Penetration test: the key to a successful cybersecurity audit

Cyber attacks are an increasingly common threat today, and businesses need to regularly verify their level of protection. A cybersecurity audit is a comprehensive check to verify that you have the necessary security measures in place and are compliant with relevant standards or legal requirements. It's not enough to just have documents and policies on paper - it's also important to show the real resilience of your systems. This is where a penetration test (an ethical hacking attack on your own systems) comes in. In this blog, we'll explain what such an audit entails, why the outputs from penetration tests are crucial to a smooth audit, and how quality testing (by Haxoris.com, for example) helps both auditors and companies improve security. The article is aimed primarily at IT managers, security consultants and business owners - written in plain language even for those who are not cybersecurity experts.

What is a cybersecurity audit and what does it include

A cybersecurity audit is a systematic assessment of whether an organization is complying with required security standards and measures to protect its information systems. In Slovakia, this obligation is imposed on operators of essential services by Act No. 69/2018 Coll. - they must have a cybersecurity audit performed by a certified auditor every two years or after each major change in systems. The audit verifies compliance with legal obligations and assesses the compliance of the security measures taken (organisational, personnel and technical) with the requirements of the regulations. The aim is also to identify weaknesses in security and take action to address them - that is, to find weaknesses before they are exploited by a real attacker.

A typical cybersecurity audit includes several parts:

• A review of documentation and processes: Auditors will go over your security guidelines, data access policy, incident response plan, backup plans, and so on to verify that they meet the requirements of the standards or law.


• Assessment of organizational and personnel arrangements: They examine whether security responsibilities are defined, employee training is in place, there is managerial oversight of security, etc.


• Review of technical measures: The security of networks and systems is assessed - for example, the set-up of firewalls, anti-viruses, encryption of sensitive data, access rights management system, log monitoring and incident detection, but also vulnerability management (this includes regular vulnerability testing).

The output of the audit is a detailed audit report summarising the findings. It includes a list of areas where you are compliant and also the deficiencies identified with recommendations for improvement. This report is often required not only by regulators (e.g. the National Security Authority in the case of mandatory audits), but it is also useful for management as a snapshot of the current state of cybersecurity.

Auditors' requirements for technical deliverables

When it comes to technical evidence of your cybersecurity, audit firms have high expectations for the quality and credibility of these deliverables. Auditors don't want to "just check a box" that you did something - they need clear and verifiable evidence. What does this mean in practice?

1. Independent and up-to-date testing: Auditors prefer to have technical security tests (such as penetration tests) performed by independent, qualified experts. Internal tests from your IT department can help on an ongoing basis, but are often not sufficient as formal evidence in an audit. It is ideal to document a report from an external specialist firm. At the same time, the results must be relatively recent - a test more than 12 months old loses relevance for an audit as cyber threats change rapidly.


2. Quality content instead of raw data: Another requirement is that the technical outputs are not just raw data from scanners. For example, a raw extract from an automated vulnerability scan (full of technical details and without context) is more likely to put an auditor off. Experts point out that reports containing only scanner output or automated findings raise red flags in an audit - auditors distrust them and are likely to ask for more thorough evidence. Conversely, if you provide a clear penetration test report with clear findings, explained impact and confirmation of each finding, the auditor will appreciate it. (We'll talk more about the difference between an automated scan and a penetration test below.)


3. Concreteness and emphasis on remediation: Audit firms also expect that there is a remediation plan for each issue identified. It's not enough to just show a list of vulnerabilities - it's also important that you know how you're going to fix them and that you're working on it. Therefore, ideal technical deliverables include recommendations for addressing each vulnerability and record the progress of remediation. Auditors want to see not only "risk awareness" but also documented efforts to mitigate them in a reasonable amount of time. This is how you demonstrate that your security controls are effective in practice, not just on paper.

In short, auditors are looking for credible evidence that your business is actively and regularly testing its cyber resilience and addressing identified weaknesses. The good news is that if you have quality output from penetration tests, this will satisfy most of these requirements.

Why a penetration test is essential for a successful audit

You can implement many security measures internally - write policies, train people, deploy security tools. But a penetration test is unique in that it realistically examines whether these measures are working and where you have weaknesses. It's like hiring a "good hacker" to try to break into your network before the bad actors out there try. Why is this so important from an auditing perspective?

• Verifying the effectiveness of the measures: the audit checks on paper that you have in place, for example, a firewall, antivirus, backups, etc. But only a penetration test will show whether, for example, a firewall really filters out dangerous penetration or whether an attacker finds another way in. Simply put, penetration testing reveals how secure your business really is, whereas an audit is more about checking whether you can formally prove your security. The two are complementary - without a penetration test, you may have a false sense of security.


