Every game, website, or application that connects online must be penetration tested by a third party. This statement is true for any company looking to maintain adequate security protection while also staying compliant with policies such as ISO27001 and SOC 2. Any service with an online component can be a target for hackers, so it’s imperative that such services undergo rigorous testing before, during, and after release. 

Harlan Beverly, PTW’s VP of Technology, leads our IT and Cyber Security divisions. His 20 years of experience in the tech sector informs his passion for proper security protocols. “The stakes and repercussions of a security breach in an application have never been higher,” he maintains. “Not only do companies risk loss of reputation and revenue from any breach, but executives are also at risk of being sued and even serving jail time for hiding exploits or failing to secure customer data.” 

(Source: dandodiary.com) 

It’s for this reason that even small-studio games and web applications—including apps that are for internal use only—need penetration testing. Penetration testing exists to find the potential vulnerabilities and weaknesses that might allow a hacker to gain access, exploit that access, and otherwise penetrate the network, servers, or database that run the game or application. 

To this end, Harlan has created a new team designed to offer penetration testing to PTW’s valued customers, including games, apps, web applications, and even internal applications. “Our vision is to make it easy for our partners—or anyone with an app or web application—to get fast and reliable third-party, OSCP-certified penetration testing at an affordable price,” he asserts. “When I joined PTW, I discovered that we had built some amazing internal web applications that help PTW remain best-in-class across all our services. We have more than a dozen internally built tools that give PTW competitive advantages in Player Support, QA, Localization, LQA and Audio Production.” 

It became Harlan’s mission to develop in-house capabilities to perform penetration testing and security scanning to support all the internal tools. “Along the way, I figured, why not help ALL our customers with their penetration testing needs?” This led to the creation of NinjaScan and NinjaHack, PTW’s newest service offerings for penetration testing and game hacking testing. 

“I’m excited and delighted that we can fully handle one of the critical tasks in any game or application: certified third-party penetration testing,” says Harlan.