What is CREST Penetration Testing?
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What is CREST and why does it matter in penetration testing?
CREST (Council for Registered Ethical Security Testers) is an internationally recognised non-profit organisation that sets professional standards for the cybersecurity industry. It provides accreditation for companies and certification for individuals specialising in penetration testing, incident response, threat intelligence, and more.
CREST’s primary aim is to promote high-quality, consistent, and ethical cybersecurity practices worldwide by validating both individuals’ skills and organisations’ operating procedures.
Through a combination of rigorous examinations, ongoing professional development, and strict auditing processes, CREST ensures that security professionals are equipped with up-to-date knowledge and tested methodologies.
The state of cybersecurity in 2024–2025: Why penetration testing is critical
Today, organisations face a barrage of evolving cyber threats. The difference between a secure system and a vulnerable one often comes down to the quality of security testing and the expertise behind it. This is where CREST becomes crucial.
By providing a framework for ethical and effective cybersecurity testing, CREST helps organisations ensure that the professionals they engage are not only technically capable but also working to industry-leading standards. This adds a layer of assurance, particularly when it comes to high-stakes engagements like penetration testing, where mistakes or oversights could have significant consequences.
CREST’s role is not just about validating skills; it’s about instilling confidence. Whether you’re a CISO looking to commission a security assessment or a business navigating compliance requirements, CREST-accredited services offer peace of mind and demonstrable due diligence.
Cybersecurity today is not a static checklist but a constantly shifting battlefield. As technology continues to evolve, with cloud infrastructure, IoT, and remote work environments becoming the norm, so do cybercriminals’ tactics. From sophisticated ransomware campaigns to exploiting zero-day vulnerabilities, the current state of cybersecurity is broader and more dynamic than ever.
At the same time, many organisations are grappling with legacy systems, resource constraints, and the growing complexity of modern IT environments. This creates a situation where even basic security practices can fall through the cracks, opening the door to significant risk.
In this environment, reactive security strategies are no longer enough. Organisations need proactive measures, clear visibility into their vulnerabilities, and assurance that their defences can withstand real-world attacks. This is precisely where CREST and its certified practitioners provide value by offering a standardised, trusted approach to penetration testing and vulnerability assessment that helps close the gap between unknown risk and informed action.
The nature of security is inherently asymmetric, and cybersecurity is no different
There’s an adage about the amount of luck needed for either side of the security equation to succeed. Suppose you’re charged with defending computer systems, especially the ones that can be accessed from across the internet, like websites and networks. In that case, you’re pretty much signed up for creating systems and processes that ensure that one hundred per cent of attacks are detected, thwarted or otherwise unsuccessful.
Every time an attacker aims at your organisation and launches an attack, you must be ready and prepared to defend against it. Some attacks are purely malicious, as in they’re designed by people simply looking to reduce your ability to do business or are otherwise trying to cause havoc for bragging rights. But many cyberattacks are measured, considered, and financially driven.
If you’re fortunate, it will be someone trying to use your infrastructure to run cryptocurrency miners, send spam emails or otherwise coerce your servers into joining their army of similarly compromised devices.
Such networks, or ‘botnets’, are usually used to launch larger, Denial of Service (DoS) style attacks, but they can often be rented out to anyone with sufficient Bitcoin to spare and a target in their sights. But again, this means you’re fortunate because the other end of the scale is a small, highly organised, well-funded and incredibly driven group of cyber criminals with more specific goals in mind for your computers.
The rising cost of cyber attacks: Why you can’t afford cheap testing
According to The State of Ransomware (2024), an annual report by cybersecurity software provider Sophos, the median ransom paid by ransomware victims rose fivefold, going from $400,000 in 2022/23 to $2,000,000 in 2023/24.
Meanwhile, the mean ransom paid rose by over $2,400,000 to $3,960,917. Ransomware remains a potent and significant goal for cybercriminals, and around a third of successful ransomware attacks come from existing vulnerabilities being exploited.