• Identifying real vulnerabilities: a penetration test can reveal very specific weaknesses. For example, it will detect vulnerable points in the network that an attacker could break into, unauthorised access to systems or leakage of sensitive data. These actionable findings allow you to take immediate steps to strengthen your defenses. Without such testing, many vulnerabilities would remain hidden until a real attack or an auditor discovers them during an audit.


• Preventing embarrassing audit findings: imagine an auditor comes to you and discovers a serious security hole you didn't know existed - for example, open access to your database from the Internet. This could lead to a negative audit review. Better to find and patch such holes in advance. A penetration test will give you a chance to fix the flaws before the audit, so the auditor will already find the secure systems or at least see that you are actively working to fix them.


• Compliance: Many regulations and standards directly require regular penetration testing or similar vulnerability assessments. For example, international standards such as PCI DSS for payment systems or frameworks such as SOC 2 and ISO 27001 emphasize vulnerability testing as part of security controls. If your business falls under these standards, penetration testing is not just an optional "good practice" but essentially a necessity. Even if it's not a formal obligation, it's still a proven way to improve security - your investment in penetration testing will pay you back in the form of less risk of incident and smoother auditing.


• Credibility and reputation: successfully passing a penetration test provides you with proof (a report) of your security clearance, which increases your company's credibility in the eyes of partners, customers and auditors alike. According to the expert portal, by obtaining proof of testing, a company becomes more trustworthy and contributes to a safer online environment. Essentially, you can show the world that you take security seriously and have it independently tested.

For all of these reasons, a penetration test is a key tool when preparing for a cybersecurity audit. It's not an extra hurdle, but rather a way to avoid problems and show that your company's security is not just formal, but real.

How penetration test outputs help both auditors and clients

High-quality penetration testing, such as that provided by Haxoris, generates several important outputs: a testing report, a description of the methodology, a list of vulnerabilities found, and recommendations for remediation. Let's take a look at how each of these outputs will be used by you as a client and appreciated by auditors:

• Detailed Testing Report: this is the main document that summarizes the entire process and results of the penetration test. The report typically includes an executive summary - an overview of the most serious risks and their impacts in a form that is understandable to management. It also includes a technical section detailing the vulnerabilities identified. The quality report also indicates the testing methodology used (e.g. according to the OWASP standard, PTES, etc.) so that the reader can see how and to what depth the test was conducted. For the auditor, such a report is very valuable - it puts in the hands of a comprehensive evidence of security testing. If the report is clearly written, the auditor can quickly find answers to his questions: what vulnerabilities were tested, what serious risks they pose and what the company has done to address them. A well-prepared test report is essentially "auditor-friendly" - it contains all the information the auditor needs in an easy-to-understand structure. For you as a client, it is in turn a valuable basis for improvement - it can be taken as a guide on what to focus on to strengthen security.


• Vulnerability list with risk assessment: the output includes a summary table or list of vulnerabilities found. Each vulnerability should be assigned a priority or risk score - to make it clear which findings are critical, which are moderate and which are less severe. Top penetration tests don't just give a generic score (e.g., CVSS), but assess risk in the specific context of your organization. This means that the report explains just how a given vulnerability may impact your systems and business (e.g., customer data leakage, financial loss, service outage, etc.). For the auditor, this context makes their job much easier - they can see that the company is aware of its own risks and understands them. You as the customer, in turn, get a clear idea of which issues to focus on first. For example, if the report identifies some vulnerabilities as critical, it makes sense to fix them before the official audit and show in the report to the auditor that they have already been resolved.


• Recommendations and remediation plan: A list of defects alone would not mean much if it did not also contain a proposal for solutions. Therefore, the output of a penetration test always includes specific recommendations on how to remediate each vulnerability identified or mitigate the risk. A quality report provides detailed, prioritized remediation instructions so your IT team knows exactly what needs to be fixed and why. For example, it may recommend upgrading software to a specific version, modifying server configuration, implementing two-factor authentication, training admins on system security settings, and so on. From the auditor's perspective, such recommendations demonstrate that you have not only identified weaknesses, but also have an action plan to address them. The auditor thus sees that you are taking security proactively - it's not just a one-off finding of a problem, but a continuous process of improvement. For you as a client, the recommendations are perhaps the most valuable part - they give you a clear direction on what to do next. Many companies find that they are able to significantly improve their security in a relatively short period of time thanks to this advice, and therefore come to the audit much better prepared.


• Methodology and scope of the test: it's also worth noting what the methodology of the penetration test consisted of. Haxoris, for example, uses best practices and standards - for web applications it tests according to the OWASP ASVS methodology. The practical consequence is that the test covers a really wide range of possible vulnerabilities, not just a few of the most well-known vulnerabilities. The penetration tester tries different attack scenarios, combines multiple weaknesses into a single penetration, verifies the robustness of authentication, session management, encryption, backup, etc. The report tends to summarize this methodology to make it transparent what all was tested. This gives the auditor confidence that the test was thorough and nothing significant escaped attention. Finally, a good methodology means that the independent auditor can also repeat or follow up some of the tests and verify the results. For the company, in turn, such a methodology guarantees that the penetration test was not "sloppy", but systematic and according to standards - which increases the credibility of the outputs.

