Penetration Testing for UK Small and Medium Businesses

A test is only useful if it changes what you do next. We don't dump a 200-page scanner export on your IT lead. Every finding is ranked by real-world risk, mapped to a fix, and retested once you've actioned it. Penetration testing sits inside AMVIA's wider managed cybersecurity service, so the people who find the gap are the people who help you close it.

At a glance: - 1,200+ UK businesses protected - 24/7 monitoring and response - Critical incident response in under one hour

What's included in an AMVIA penetration test?

An AMVIA engagement covers the four ways attackers actually get in — your perimeter, your internal network, your web applications, and your people — followed by clear reporting and a retest. We scope the right combination for your environment rather than selling every test by default.

• External penetration testing: your internet-facing systems — firewalls, web applications, email gateways and VPN endpoints — probed for anything an outside attacker could reach.
• Internal penetration testing: simulating an attacker who already has a foothold, testing lateral movement, privilege escalation and access to sensitive data.
• Web application testing: your apps and customer portals tested against the OWASP Top 10, the industry-standard list of the most critical web application risks.
• Social engineering testing: simulated phishing and pretext attacks to measure how your staff respond and where awareness training is needed.
• Detailed reporting: an executive summary, technical findings, CVSS-based risk ratings and specific remediation guidance.
• Remediation verification: a follow-up retest that confirms each fix actually closed the gap.

How does the penetration testing process work?

The engagement runs in five stages, agreed with you up front so there are no surprises. Scope and rules of engagement are signed off before anyone touches a system, and you get a named contact throughout. Most tests complete inside five to ten business days.

1. Scoping: we define targets, boundaries and rules of engagement with your team. 2. Reconnaissance: information gathering and vulnerability scanning to map likely attack vectors. 3. Exploitation: controlled, evidence-based exploitation of confirmed weaknesses using real attacker techniques. 4. Reporting: a prioritised report with findings, CVSS risk ratings and step-by-step remediation. 5. Debrief and remediation: a technical walkthrough with your team, remediation support, then verification testing.

Why do UK SMEs need penetration testing?

Most breaches don't exploit some exotic zero-day — they walk through a misconfiguration, an unpatched service or a reused password that nobody knew was exposed. A penetration test surfaces those gaps on your terms, in a controlled window, instead of an attacker finding them first. The numbers make the case plainly.

43% of UK businesses experienced a cyber security breach or attack in the past 12 months (Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2025, DSIT). The National Cyber Security Centre recommends penetration testing as a way to gain assurance that your security controls work as intended, not just on paper. For a UK SME, an annual test is the difference between discovering a flaw in a report and discovering it in a ransom note.

Penetration testing vs vulnerability scanning: what's the difference?

A vulnerability scan is an automated check that flags known weaknesses; a penetration test is a skilled human proving which of those weaknesses can actually be exploited and how far an attacker could get. You need both — scanning for breadth and frequency, pen testing for depth and proof.

Ongoing scanning is best run as part of vulnerability management; penetration testing is the periodic, human-led validation on top. If a test does uncover an active compromise, AMVIA's incident response team can step in immediately.

Why choose AMVIA for penetration testing?

AMVIA is a UK security partner, not a telecoms reseller bolting on a scanner. Our engineering and testing team operates from Sheffield, understands UK compliance requirements, and stays accountable from scoping through to verified fix.

• Sheffield-based, UK-focused: our team works from Sheffield and understands UK infrastructure, compliance and the threats British businesses actually face.
• Accredited and certified: AMVIA holds Cyber Essentials Plus certification and Microsoft Solutions Partner status.
• 1,200+ UK businesses protected: we manage IT and security for over 1,200 UK businesses across legal, finance, healthcare and professional services.
• Fast, responsive support: critical issues answered in under one hour, with named account managers who know your environment.

Findings don't stop at a PDF. Where a test exposes a monitoring gap, AMVIA's managed detection and response service — Microsoft Defender for Endpoint watched by our in-house 24/7 SOC — keeps eyes on the systems the test flagged.

How much does penetration testing cost?

Penetration testing is priced by scope: the number of IP ranges, applications, and test types in play, and whether social engineering or a retest is included. There's no honest fixed price for a test that hasn't been scoped, so we agree the cost in writing before any work starts. Most SME engagements are a fraction of the cost of a single breach.