That means attackers are exploiting unpatched, unsupported, and out-of-date software, likely across the internet, and the victim company is paying an average of a couple of million dollars just in ransoms alone. This doesn’t consider the amount the organisation has to spend recovering their information and all of the other disruptions to service they experienced due to the attack, which was an additional $2,730,000.
These are just averages, but the takeaway is that businesses that fall victim to ransomware attacks can expect to lose over $6,000,000 in ransom and recovery costs. This doesn’t include the reputational damage, legal costs if data is stolen, and other things like this.
Real-world numbers
These numbers are taken from one report, so the real-world numbers are likely higher because organisations aren’t always forthcoming with information about being the victims of cybercrime. Plus, this only focuses on ransomware attacks and, therefore, doesn’t include the raft of other types of attacks that cybercriminals have at their disposal.
Nevertheless, if there were ever a few numbers that you’d want to use to create a business case for taking a proactive approach to cybersecurity, these would be them.
So much of security is doing the basics right. Still, organisations and their infrastructures can grow to bewildering levels of complexity so quickly that it becomes nigh-on impossible for a small group of people to maintain a constant, consistent overview and understanding of the whole state of the infrastructure.
An attacker needs only a single, unpatched, and vulnerable device among thousands of well-secured ones to launch a successful attack. As the adage says, defenders need to get it right every time; attackers only need to get it right once.
Offensive Security: Putting your posture to the test
The response for organisations is clear: develop a robust cybersecurity posture or risk the damaging consequences of falling victim to a significant cyber attack. But along the way, many decisions have to be made, many of which don’t have clear-cut or even desirable solutions. Legacy systems can pose endless headaches, especially if they’re mission-critical systems running on proprietary software.
Many specialists and embedded systems find themselves in this camp, where simply upgrading the operating system (OS) isn’t an option, leaving the IT department to devise often elaborate security solutions to keep those systems secure.
Likewise, solutions that equate to ‘just put it in the cloud’ often exchange one set of security concerns for another, requiring even more specialised resources to manage and secure the virtualised systems and the cloud account users and configurations.
But once the thousand-and-one security decisions have been made, the playbooks written, the configurations deployed, and the team trained, you still have little idea about how your security will stand up against a real attack scenario.
This is where the idea of offensive security comes into play: you employ people with deep knowledge of the ways that cybercriminals think and ask them to identify vulnerabilities in your systems and simulate various types of cyberattacks against those systems.
They then produce a detailed report covering all of the vulnerabilities and exploits they could find and successfully achieve, leaving you with a clear set of priorities for exactly where and how your security posture could be improved. In short, you call in the penetration testers.
The Role of CREST Certified Penetration Testing
Today’s threat landscape is rapidly evolving, so penetration testing is crucial in helping organisations ensure their defences are robust and resilient. As organisations’ infrastructure grows through the adoption of cloud computing, mobile devices, and IoT, the complexity of their infrastructure increases exponentially.
Internal teams keeping up with the latest threats become a near full-time occupation, and that’s before remedial actions are taken. And whilst a team might be confident, even pleased, with a ‘low findings’ report at the end of a penetration test, some might naturally wonder how the work done is assured and to what levels.
When potentially millions of dollars worth of loss is at stake, these questions tend to arise in the due diligence part of an engagement. This is where CREST and CREST-accredited penetration testers can demonstrate that they consistently operate to a recognised standard.
By using CREST-certified security services, such as penetration testing, you can stay ahead of attackers, prioritise your security operations, and ultimately boost your confidence in your security posture.
On an individual level, a CREST-certified penetration tester takes a highly structured approach to penetration testing; they’ll identify and catalogue vulnerabilities, exploit weaknesses, and seek to gain even further privileges in the target systems.
These tests simulate real-world attacks and are designed to be broad in scope, covering as much of the target systems as possible. Modern organisations’ IT systems are vast, and vulnerabilities can still be overlooked even when regular vulnerability scanning occurs.
