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Vulnerability Assessment vs Penetration Testing: Which Does Your Business Need?

August 20, 2026
Cyber Security
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Vulnerability assessment and penetration testing are not alternatives. One is a broad, repeatable sweep that tells you what is known to be wrong across everything you own; the other is a narrow, manual, adversarial exercise that proves what an attacker could do with it. This guide defines both in the NCSC’s own terms, sets out the five differences that decide the buying order, maps what each instrument finds and misses, prices both against 2026 UK market rates, and costs one 60-person business four different ways.

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Penetration Testing Frequency: Proven Rules for Safer IT

August 8, 2026
Cyber Security
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Once a year is a floor, not a schedule. This guide sets out how often a business should conduct penetration testing and why the calendar date matters far less than what changed in the estate since the last report. It covers the twelve-month baseline and where it comes from, the seven change triggers that should force an unscheduled round, exactly what PCI DSS, ISO 27001, SOC 2, Cyber Essentials Plus and NIS2 actually require, where vulnerability scanning stops and human testing starts, indicative UK programme costs at every cadence, and how to build a calendar that survives a year of competing priorities.