Your Network Has Vulnerabilities. Let's Find Them Before an Attacker Does.
Cyber Protect LLC delivers three tiers of penetration testing - from on-demand automated testing to full certified-manual engagements - giving Michigan businesses a clear picture of their real attack surface, actionable remediation guidance, and the documentation needed to satisfy PCI, HIPAA, SOC 2, and cyber insurance requirements.Problem
Attackers Only Need One Way In. Do You Know Where Yours Are?
A vulnerability assessment tells you what software versions are running and what patches are missing. That is useful. But it does not tell you whether an attacker can actually exploit those gaps, chain them together to escalate privileges, move laterally through your network, and reach your most sensitive data.
A penetration test does something different. It simulates what a real attacker would do - actively testing your defenses, probing your network from the outside in and the inside out, and showing you exactly which vulnerabilities are exploitable under real-world conditions. It is the difference between reading a weather report and actually walking outside.
For businesses in Michigan's legal, medical, accounting, manufacturing, and professional services sectors, penetration testing is increasingly not optional. PCI DSS requires it. HIPAA risk analysis expects it. SOC 2 auditors look for it. Cyber insurance carriers are now asking for it at renewal. And regardless of compliance, the consequences of a breach - stolen client data, ransomware, operational shutdown - make finding your own gaps first the smarter and cheaper option.
Six Things a Penetration Test Reveals That a Vulnerability Scan Cannot
Whether discovered vulnerabilities are actually exploitable in your specific environment.
How far an attacker could move through your network once they gain an initial foothold.
Whether your firewall rules contain gaps or misconfigurations that scanners cannot detect.
Whether your intrusion detection and SIEM systems actually see what attackers are doing.
How your external attack surface looks to an attacker who knows nothing about your organization.
Whether internal controls would stop a compromised endpoint from reaching critical systems.
What Is Penetration Testing?
Penetration Testing, Explained in Plain Language
A penetration test - commonly called a pen test - is an authorized, structured simulation of a cyberattack against your network, systems, or applications. The goal is to identify vulnerabilities that are actually exploitable, document how an attacker could abuse them, and give you a clear remediation path before a real attacker finds the same gaps.
Penetration testing is not the same as running a scanner. Scanners identify potential vulnerabilities. Penetration testing validates which ones are real, exploitable risks in your environment - and shows you how far the damage could go.
External vs. Internal: Two Sides of Your Attack Surface
External Penetration Testing |
Internal Penetration Testing |
| External testing attacks your organization the way a remote attacker would - from the internet, with no prior access. We test your public-facing IP addresses, web servers, VPN endpoints, email infrastructure, DNS configuration, and firewall rules. The objective is to determine whether an attacker can gain unauthorized access to your network from the outside. | Internal testing simulates a threat that already has a foothold - a compromised endpoint, a rogue insider, or an attacker who got in through phishing. We test from inside your network, assessing how far an attacker could move laterally across your VLANs, escalate privileges, and reach sensitive data, systems, and credentials. For most businesses, internal testing reveals the most critical findings. |
Three Testing Tiers
Choose the Level of Testing Your Business Needs
Not every engagement requires the same depth. We offer three clearly defined testing tiers so you can match your testing approach to your budget, your compliance requirements, and your risk tolerance - and scale up as your needs evolve.
Tier 1 Automate
Automated Penetration Testing - On-Demand, Continuous, Compliance-Ready
We deploy a lightweight scanning appliance inside your network that continuously monitors every device, server, workstation, network switch, printer, and IoT endpoint on your internal network. Internal scanning identifies vulnerabilities that are invisible from the outside but are the most dangerous in a breach scenario - the weaknesses an attacker or compromised device would exploit to move laterally, escalate privileges, and reach your most sensitive systems and data.
