CST Associate Penetration Tester

About Claranet

Founded at the beginning of the dot.com bubble in 1996, our CEO Charles Nasser had a light bulb moment to develop a truly customer-focused IT business. Since then, Claranet has grown from an Internet Service Provider (ISP) in the UK to being one of the leading business modernisation experts, who deliver solutions across 11+ countries.

At Claranet, we’re experienced in implementing progressive technology solutions which help our customers solve their epic business challenges. We’re committed to understanding their problems, delivering answers quickly, and making a lasting impact to their business.

We are agile, focused and experienced in business modernisation. Our approach helps customers make genuine, significant shifts in their business strategy, to deliver financial savings, boost innovation, and create a resilient business. We continually invest in our people and the latest technologies, so our customers get peace of mind knowing that they have access to the best talent and services.

In the UK we have over 500 staff working in London, Gloucester, Warrington, Bristol, and Leeds or as homeworkers. we have 130 staff in India working for international projects.

Working For Claranet

Here at Claranet we pride ourselves on going the extra mile for and with our employees (yes, we really mean with). We offer an extensive benefits package that you can tailor to your needs, inclusive of a matching contribution pension scheme, healthcare, insurance.

Claranet are one of the 10 founding members of TC4RE (Technology Community for Racial Equality.) Being a part of a group of leading UK technology organisations, we are dedicated to building a more diverse and inclusive workforce.

Our Vision

Our vision is to become the most trusted technology solutions partner; renowned for being the best and brightest, having lasting impact with our customers and delivering exceptional returns to our stakeholders.

Position Summary

Claranet Cyber Security is a world class business unit within Claranet, designed to give customers access to market-leading information security expertise and services spanning; penetration testing, compliance consulting, training and managed services.

The primary function of the Penetration Tester in the CST team is to continually review the customers’ defined scope for vulnerabilities, identify additional targets that should be included in the scope, and report these to the client in a timely, accurate, and comprehensive manner. The Penetration Tester is also responsible for pre-engagement activities including scoping, statements of work, working with customers to determine their testing requirements and restrictions, on boarding customers into the service and contribute to the service improvement and further development.

To provide the best services to our clients, we need the best people working with us. With outstanding support from the business, all of our penetration testers will gain the experience needed to become the best they can be.

Our team is growing, and we need inspiring people to join us at all levels and help us to continue building a world leading cyber security operation whilst benefiting from a truly unique opportunity to fulfil their potential.

Essential Roles & Responsibilities

The Continuous Security Testing service is a consultant led vulnerability identification and verification service which makes use of automated vulnerability scanning along with significant manual testing against a broad scope in a continuing engagement. The purpose of the service is to continually monitor a customer’s external attack surface for new vulnerabilities, changes in the scope of the attack surface, and proactively inform customers of discovered issues along with recommended remediation; with the overall aim of reducing the lifetime of each vulnerability. Manual testing includes identification of issues which automation alone could not identify, exploitation of all issues, often chaining multiple findings together in order to determine the true impact of vulnerabilities for the customer.

Key Responsibilities :

Manual identification and exploitation of vulnerabilities

Manual verification and exploitation of scanner findings

Detailed analysis of issues identified and exposure for the customer including proof of concept, reproduction steps, and recommended remediation

Communication of findings to the customer in a detailed, accurate and manageable manner both orally and through written vulnerability / scope notifications and periodic summaries

Continual professional development to maintain and develop knowledge and technical competencies

Maintain professional technical qualifications to demonstrate competency to our clients

Undertaking projects and support tasks as appropriate to the role

Progression :

During mentoring and experience progression, the Associate Penetration Tester will be tasked with :

Pre-engagement activities including scoping of assessments and statements of work and determining customer requirements and restrictions

Onboarding customers into the service including configuration of continual scanning and liaising with customer to resolve issues which may reduce the effectiveness of scanning

Monitoring of the customers’ external perimeter for changes, and proactive discovery of new targets to include within the customer’s scope

Essential Technical

Core computing skills including but not limited to :

Networking fundamentals – understanding of OSI Model, TCP / IP, HTTP, DNS, SMB, SMTP and relevant tools

Microsoft Windows and Office proficiency along with proficiency in one or more Linux distributions

Good knowledge of web application technologies and security assessment including but not limited to :

REST APIs, SOAP APIs, XML and JSON formats

Vulnerability identification and exploitation (not limited to OWASP Top 10)

Experience with common assessment tools such as MITM proxies (e.g. Burp Suite Pro) and SQLMap

Good knowledge of internal and external infrastructure technologies and security assessment including but not limited to :

Identification and exploitation of misconfigurations or known vulnerabilities in common enterprise infrastructure and services (Windows Domains, Linux servers, virtualisation, databases, switches / routers, etc)

Windows and Linux Sandbox / Desktop Breakout

Knowledge of a scripting language such as Python (preferred), Ruby, PowerShell, or Bash, for the development of new, or editing existing, tools

Essential General

Must be self-motivated and able to work in an independent manner as well as part of a team

Excellent written and oral communications skills

Positive, collaborative and enthusiastic

Appetite to shadow, train and develop to improve capabilities into all areas of security testing

In Addition, The Following Are Highly Desirable :

CPSA - CREST Practitioner Security Analyst (or above)

Public speaking experience

A related Bachelor’s degree

Experience with live bug bounties, particularly where automation has been implemented

Knowledge of Open Source Intelligence gathering techniques. Including but not limited to use of Google dorks, DNS, domain registration, certificate transparency, and other public sources of information