Should Your IT Team Hack Your Network? With Sean Hanna

The Cyber Translator

🎙️ Host: Sean, Director & Founder of Nemstar, an Information Security Specialist Company in Belfast, UK.

🚀 Episode Summary:

Penetration testing (pen testing) is a hot topic in cybersecurity, but here’s the truth – doing it right requires more than just letting your IT team loose. In this episode, Sean explores the critical role of senior leadership in pen testing, why it’s not just a technical task, and how to ensure that pen testing doesn’t unintentionally open your business to greater risks.

We break down:

1️⃣ What Pen Testing Is – A closer look at ethical hacking and how it helps you identify vulnerabilities before they’re exploited.

2️⃣ Why IT Alone Can’t Do It – Understanding the risks of letting your IT team conduct pen tests without proper oversight and why leadership must be involved.

3️⃣ What You Need to Do – The critical steps senior leaders must take to ensure pen testing is done safely, legally, and effectively.

💡 Key Takeaways:

✔️ Pen testing is essential for identifying vulnerabilities, but it’s not just an IT job—senior leadership must be involved.

✔️ Without proper oversight, pen testing can expose your business to more risk than it mitigates.

✔️ Ensure pen testing is aligned with your business strategy, compliance, and incident response planning.

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✅ Comment below: How does your organisation approach pen testing—IT-led or leadership-driven?

🎧 Thanks for tuning in—see you in the next session.