions, or a board wants an independent answer the internal team is too close to give.
We don’t deliver a deduplicated scanner export with a logo on the cover. Every engagement produces reproducible evidence, severity scored against business impact rather than CVSS alone, and a remediation plan your team can act on. The point of a test is to end an argument with proof, not to start a new one about whether a finding is real.
What we test
External penetration testing
- We attack your internet-facing surface the way an external adversary would — web applications, exposed APIs, infrastructure, and the third-party integrations attached to them — starting from OSINT and asset discovery. The base is PTES and MITRE ATT&CK, supported by NIST SP 800-115.
Internal penetration testing
- An assumed-breach engagement from a foothold inside the network: we enumerate and abuse Active Directory, reuse credentials, escalate privilege, and test segmentation to give you a quantified view of internal blast radius and ransomware exposure.
Web and API penetration testing
- Authenticated testing across every user role, past the OWASP Top 10 into the business-logic and authorisation flaws specific to your domain, plus the OWASP API Security Top 10 — each finding proven with a working exploit, not a signature.
Mobile penetration testing
- We test iOS and Android applications the way an attacker who already controls the device would — client-side storage, transport, platform misuse, and the back-end the app talks to — aligned to OWASP MASVS. Offered on request rather than as a default line, because not every programme needs it.
Cloud penetration testing
- Exploitation-focused testing of AWS, Azure, and GCP — identity and privilege paths, exposed services, and the misconfigurations that chain into real impact — using the MITRE ATT&CK Cloud matrix and CIS Benchmarks as the base.
Scope. Scope is always set to your real attack surface and the assets the business depends on — not a generic checklist. External and internal are the most common starting points; web/API and cloud attach where the risk lives.
When teams call us
The most common moments organisations bring us in for a penetration test:
- A new enterprise customer demanding a recent penetration test before they sign.
- An auditor finding on annual testing for ISO 27001, SOC 2, or PCI DSS.
- A product launch on public infrastructure.
- A cyber-insurance renewal questionnaire.
- A post-incident need to validate that a gap is actually closed.
- A board asking for independent assurance the internal team can’t provide about its own work.
What you receive
The HackingByte Engagement Brief
Every service ends in the same three connected artifacts — so exploit, control gap, and business impact tell one story.
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Technical Report
Reproducible findings with evidence and per-finding remediation, written for your engineers.
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Executive Risk Brief
The same findings as business risk for leadership and the board — no jargon, no CVSS tables.
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Action Plan
Prioritised, owner-assigned, and scoped to what your team can actually deliver.
Timeline
What a typical engagement looks like.
A representative external or internal penetration test runs roughly four to six weeks end to end: about a week of scoping to a signed Statement of Work, one to three weeks of testing depending on the size of the surface, a week of reporting and peer review, and a debrief once you’ve had the report in hand. An optional retest of critical and high findings adds one to three weeks whenever your team is ready.
Web and API engagements follow the same shape; very large applications extend the testing window. Threat-led and red team engagements add a threat-intelligence and scenario-design stage up front. The schedule is set during scoping around your deadline — a customer’s procurement gate, an audit date, or an insurance renewal.
How it’s different
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Manual, senior-led testing — the chained attack paths and business-logic abuse that matter come from someone who has done this before, not a junior with a scanner licence. Every deliverable carries senior sign-off before it leaves the firm.
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Findings reproduced with evidence — every finding includes reproduction steps and captured evidence sufficient for your team to recreate it independently. You should never have to take our word for a finding.
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Severity scored with a business-impact overlay, not just CVSS — a “medium” on a system that moves money is not the same as a “medium” on a static marketing site. Severity inflation is a quality defect here, not a sales tactic.
External testing
External penetration testing.
External penetration testing answers the question every customer security review and insurance renewal is really asking: what could a competent attacker reach from the internet today? We attack your internet-facing surface — web applications, exposed APIs, infrastructure, and the third-party integrations attached to them — starting from OSINT and asset discovery, because the assets you have forgotten about are usually the ones that matter. It is the most common starting point, and the baseline most external obligations expect.
Internal testing
Internal penetration testing.
Internal penetration testing is an assumed-breach engagement: we start from a foothold inside the network and measure how far an attacker moves before someone stops them. The objective is usually Domain Admin, a privileged data store, or a business-critical workload. The output is a quantified view of internal blast radius and ransomware exposure — the kind of figure a board and a CFO can actually use.
Choosing a provider
Choosing a penetration testing company.
Not every penetration testing company delivers the same thing. What separates a useful test from a scanner export is senior practitioners doing the work, reproducible evidence for every finding, severity scored against business impact, and a remediation plan your team can act on. Before you sign, ask who will actually run the test, how scope is set, and what the report contains.
Our methodology
Cited standards, a six-stage lifecycle, senior sign-off at every stage.
We don’t invent methodology — we use, cite, and extend recognised standards, and we tell you which ones before the engagement starts. Every test runs on the same six-stage lifecycle, so you always know what happens next.
Scoping. We define objectives, assets, threat model, rules of engagement, deliverables, and a pricing band, ending in a signed Statement of Work.
Kickoff. We confirm rules of engagement, contacts, escalation paths, schedule, secure communication channels, and access in a single 60-minute call.
Execution. The testing itself, scoped to the asset class. Critical findings are escalated to you within four working hours of discovery — never held back until the report.
Reporting. We produce the three-artifact Engagement Brief and put it through internal peer review before you see it.
Debrief. Two sessions — a technical walkthrough with your engineers and an executive debrief with leadership — plus Q&A on the action plan.
Closure and optional retest. The action plan goes to its owners, and you can elect a focused retest of critical and high findings with an updated attestation.
The standards base depends on the asset: PTES and MITRE ATT&CK for external and internal work; the OWASP Web Security Testing Guide and API Security Top 10 for web and APIs; OWASP MASVS for mobile; the MITRE ATT&CK Cloud matrix and CIS Benchmarks for cloud.
Scoping & pricing
How penetration tests are priced.
We price engagements fixed, banded by scope — not by the day. For an external or internal test, the band is set by the number of in-scope assets and the complexity of the environment; for web and API work, by the number of roles, endpoints, and the business-logic complexity of the application. We give you the band during scoping, before you sign anything, so there are no day-rate surprises.
A few things we deliberately don’t do: we don’t sell day rates, we don’t resell or upsell tooling, and we take no vendor commissions — so the test is sized to answer your actual question, not the largest engagement we could justify. If you have a budget you’re working within, tell us during scoping and we’ll be straight about what it covers.
Frequently asked questions
How is this different from a vulnerability scan?
- A scan lists findings; we manually verify and chain them to show real, exploitable impact — with evidence you can reproduce.
Will it disrupt production?
- No. Scope and rules of engagement are agreed before we start, with clear escalation if anything sensitive surfaces.
What does a penetration test cost?
- We price fixed, banded by scope, and give you the band during scoping before you commit — no day-rate surprises. Cost depends on the size of the attack surface and the complexity of the environment.
How long does it take?
- A typical external or internal test runs about four to six weeks end to end: a week of scoping, one to three weeks of testing, a week of reporting, then a debrief.
Can you retest after we fix the findings?
- Yes — a focused retest of critical and high findings is an optional add-on, with an updated attestation you can share with customers and auditors.
Bring us the system you’re worried about and the deadline you’re working to — we’ll scope the test around both.
Every engagement ends in the same three connected artifacts, and the continuous platforms keep watch between engagements. Continuous monitoring platforms.