What Network & Application Penetration Testing Involves
As Kenyan banks, fintechs, SACCOs, government agencies and e-commerce platforms push more of their operations online — often integrating directly with M-PESA, card processors, and third-party APIs — the attack surface grows with every new integration. Firewalls and antivirus software are not enough to know whether that attack surface is actually exploitable. Network and application penetration testing answers that question directly: our security engineers attempt to break into your systems the same way a real attacker would, under a controlled, legally authorised engagement, so you find out where you're exposed before someone with worse intentions does.
We test across the full stack that matters to a modern African business — internal and external network infrastructure, customer-facing web applications, REST and mobile APIs, and Android/iOS apps — using a mix of automated scanning and manual, human-led exploitation, because the vulnerabilities that actually get businesses breached are usually the ones automated scanners miss entirely. A scanner can tell you a server is running an outdated component; it cannot chain a low-severity information leak with a broken access control flaw to demonstrate full account takeover the way one of our engineers can.
Every engagement concludes with a detailed report that goes beyond a raw vulnerability list. Each finding is risk-rated using the CVSS v3.1 framework against your specific business context, mapped to a plain-language explanation of real-world impact — not just a CVE number — and paired with concrete, prioritised remediation steps your development or IT team can act on immediately. We do not hand over a 200-page PDF and disappear; every report is walked through with your technical and management stakeholders in a live debrief.
Scoping is agreed in writing before a single packet is sent. We define exactly which systems are in scope, the testing window, escalation contacts, and rules of engagement, so testing never disrupts live operations or crosses a line you did not authorise. This discipline matters as much as the technical testing itself — an unscoped or poorly-governed penetration test creates its own liability, and we treat the authorisation process with the same rigour as the exploitation work.
The Problems Behind the Request
Organisations rarely come to us asking for a technology by name — they come with a business problem. Here is what typically drives demand for network & application penetration testing.
A Growing, Unmapped Attack Surface
Every new API integration, mobile app release, or third-party plugin quietly widens what an attacker can target — often faster than internal teams can track it.
False Confidence From Automated Scans
Vulnerability scanners flag known signatures but miss business-logic flaws, chained exploits, and authentication weaknesses that require a human attacker's judgement to find.
Financial & Payment Integrations at Risk
M-PESA integrations, card processing, and open banking APIs create high-value targets where a single flaw can expose customer funds directly.
Compliance & Contractual Testing Mandates
ISO 27001, PCI-DSS, and increasingly enterprise procurement processes require documented, independent penetration test evidence before a contract is signed.
Untested Systems Going Live Under Deadline Pressure
New customer-facing applications and APIs frequently ship to production without adversarial testing because security review was treated as optional.
No Independent, Adversarial View of Security Posture
Internal IT teams built the systems and are structurally poorly placed to find their own blind spots — an outside attacker's perspective is required.
How It Fits Into Your Environment
A reference architecture showing how this service integrates with your existing systems, data, and infrastructure to produce a measurable business outcome.
What We Deliver
External & Internal Network Testing
Testing the perimeter an internet-facing attacker sees, and what an already-inside attacker (or malicious insider) could reach on your internal network.
✓ Coverage for both outside-in and inside-out attack pathsWeb Application Penetration Testing
Manual testing aligned to the OWASP Top 10, plus business-logic abuse cases that automated tools structurally cannot detect.
✓ Finds the flaws that actually lead to breachesAPI Security Testing
Authentication, authorisation, rate-limiting, and data-exposure testing across REST and GraphQL APIs, including mobile-app backends.
✓ Secures the integrations powering your digital productsMobile Application Testing
Static and dynamic analysis of Android and iOS apps, covering client-side storage, certificate pinning, and backend API abuse.
✓ Protects users on the devices they actually useManual, Human-Led Exploitation
Every engagement is led by a human engineer who chains findings, tests business logic, and thinks like an adversary — not a scan report with a logo.
✓ Finds real, exploitable risk automated tools missFree Remediation Retest
Once fixes are deployed, we retest the specific findings at no additional cost to confirm the vulnerability is genuinely closed.
✓ Confidence that remediation actually workedCapability-by-Capability Breakdown
| Capability | Description | Business Value | Technologies | Deliverable |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scoping & Rules of Engagement | A written scoping workshop defines target systems, testing windows, escalation contacts, and legal authorisation. | Zero ambiguity, zero unauthorised testing | Scoping questionnaire, signed ROE document | Signed rules-of-engagement agreement |
| External Network Testing | Perimeter scanning and manual exploitation of internet-facing infrastructure, firewalls, and exposed services. | Closes the doors an outside attacker sees first | Nmap, Nessus, Metasploit | External attack surface report |
| Web Application Testing | Manual, OWASP-aligned testing of authentication, session management, input handling, and business logic. | Prevents the most common cause of breaches | Burp Suite, OWASP ZAP, SQLmap | Web app findings report with PoC evidence |
| API & Mobile Testing | Authorisation, rate-limiting, data exposure and client-side storage testing across API and mobile app layers. | Secures integrations customers depend on daily | Postman, MobSF-style tooling, Burp Suite | API & mobile app findings report |
| Risk Rating & Business Mapping | Every finding is scored with CVSS v3.1 and translated into a plain-language business impact statement. | A board can understand what actually matters | CVSS v3.1 calculator | Risk-rated findings register |
| Remediation & Retest | A prioritised fix roadmap plus a live debrief, followed by a free retest once fixes are deployed. | Vulnerabilities actually get closed, not just logged | Retest against original PoCs | Verified closure report |
Built for Your Sector's Realities
Healthcare
Testing patient portals, health information systems and connected medical devices for exploitable weaknesses.