Real attack simulations against internal and external network targets
On-demand scheduling - run tests any time, at any frequency
Complete activity logging: every action timestamped and correlated to your SIEM or log management solution
Enhanced security visibility with real-time log data for threat correlation
Compliance-ready reporting for PCI DSS, HIPAA, SOC 2, and cyber insurance requirements
Budget-friendly - more testing coverage at a fraction of traditional pen test cost
Executive summary and technical findings report delivered after each engagement
Best for: businesses that need regular, documented testing to meet compliance obligations and cyber insurance requirements
Tier 2
Hybrid
Hybrid Penetration Testing - Automated Coverage + Certified Manual Validation
Our hybrid tier combines the breadth of automated network testing with the depth, intuition, and judgment of a certified human tester. Automated tools identify the attack surface and flag potential vulnerabilities at scale. Certified testers then manually validate findings, investigate anomalies that automation cannot interpret, chain vulnerabilities into realistic attack paths, and confirm exploitability with documented evidence.
Automated network scan plus manual tester review of all findings
Manual validation of identified vulnerabilities - no false positives in the final report
Vulnerability chaining and attack path analysis performed by certified testers
IPS and firewall evasion testing to validate whether your detection tools see the activity
Full port scan battery including ten distinct scan configurations for firewall gap analysis
Delivered with scan reports, manual testing notes file, and remediation checklist
Compliance-ready documentation for PCI, HIPAA, SOC 2, and cyber insurance
Best for: businesses that want verified, human-validated findings without the full cost of an all-manual engagement
Tier 3
Full Manual
Full Manual Penetration Testing - Certified Testers, Maximum Depth, Complete Coverage
Our full manual tier is a comprehensive, human-led penetration testing engagement performed by certified testers following the NIST SP800-115 methodology with OWASP-aligned web application testing. Every engagement begins with a pre-engagement meeting, a detailed statement of work, and a careful safety and stability review to protect your production systems throughout the test. Automated tools support breadth; human expertise drives depth.
Certified tester-led engagement with full pre-engagement scoping and safety review
External and/or internal network penetration testing with complete VLAN coverage
Ten-configuration port scan battery plus vulnerability scanner with manual correlation
IPS evasion testing using increasingly stealthy techniques until detection confidence is established
Manual validation of every finding - nothing reported that is not confirmed exploitable
Firewall configuration gap analysis, DNS zone transfer testing, and lateral movement assessment
Optional SIEM Correlation Report: timestamped activity log of every action for correlation against your security tools
Deliverables: full private report, individual finding reports, remediation checklist, scan reports, and manual testing notes file
Optional remediation testing available at a fixed hourly rate after vulnerabilities are corrected
Best for: businesses with complex environments, strict compliance requirements, or those who need the most defensible, documented evidence of testing quality
Transparent Deliverables. No Black Boxes.
One of the most important questions to ask any penetration testing vendor is what you will actually receive when the engagement is complete. Here is what Cyber Protect LLC delivers across our testing tiers - because a penetration test is only as valuable as the documentation it produces.
| Full Private Report |
Your primary deliverable. The full private report documents every confirmed vulnerability found during the engagement, including screen captures or evidence, a plain-language explanation of what each finding means for your business, its risk severity, and specific remediation guidance. Written for both your technical team and your leadership. |
| Individual Finding Reports | Every vulnerability in the full report is also provided as a standalone PDF finding report. This allows you to distribute specific findings to the right team members - your web developer, your network administrator, or an outside vendor - without sharing your entire private report. Particularly useful when different parties are responsible for different parts of your remediated scope. |
| Remediation Checklist | A structured checklist accompanying your full private report that tracks every finding, the remediation step taken, and the outcome. If you choose to proceed to remediation testing, this document is required. If you do not, it still serves as a permanent record of your remediation activity - which auditors and cyber insurers may request. |
| Network Vulnerability Scan Report | The raw output from our network vulnerability scanner, provided to you as a separate deliverable. We provide this because we believe no legitimate vendor should be reluctant to give you the scan report alongside the pen test report. If you ever want to compare the two - you should. The scan report and the manual findings report should tell two complementary but distinct stories. If they look identical, ask why. |
| Manual Testing Notes File (Hybrid and Full Manual Tiers) | An unpolished but authentic record of every manual testing activity - half-formed suspicions, dead ends, real-time research notes, screen captures, and the live thought process of a certified tester working through your environment. It is not pretty. It is also not generated by a scanner. When you see it, you will know three things: it is real, it is human, and the work was actually done. |
| Optional: SIEM Correlation Report (Full Manual Tier) | A timestamped log of every automated and manual action taken during your engagement, synchronized to a common time reference, and formatted for correlation against your SIEM or log management system. This allows you to see not just what vulnerabilities were found - but whether your security tools detected the activity at all. It is one of the most revealing tests of your detection capabilities available, and it is only possible because we operate with complete transparency. |
Our Safety-First Methodology
We Protect Your Production Systems While We Test Them
Penetration testing involves doing unexpected things to your systems and network. By definition, if you knew how your systems would behave under every attack scenario, there would be no need for a test at all. That inherent uncertainty creates real risk - and most vendors do not talk about it.
