Penetration Testing · United Kingdom
Penetration testing that hands you the way in, before an attacker finds it.
An attacker breached 43% of UK businesses in the last year. We run that attack against yours, prove which doors actually open, and give you a ranked fix list with the exact repair for each one. CREST-certified operators. Every finding verified by a person before it reaches you.
CREST-certified operators · every finding human-verified · findings your board, FCA, ICO and Cyber Essentials assessors can act on
What is penetration testing?
Penetration testing is an authorised attack on your own systems. A tester takes the position of a real intruder, works through your network, your applications and your people, and proves which weaknesses open a door. You get the exploit path, the evidence that it worked, and the fix for each one.
A vulnerability scan lists what might be wrong. A penetration test proves what is. That gap decides everything, because an attacker needs one weakness that holds under pressure, and a scanner cannot tell you which of its 200 findings that is.
We test only what you own, under an authorisation you sign first, inside boundaries we agree before anyone touches a keyboard. Nothing gets deleted or broken. Your business runs as normal while we work.
43%
Of UK businesses reported a cyber breach or attack in the prior 12 months. 19% were victims of at least one cyber crime.
Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2025/2026, GOV.UK (DSIT)
£1.9bn
Total UK economic impact of the Jaguar Land Rover attack from 31 August 2025, with more than 5,000 British businesses caught in the blast.
Cyber Monitoring Centre, October 2025
£10,830
Average cost of the most disruptive breach to a medium or large UK business in 2024. A test costs a fraction of that.
Cyber Security Breaches Survey, GOV.UK (DSIT)
What we test
Six surfaces, one ranked answer
Scope what you need. Most UK firms start with external and web applications, then add the rest once they have seen what we find.
| Test | What we attack | What you walk away with |
|---|---|---|
| External infrastructure | Everything reachable from the internet: exposed logins, forgotten subdomains, stale VPN endpoints, mail and DNS misconfiguration. | A ranked list of the doors an attacker can see today. |
| Internal network | Your estate from the inside: Active Directory, file shares, network segmentation, the paths that lead to domain admin. | How far an attacker travels once one laptop falls. |
| Web applications | Authentication, authorisation, business logic, injection, session handling and the API behind the interface. | The exact requests that broke your app, with the fix for each. |
| Cloud | AWS, Azure and Google Cloud: identity and role permissions, storage exposure, key management, CI/CD access. | The misconfiguration that quietly hands over your data. |
| Wireless and physical | Office wireless, guest network separation, doors, tailgating and badge cloning. | Whether an attacker can walk in and plug in. |
| People | Phishing, pretexting and callback lures aimed at your real staff, run under agreed rules. | Who clicked, what they handed over, and the training that closes it. |
How it runs
From the first call to the retest
Six steps. You know what happens at each one, and you sign off before anything starts.
- 01
Scope and authorisation
You tell us what matters. We agree what is in scope, what is off-limits and what we never touch, then you sign the authorisation. That takes one call.
- 02
Reconnaissance
We map your surface the way an attacker does, from the outside, using nothing you handed us. Most engagements turn up something here that you had forgotten was still live.
- 03
Exploitation
We attack what we found and prove which weaknesses hold. No theoretical risk scores. Where we could not get through, we say so and show you why.
- 04
Escalation and lateral movement
One foothold is where the real test begins. We show how far that foothold travels, whose accounts it reaches, and which of your crown jewels it touches.
- 05
Human verification
A CREST-certified operator confirms every finding by hand before you see it. You never chase a false alarm or hand your board a number we cannot stand behind.
- 06
Report and retest
You get the narrated attack path, ranked findings and the fix for each. RTP Robin then re-runs the attack for a year as your surface changes.
Which test do you need?
Vulnerability scan vs penetration test vs red team
The three get sold interchangeably. They answer different questions, and buying the wrong one wastes a budget cycle.
| Activity | What it answers | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Vulnerability scan | What might be wrong, according to a tool. | Monthly hygiene. It produces a list, not evidence. |
| Penetration test | Which weaknesses actually open a door, proven. | Showing your controls hold, and satisfying an assessor or a client questionnaire. |
| Red team | How far a real attacker gets before anyone notices. | Testing your people and your detection, not just your kit. |
What you get
Proof, ranked, with the repair attached
No 200-page scanner dump. The attacks that worked, in the order they matter, each with the fix.
- A narrated attack path: what we did, in order, with timestamps
- Findings ranked by how easily each door opens, not by a generic severity score
- The specific fix for each finding, written for the person who has to apply it
- A summary your board, your FCA or ICO reporting and your Cyber Essentials Plus assessor can each use as it stands
- Verified by a CREST-certified operator before it reaches you
- A year of unlimited re-tests through RTP Robin, so the report never goes stale
Before you ask
Penetration testing, answered
Every assessment starts where an attacker would: outside, watching, looking for the one door left ajar. We find it, then we show you the walk-through.
What is penetration testing?
Penetration testing is an authorised attack on your own systems, run by a security tester who takes the position of a real intruder. The tester works through your network, applications, cloud and people, proves which weaknesses actually open a door, and hands back the exploit path with the fix for each finding. It is the test that shows whether your controls hold under pressure, rather than whether they exist on paper.
How much does a penetration test cost in the UK?
Cost tracks the size of the surface and the type of test, so we scope it with you on a call and you pay for the work rather than a package. For context on the other side of the ledger, the Cyber Security Breaches Survey (DSIT) put the average most disruptive breach at around £10,830 for a medium or large UK business in 2024, and Marks & Spencer lost roughly £300 million in operating profit to a single 2025 attack according to Bloomberg. Start with the free audit: a short call and a free first-look scan, with no obligation to scope anything further.
How long does a penetration test take?
A defined scope usually takes a working week to a fortnight of testing, with the report following within a few days. The free audit is faster: you get a prioritised picture of how an attacker would breach you within 14 days of the call. Larger estates and red team engagements run longer, and we tell you the timeline before you commit, not after.
What is the difference between penetration testing and vulnerability scanning?
A vulnerability scan is automated. It compares your systems against a database of known issues and returns a list of things that might be wrong, including false positives. A penetration test is run by a person who then attacks those weaknesses to prove which ones are genuinely exploitable and how far they lead. A scan tells you that a door might be unlocked. A test tells you that it is, shows you what is behind it, and ranks it against every other door.
Will penetration testing disrupt our business?
No. We agree the rules before we start: what is in scope, what is off-limits, and what we never touch. Nothing gets deleted or broken, and your business runs as normal while we test. You decide whether your team knows it is happening or finds out from the report.
Do we need a penetration test for Cyber Essentials Plus?
Cyber Essentials Plus is a hands-on technical verification of the five basic controls, carried out by a certification body, so it is not a penetration test and one does not replace the other. Plenty of UK firms run both: the certification for the client questionnaires and procurement gates that demand it, and a penetration test for the question the certification does not ask, which is what happens once an attacker is already past those five controls.
How do we choose a penetration testing company?
Ask three questions. Who actually runs the test, and are they CREST-certified? Is every finding verified by a person before it reaches you, or are you being handed scanner output? And what happens after the report, when your surface changes the following week? A penetration testing company that cannot answer the third question is selling you a photograph of one week. We turn one paid test into a year of unlimited re-tests through RTP Robin, with a human confirming every finding.
Is penetration testing legal?
Yes, when it is authorised. Every engagement runs under a signed authorisation that you sign first, and we test only what you own and approve, within boundaries we set together. The work follows CREST-aligned methods and UK law throughout.
Go deeper
See which of your doors opens first.
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