Overall, penetration test outputs provide a bridge between the technical world and the audit world. For the company's technical team, they are a source of concrete tasks to improve security. For the auditor, they are proof that the company has its cybersecurity under control - it has identified risks and is taking action. A well-crafted pentest by Haxoris makes life easier for both parties: the auditor gets the information they need faster, and you get valuable feedback and support in meeting security requirements.

High-quality penetration test vs. automated scan: what's the difference?

Finally, let's take a look at the difference between a truly high-quality penetration test and a simple automated vulnerability scan. Less experienced people may confuse these terms, but in terms of the security (and audit) benefits, there is an abysmal difference between the two:

• Depth and creativity vs. surface coverage: An automated scanner (e.g., a tool to scan ports and known vulnerabilities) follows pre-given signatures and tests. It will reveal obvious vulnerabilities (e.g., unpatched known vulnerabilities, open ports, weak dictionary entries), but cannot invent anything new. In contrast, a skilled penetration tester takes a creative approach - looking for complex logic flaws and combining multiple vulnerabilities to get further, just as a real attacker would. As a result, a quality pentest can uncover vulnerabilities that a scan alone would never reveal (for example, faulty business process logic that allows authentication to be bypassed, or a sequence of smaller vulnerabilities through which to escalate privileges on a system).


• Manual verification vs. false alarms: automated tools often generate a long list of potential problems, but not all of them need to be truly exploitable. There may be false positives - things that look dangerous but aren't really a threat. Pentester manually reviews these outputs and verifies each finding, filtering out false positives. This means that only real confirmed vulnerabilities make it into the final report. For the company, this means time savings (you don't have to deal with hundreds of items from a scan, but you focus on the essential maybe 10 findings) and for the auditor higher credibility - the report is accurate and not overwhelmed with ballast.


• Context and prioritization vs. generic score: As we mentioned earlier, a good penetration test assesses risks in the context of the specific company. It not only says "this vulnerability has a CVSS of 7.5", but it explains what exploiting it would mean for your business. An automated scanner will typically only assign a general severity (high, medium, low) to each finding according to predefined metrics, regardless of your environment. In contrast, a pentest report will tell you that, for example, a SQL Injection vulnerability in an application could allow an attacker to gain access to your entire customer database - a critical impact for you. Such real-world scenarios and impacts will not be provided by an automated tool. That's why the pentest will better help you determine what to focus on and show the auditor that you understand security in context.


• Recommendations and remediation vs. a bare list of vulnerabilities: the scanner output is usually just a list of vulnerabilities found, perhaps with a short description and a general advice to "update the system", etc. A good penetration test goes further - it provides specific, tailored recommendations. For example, Pentester will suggest exactly how to configure the header to protect against an XSS attack in a given application, or which module to disable, or what logic to modify. Additionally, good companies (like Haxoris) often offer to retest if vulnerabilities are indeed removed and update the report after the patches are applied. All of this will not be provided by an automated scan.


• Standards and coverage vs. limited scope: automated scanners usually only test known vulnerabilities and configurations. Pentester works against proven standards (e.g., the aforementioned OWASP ASVS), ensuring systematic and deeper coverage of security areas, far beyond a simple top 10 list of vulnerabilities. In other words, a quality penetration test will check your system against dozens of categories of potential weaknesses (authentication mechanisms, session management, cryptography, input treatment, network isolation, etc.), while an automated scan may miss some of these areas.

From the above, it is clear that there is no penetration test like a penetration test. If you just did a quick automated scan (or a superficially performed test), it may not hold up in an audit. A quality penetration test from the experts delivers much deeper results and therefore more value - both for your security and for the audit.

Conclusion: Prepare for the audit with a penetration test

A cybersecurity audit doesn't have to be a scarecrow if you're well prepared for it. As we've shown, penetration tests and their outputs can make a significant contribution to a successful audit - they can help detect and address weaknesses upfront, give auditors compelling evidence of your security, and increase confidence that you're serious about protecting your systems. Ultimately, it's not just about 'making a mark' in an audit, but more importantly about making a real difference to your business's cyber resilience.

Haxoris, as an experienced penetration testing provider, Haxoris can help you along the way. Its professional ethical hacking services deliver detailed reports, proven testing methodologies and practical recommendations that both you and your auditors will appreciate. Don't leave security to chance or wait until an auditor or attacker discovers the flaws. Invest in a quality penetration test - the result will be not only a smoother cybersecurity audit, but more importantly, better protection for your company against cyber threats. And that's a value that's definitely worth it.