Austin Bentley is a Manager at Schellman, headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri. With a robust background in penetration testing, Austin has developed a distinctive procedural methodology that sets his assessments apart. His expertise spans various forms of penetration testing, ensuring comprehensive security evaluations. Before stepping into his managerial role, Austin honed his skills in Application Security at a major financial institution, where he was instrumental in safeguarding critical systems.
By:
Austin Bentley
February 19th, 2025
It's no secret: many organizations view and treat phishing as a periodic checkbox assessment. It’s often a basic email template sent to an entire organization. If someone clicks the link, they are recorded and possibly enrolled in training. While this approach can certainly check the “quarterly phishing exercise” box, you should consider demanding even more from your phishing assessment. After all, when you engage with a third-party provider, they should provide both depth and value within their specialization.
By:
Austin Bentley
February 14th, 2025
Web applications grow and evolve each year. There’s always a new feature, a new API, and a new way of doing things. These constant changes may introduce some form of vulnerability, which is not ideal when web applications often sit on your external network. This makes web applications an ideal vector for an attacker to migrate into your internal network or compromise customers. Therefore, any web application test deserves an adequate level of thoroughness and attention. Below, we’ve provided a list of questions you should consider asking prospective pen test providers to ensure the most effective web application pen test experience.
By:
Austin Bentley
February 7th, 2025
When people hear of an upcoming pen test, they most commonly think of network testing. These tests can be focused against your external network (i.e. network perimeter) or your internal network (cloud environment and/or on-premises network). As these networks typically change year to year with new devices, cloud migrations, on-premises migrations, and firewall migrations, periodic testing may be necessary. This can leave you wondering how to find the right pen test provider to ensure your organization's network security posture is thoroughly assessed.
By:
Austin Bentley
January 28th, 2025
You think you’re close to picking the right team. Your goals align, and you think the team is of sufficient quality. But, there’s one aspect that can be easily overlooked – yet it may ultimately determine whether the exercise was worth conducting.
By:
Austin Bentley
January 17th, 2025
So, you’ve decided you need a pen test – and you have your requirements in mind. Now comes the process of finding your team to perform the test. As with any service or product, there are large variances in quality between vendors and individuals – so you’ll need to perform a balancing act. Below, we’ll walk through questions designed to help you assess the capabilities, experience, and ability of any prospective provider to meet your specific requirements.
By:
Austin Bentley
November 8th, 2024
Maybe it’s time for your yearly pen test. Or, maybe you’re building up your very own internal pen test team. Navigating this journey can be challenging, but we’re committed to making it easy for you. Fortunately, we bring a wealth of insight from our “other side of the table” perspective. This multipart series will prepare you for concerns on both sides of the table, so you can be certain you’re ready for your next engagement.
By:
Austin Bentley
October 4th, 2024
You’ve got a system that needs to be tested, but you’re not really certain about which environment the testing should occur in. Or, maybe you’re feeling uneasy about testing within production. Many have been in your exact same shoes in the past -- below, we’ll help assist you in making this important decision.
By:
Austin Bentley
September 20th, 2024
A question we receive frequently during scoping calls is “What tools does your team use during a penetration test?” The answer can depend on the scope, services, and situations we come across during the engagement. Additionally, there is constant industry and threat pressure to stay ahead of the curve. Our toolkit is constantly evolving to reflect the latest threats and techniques, ensuring we can simulate real-world attacks effectively.