Difference between a vulnerability assessment and a penetration testing by Arthur Soghomonyan

Difference between a vulnerability assessment and a penetration testing! What’s the difference between a vulnerability assessment and a penetration test? The answer to that question depends on who you choose to ask. For some people they are effectively one and the same thing; for others there are clear distinctions. So what’s the true position? Are vulnerability assessments and penetration test effectively two sides of the same coin, or are there clear differences between the two? The short answer is that whilst a penetration test may be a form of vulnerability assessment, a vulnerability assessment is definitely not a penetration test. Vulnerability Assessments A vulnerability assessment is the process of running automated tools against defined IP addresses or IP ranges to identify known vulnerabilities in the environment. Vulnerabilities typically include unpatched or mis-configured systems. The tools used to run vulnerability scans may be commercially available versions, or free open-source tools. The....