External & Internal Network Penetration Testing

No. A scan produces potential findings; this service safely proves which of them a real attacker could exploit, from outside your network and, where scoped, from inside it too.

External testing works from the public internet against your internet-facing systems. Internal testing assumes an attacker already has a foothold and measures how far they could move, what they could reach, and whether your internal defenses would notice.

No, and that boundary matters enough to state directly. This engagement addresses NIST 800-53 CA-8 and produces control-mapped evidence to support your RMF Assess step and annual FISMA assessment. It doesn't achieve the ATO, and for a FedRAMP authorization test specifically, that role belongs to an accredited 3PAO.

Not directly, CMMC and NIST 800-171 have no explicit penetration-testing line item. A network pen test is a strong supporting best practice that de-risks a CMMC assessment, but we won't sell it to you as a box you must check for certification.

Active testing typically runs 2–4 weeks; total calendar time from signed ROE to final report usually runs 6–10 weeks, with most of the variance on the agency side (scoping and authorization sign-off).

For a single engagement of this size, yes. We'll walk you through the staffing plan and timeline up front, We won't over-promise capacity we don't have, and we're glad to start with a bounded, external-only scope so you can judge our rigor at low risk.

A designated point of contact, a signed ROE and authorization letter, access provisioning (network drop, VPN, or jump box, plus any test credentials), a defined testing window, and an emergency-stop procedure. Late access provisioning is the single most common cause of schedule slippage, and it's tracked in writing from kickoff.