Hacking For Dummies® 3rd Edition

Chapter 16. Reporting Your Results

In This Chapter

• Bringing your test data together

• Categorizing vulnerabilities you discover

• Documenting and presenting the results

If you're looking for a break after testing, now isn't the time to rest on your laurels. The reporting phase of your ethical hacking is one of the most critical pieces. The last thing you want to do is to run your tests, find security problems, and leave it at that. Put your time and effort to good use by thoroughly analyzing and documenting what you find to ensure that security vulnerabilities are eliminated and your information is more secure as a result. This is an essential element of the ongoing vigilance that information security and risk management requires.

Ethical hacking reporting includes sifting through all your findings to determine which vulnerabilities need to be addressed and which ones don't really matter. Reporting also includes briefing management or your client on the various security issues you find, as well as giving specific recommendations for making improvements. You share the information you've gathered and give the other parties guidance on where to go from there. Reporting also shows that the time, effort, and money invested in the ethical hacking tests were put to good use.

Pulling the Results Together

When you have gobs of test data — from screenshots and manual observations you documented to detailed reports generated by the various vulnerability scanners you used — what do you do with it ...