Government
Independent security assessment of citizen service portals, e-government platforms and internal networks.
Banking & Finance
Core banking, mobile money integrations and card-processing environments tested to PCI-DSS-aligned rigour.
Agriculture
Securing farmer-facing platforms, cooperative payment systems and IoT sensor networks against exploitation.
Manufacturing
Testing operational technology gateways and enterprise networks without disrupting production systems.
Education
Assessing student information systems and portals holding sensitive personal and academic records.
Retail & E-commerce
Testing checkout flows, payment gateways and customer accounts ahead of high-traffic sales periods.
Insurance
Assessing policy and claims portals that hold sensitive personal and financial customer data.
NGOs & Development
Testing beneficiary data systems and donor platforms handling sensitive programme information.
Tools & Platforms We Use
Kali Linux
Metasploit
Burp Suite
OWASP ZAP
Wireshark
Postman
Python
Linux
Git
DockerA Structured Approach, A Guaranteed Outcome
Deliverables
Everything Handed Over at Project Close
- Signed scoping document and formal written rules of engagement
- External and internal network penetration test across servers, firewalls, and infrastructure
- Web application testing aligned to the OWASP Top 10 and business-logic abuse cases
- API security testing covering authentication, authorisation, and data exposure flaws
- Mobile application testing for Android and iOS covering client-side and backend weaknesses
- A full findings report with CVSS v3.1-based risk ratings, evidence, and reproduction steps
- A prioritised, plain-language remediation roadmap for technical and management teams
- A live report walkthrough and debrief session with your stakeholders
- An executive summary suitable for board and audit-committee reporting
- One free retest per finding once remediation is deployed
- A signed attestation letter confirming the assessment was performed, for compliance evidence
Real Results, Real Impact
API Vulnerability Chain Found Ahead of a Mobile Money Integration
The findings were remediated before the integration went live, avoiding what would likely have been a significant customer-data exposure incident and regulatory reporting event.
Checkout Flow Hardened Ahead of Peak Sales Season
The retailer ran its highest-traffic sales period of the year without a single reported payment-fraud incident traced back to the platform.
Citizen Portal Network Assessment for a Public Agency
The agency passed its internal audit with documented evidence of an independent penetration test and full remediation of every finding raised.
What Clients Typically See
An Enterprise-Grade Delivery Partner
Manual, Human-Led Testing
We go beyond automated scan results to find real, exploitable business risk that only a skilled human attacker would uncover.
Plain-Language Business Impact
Findings are translated into business impact a board can act on, not just technical jargon buried in a scan export.
Deep Regional Technology Familiarity
Direct experience with M-PESA integrations, local banking APIs, and East African hosting environments most outside firms lack.
Written Authorisation, Every Time
Every engagement is scoped and authorised in writing before testing begins, protecting you and giving us a documented mandate to act.
Remediation-First, Not Report-and-Run
A live debrief and free verification retest ensure findings are actually closed, not just filed away unread.
Compliance-Ready Evidence
Reports and attestation letters are formatted to satisfy ISO 27001, PCI-DSS, and enterprise procurement evidence requirements.
Common Questions From Buyers
A vulnerability scan is automated and flags known signatures; a penetration test uses skilled human engineers to manually exploit weaknesses, chain findings together, and test business logic that automated tools cannot evaluate. We deliver the latter, informed by automated scanning as one input among several.
Testing windows and rules of engagement are agreed in writing before any activity begins, specifically to avoid disruption to production systems. We can test in a staging environment, during low-traffic windows, or with defined safety limits depending on your risk tolerance.
Most engagements run 2 to 4 weeks from scoping to final report delivery, depending on the size of the target environment. We confirm a firm timeline once scope is agreed.
Yes. Every engagement requires a signed, written rules-of-engagement document before testing begins, which serves as your legal authorisation for our team to test the agreed scope.
Yes. We test Android and iOS applications, covering client-side storage, certificate pinning, and the backend APIs those apps depend on.
We align testing to the OWASP Top 10 and OWASP Application Security Verification Standard, supplemented by manual business-logic abuse cases specific to your application.
Every finding is scored using the CVSS v3.1 framework and additionally translated into a plain-language business impact statement, so technical and non-technical stakeholders can both understand what to fix first.
Yes. One retest per finding is included at no additional cost once your team has deployed fixes, to confirm the vulnerability is genuinely closed rather than just reported as fixed.
Yes. Our reports and signed attestation letters are formatted to serve as evidence for ISO 27001 Annex A controls and PCI-DSS penetration testing requirements, though certification decisions ultimately rest with your certifying body.
Critical findings that pose immediate risk are escalated to your designated contact the same day, ahead of the final report, so you can begin remediation without waiting for the full engagement to close.
Both. Internal network testing evaluates what an attacker who has already gained a foothold — or a malicious insider — could reach, which is a materially different and equally important risk picture.
Pricing depends on the size and complexity of the target environment — number of hosts, applications, APIs and mobile apps in scope. We provide a fixed quote after the scoping workshop.
Yes. Every engagement includes an executive summary written for a non-technical audience, alongside the full technical findings register for your engineering team.
Yes, this is called a "black-box" or covert engagement and is available on request, typically used to also test detection and response capability, not just the target system itself.
Yes, as standard practice, before any scoping details or system access information is shared.
At minimum annually, and additionally after any significant change to a system — a new API integration, major feature release, or infrastructure migration — since new code and new integrations are where new vulnerabilities are introduced.
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