We do. We have built risk reduction into our methodology through enforced policies and procedures that protect your production environment throughout every engagement. Client risk falls into three categories, and we address all of them.
System Risk
Scanners and port scans can crash routers, corrupt databases, and overwhelm systems. We use custom scanner configurations that avoid denial-of-service tests and unsafe memory corruption testing, with low thread counts to prevent system overload. Where non-production systems are available, we run 'canary scans' first - testing tools against safer targets before touching production systems.
Human Risk
Web application scanners can flood support inboxes with thousands of auto-generated emails, lock out staff accounts, and trigger chat systems. Our testers perform a full manual review of every application before any automated tools are launched - identifying email forms, login pages, database inputs, and other risk vectors and configuring scanners accordingly before a single automated query is fired.
Third Party Risk
Tools can reach systems outside your approved scope - shared databases, external SaaS providers, vendor-hosted infrastructure. We conduct ownership verification on all external targets before testing begins, and configure application scanners with strict scope boundaries. We stop and seek clarification any time a tester suspects activity may affect a system or party outside your authorized scope.
Additionally, we balance depth with breadth. We use carefully configured automated tools to ensure full coverage of your attack surface, and we substitute manual methods in any case where automation poses unacceptable risk. We pursue manual depth until a vulnerability is proven and documented - then we stop, because exposing deeper systems to unnecessary testing risk does not improve your findings or your remediation plan.
Compliance
Penetration Testing Built for Regulated Businesses
Penetration testing is not just a cybersecurity best practice - for many Michigan businesses it is a documented compliance requirement. Here is how our testing tiers align with the frameworks most commonly required by regulators, auditors, and cyber insurance underwriters.
| PCI DSS |
If your business accepts, processes, or stores cardholder data, PCI DSS v4.0 requires annual penetration testing of your cardholder data environment by a qualified tester. Our hybrid and full manual tiers meet PCI DSS penetration testing requirements, and all three tiers produce the compliance-ready documentation and reporting your QSA will require. |
| HIPAA | HIPAA's Security Rule requires covered entities and business associates to conduct an accurate and thorough risk analysis of potential risks and vulnerabilities to ePHI. Penetration testing provides the most defensible evidence that risks were actively investigated - not just theoretically catalogued. Our testing, combined with our Compliance-as-a-Service program, gives medical practices a complete, documented HIPAA security posture. |
| SOC 2 | SOC 2 Type II auditors assess whether your security controls are operating effectively over time. Penetration testing provides direct evidence that your network defenses have been validated against active attack attempts. Our compliance-ready reports and remediation documentation are structured to support SOC 2 audit requirements. |
| Cyber Insurance | Cyber insurance underwriters are increasingly requiring documented penetration testing at policy application and renewal. Our testing deliverables - including findings reports, remediation checklists, and compliance-ready summaries - give your broker and underwriter the documentation they need, and our automated tier makes ongoing testing affordable enough to run at the frequency carriers increasingly prefer. |
Why Cyber Protect LLC
Why Michigan Businesses Choose Cyber Protect LLC for Penetration Testing
We Offer Three Real Testing Tiers - Not One Product Repackaged Three Ways.