Reporting that drives action: Powered by SecureIQ
At Evalian, we don’t just conduct CREST-accredited penetration testing — we make it easy for you to act on the results. That’s why all our clients get access to SecureIQ, our penetration test reporting and vulnerability tracking platform.
SecureIQ gives you a single dashboard where you can instantly see findings by risk level, review CVSS scores, download technical and executive reports, and monitor remediation progress across your systems. Whether you’re preparing for an audit, assigning internal tasks, or briefing your board, SecureIQ makes penetration test results accessible, structured, and actionable from day one.
INTERESTED TO SEE SECUREIQ IN ACTION? BOOK A DEMO
What CREST pen testing covers: Real-world threat simulation
Penetration testing with a CREST-accredited partner can help uncover common issues such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting, vulnerable software, and exploitable Active Directory misconfigurations.
A CREST-accredited pen test will also show more nuanced threats unique to their specific environment. For example, cloud-based systems often rely on third-party services and APIs, which can introduce additional layers of complexity, as was discussed above.
CREST-certified testers trained in cloud configuration assessments can identify misconfigurations in cloud accounts and things like weak authentication mechanisms and poor logging practices. This gives you the confidence that each component is configured correctly and resistant to potential exploits.
CREST (Council for Registered Ethical Security Testers) is a well-respected, internationally recognised non-profit that sets the standards for security professionals in various fields, such as web application security, network testing, and cloud infrastructure assessment. It offers certifications to individuals and accreditations for organisations, ensuring they meet the highest levels of expertise.
CREST accreditation: People, process & proven methodology
CREST provides a wide array of services, and one of its main jobs is creating and maintaining certification programs based on industry best practices. IT professionals earn their CREST qualifications after passing comprehensive exams and meeting experience requirements.
These certifications come with guidelines for consistent methodologies in penetration testing so results from one test can be reliably compared to another. However, having an individual with a CREST certification isn’t enough.
The organisation also needs to be able to work to and deliver its security testing services to the same rigorous levels that CREST sets out. CREST also awards, audits, and recommends CREST-accredited organisations. Typically, an organisation will hold other internationally recognised accreditations alongside its CREST standing, giving further assurance of the constant standards that it operates to in its business.
By awarding and maintaining globally recognised credentials, CREST helps organisations trust the skills of their security teams or third-party providers by demonstrating their competencies in cybersecurity. This can’t be understated as businesses increasingly rely on these third-party services for things like cloud setups and tackling modern threats like ransomware.
In short, CREST ensures certified people and organisations work to the highest standards and can provide consistency and reliability in information security across industries.
CREST-accredited penetration testing with Evalian: Real results, trusted insights
Maintaining a robust, well-tested cybersecurity posture is more critical than ever in today’s fast-evolving security landscape.
The CREST-accredited security service providers and the services they offer, including pen testing, tackle the challenge of keeping abreast of the threat landscape by providing consistency and reliability in penetration testing based on a structured approach that identifies not just common issues but also how those issues can be put together to create much more potent security concerns.
CREST-certified testers bring deep expertise to simulate real-world attacks, providing organisations with clear and actionable insights to help improve their security posture.
By adhering to globally recognised standards, CREST-accredited partners offer their clients a tried-and-trusted framework for due diligence, ensuring that each component of an organisation’s IT infrastructure is tested and resilient against cyber attacks.
In essence, CREST penetration tests give organisations the insight and roadmap to stay ahead of attackers, prioritise fixes and renditions, and build real-world tested confidence in their security operations.
“Congratulations to Evalian for achieving OVS accreditation, this first-of-its-kind accreditation gives buyers of application security testing services the peace of mind that they are working with ethical and capable organisations with skilled and competent security testers. It provides valuable assurance to Evalian’s customers of the high quality of the services they provide.” Rowland Johnson, president of CREST.
Contact us today about your CREST penetration testing requirements