Automated, hybrid, and full manual testing are genuinely different engagements with different methodologies, deliverables, and depth of human involvement. We are transparent about what each tier includes and what it does not, so you can make an informed decision about what your business actually needs.
We Show You the Work.
Our manual testing notes file, vulnerability scan reports, and SIEM correlation report exist because we operate with complete transparency. We provide everything because we have nothing to hide. Any vendor who resists giving you the scan report alongside their pen test report deserves a direct question about why.
We Protect Your Systems While We Test Them.
Our safety-first methodology - pre-engagement interviews, canary scans, custom scanner configurations, manual application review before automated launch - is the product of years of careful attention to what can go wrong during a penetration test. We protect your production environment throughout every engagement.
We Are Local and We Are Accountable.
We are based in Warren, Michigan, serving businesses across Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb Counties. When you have questions about your findings, your remediation plan, or your compliance posture, you reach a local team that knows your environment and is reachable during business hours.
Our Testing Connects to Your Broader Security Program.
A penetration test that ends with a report and no follow-through is a missed opportunity. Our findings naturally connect to your vCISO program, your compliance management engagement, and your managed IT services - creating a security program that learns from every test and gets measurably stronger over time.
We Provide Remediation Testing.
Finding a vulnerability is only half the job. After you have addressed your findings, we offer optional remediation testing to confirm that corrections were applied correctly and completely - and to issue the clean remediation documentation that auditors, insurers, and clients may eventually request.
TESTIMONIALS
What Michigan Businesses Say About Working With Cyber Protect LLC
The team at Cyber Protect took a comprehensive approach from the very start. Our systems have never run more smoothly, and we finally feel confident that our clients' information is protected the way it should be.
We had a domain blacklisting incident that could have been a disaster for our business. Cyber Protect stepped in, handled everything, and put safeguards in place so it could never happen again. Now I have real peace of mind.
How It Works
From First Call to Final Report: What the Process Looks Like
Penetration testing engagements follow a structured process that protects both you and us. Here is what you can expect from start to finish.
| STEP 1
Free Risk Assessment |
We start with our no-cost Cybersecurity and IT Risk Assessment, identifying your applicable compliance requirements, your current environment, and which testing tier fits your needs and budget. |
| STEP 2
Scoping and Pre-Engagement Meeting |
We develop a detailed statement of work covering your target IP addresses and URLs, engagement time period, any testing restrictions, emergency contacts, and any production system safety concerns. Nothing is tested until scope is documented and signed by both parties. |
| STEP 3
Testing |
We conduct the engagement according to the agreed scope, methodology, and timeline. You will have a direct contact throughout the engagement. |
| STEP 4
Post-Engagement Meeting |
Once testing is complete, we schedule a meeting to walk through your findings, explain the risk and business impact of each, and answer your team's questions. |
| STEP 5
Remediation |
You address the identified vulnerabilities using the remediation checklist and individual finding reports we provide. |
|
STEP 6 Optional Remediation Testing |
We validate that corrections were applied correctly, issue a clean remediation report, and update your documentation for compliance and insurance purposes. |
Penetration Testing: Your Questions Answered
What is the difference between a penetration test and a vulnerability scan?
A vulnerability scan identifies software versions, missing patches, and known configuration weaknesses using automated tools. A penetration test goes further - it actively attempts to exploit those vulnerabilities to determine which ones are actually dangerous in your specific environment, how they could be chained together, and how far an attacker could get. A scan tells you what might be a problem. A penetration test tells you what is a real, confirmed risk.
Do I need a penetration test for HIPAA compliance?
HIPAA does not mandate penetration testing by name, but it does require a thorough and accurate risk analysis of vulnerabilities to electronic protected health information. Penetration testing is the most defensible way to demonstrate that you actively investigated whether those vulnerabilities are exploitable - not just theoretically present. HHS has cited inadequate risk analysis in the majority of HIPAA enforcement actions, and penetration testing is increasingly considered a best-practice standard for meeting that requirement.
Does my business need a penetration test to qualify for cyber insurance?
Many cyber insurance carriers now require documented penetration testing as a condition of coverage, especially for businesses above certain revenue thresholds or in regulated industries. Some carriers require annual testing. Our automated testing tier is specifically designed to make that recurring requirement affordable, and all three of our tiers produce the compliance-ready documentation that underwriters and brokers typically request at application and renewal.
What is the difference between Cyber Protect's three testing tiers?
Automated testing uses enterprise-grade attack simulation technology to run real network penetration test scenarios on demand, with complete activity logging and compliance-ready reporting - making regular testing affordable and scalable. Hybrid testing adds a certified human tester who validates findings, chains vulnerabilities into realistic attack paths, and confirms exploitability that automation alone cannot assess. Full manual testing is a comprehensive, certified-tester-led engagement with the deepest human involvement, full breadth and depth coverage, and the most complete set of deliverables including manual testing notes and optional SIEM correlation reporting.
What does 'on-demand scheduling' mean for penetration testing?
Traditional pen tests are scheduled months in advance, conducted once a year, and produce a point-in-time snapshot of your security posture. Our automated tier changes that model. Tests can be scheduled for any time - nights, weekends, or immediately following a major network change - and run at whatever frequency your compliance requirements or risk tolerance demands. Monthly testing is now within reach for small and mid-sized businesses.
What is a SIEM Correlation Report and why does it matter?
A SIEM Correlation Report is a timestamped activity log of every action our testers performed during your engagement - every scan, every probe, every manual testing step - synchronized to a reference time and formatted for correlation against your Security Information and Event Management system. Most penetration testing vendors only show you what they found. We also show you everything they did, so you can check whether your security tools actually detected it. Most businesses are surprised by how much activity their SIEM misses.
What is remediation testing and do I need it?
Remediation testing is a follow-up engagement conducted after you have addressed the vulnerabilities identified in your original test. We re-test each finding, verify that corrections were applied correctly, and issue a formal remediation report indicating a pass, fail, or deferred status for every original finding. We strongly recommend remediation testing. It confirms that your fixes actually work, provides defensible documentation for compliance and insurance purposes, and closes the loop on the engagement so your risk posture genuinely improves - not just on paper.
Can Cyber Protect LLC test multiple network segments or VLANs?
Yes. Our internal testing engagements are designed to cover multiple VLANs and network segments within your environment. For internal testing, we use hardware-based testing equipment shipped to your location that can connect to multiple LAN segments simultaneously - eliminating the complex configuration requirements that virtual machine or VPN-based testing solutions typically impose on clients. You plug it in and connect network cables. We handle the rest.
How is the manual testing notes file different from the final penetration test report?
The final penetration test report is a polished, professional document structured for both technical and executive readers. The manual testing notes file is the unpolished, real-time record of everything your certified tester observed, investigated, and worked through during the engagement - half-formed suspicions, false starts, dead ends, on-the-fly research, and screen captures. It is not pretty. It is also the most direct evidence that manual testing actually occurred. Any vendor performing genuine manual testing will have records like this and should be willing to share them.
How do I get started with penetration testing from Cyber Protect LLC?
Start with our free Cybersecurity and IT Risk Assessment. We will identify which testing tier fits your environment, your compliance requirements, and your budget - and explain exactly what the engagement would cover. Schedule your assessment at cyberprotectllc.com or call (586) 500-9300.
If you connect it, you must protect it.
Stop Guessing About Your Security. Find Out What an Attacker Would Find.
Your network has vulnerabilities. The question is whether you find them first or an attacker does. Cyber Protect LLC gives Michigan businesses three tiers of penetration testing - from affordable automated testing to full certified-manual engagements - with the transparent deliverables, compliance-ready documentation, and local expertise to actually improve your security posture.
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