Penetration Testing Services in Raleigh, NC
Raleigh's concentration of financial institutions, healthcare systems, defense contractors, and technology companies creates a high-value target environment for sophisticated attackers. Petronella Technology Group, Inc. delivers expert penetration testing that simulates real-world attack scenarios against your networks, applications, and personnel — revealing exploitable vulnerabilities before threat actors find them.
BBB Accredited Since 2003 • Founded 2002 • 2,500+ Clients • 30+ Years Cybersecurity Experience
The Raleigh Threat Landscape Demands Offensive Testing
Automated vulnerability scans find known weaknesses. Penetration testing finds the attack paths that scanners miss.
Financial Sector Requirements
First Citizens BancShares, regional credit unions, and fintech startups in downtown Raleigh face GLBA, SOX, and examiner-mandated penetration testing requirements. Annual pen tests satisfy regulatory obligations while exposing the vulnerabilities that financial examiners specifically scrutinize.
Healthcare System Protection
WakeMed Health, Rex Healthcare, and the region's medical practices manage protected health information that ransomware operators target specifically. Penetration testing of clinical networks, patient portals, and medical device integrations reveals exposure points that could lead to HIPAA breaches and patient-safety incidents.
Compliance Validation
PCI DSS Requirement 11.3 mandates annual penetration testing. CMMC and NIST 800-171 require periodic security assessments that include offensive testing. SOC 2 auditors expect pen test reports as evidence of control effectiveness. A single pen test can satisfy requirements across multiple frameworks simultaneously.
Real-World Attack Simulation
Vulnerability scans report theoretical weaknesses. Penetration testing proves whether those weaknesses are actually exploitable by chaining vulnerabilities into attack paths that demonstrate real business impact — lateral movement to domain admin, data exfiltration, ransomware deployment simulation, or financial transaction manipulation.
Expert Penetration Testing for Raleigh's High-Value Industries
The Research Triangle's economic engine runs on data. Financial records flow through the banking corridor along Fayetteville Street. Protected health information courses through WakeMed, UNC Health, and dozens of specialty practices. Controlled Unclassified Information moves between defense contractors and Fort Liberty. Proprietary source code and customer data power the SaaS companies and technology startups along Glenwood South and Centennial Campus. Every category of that data is a target, and the attackers pursuing it in 2026 are more sophisticated, better funded, and more persistent than ever before.
Penetration testing is the practice of thinking like an attacker to find and exploit vulnerabilities before real adversaries do. Unlike vulnerability scanning, which automates the detection of known weaknesses against a signature database, penetration testing uses human intelligence and creativity to discover attack chains: sequences of individually minor vulnerabilities that, when exploited in combination, produce catastrophic outcomes. A misconfigured service account combined with a weak network segmentation boundary combined with a privilege escalation vulnerability can give an attacker domain-admin access to your entire environment — and no scanner will connect those dots.
Petronella Technology Group, Inc. has been performing penetration tests for Raleigh businesses since 2002. Craig Petronella's 30+ years of cybersecurity experience includes offensive security methodology, digital forensics investigation, and incident response — the combination of offensive and defensive expertise that produces penetration testing engagements grounded in real attack tradecraft rather than automated tool output dressed up in a report template.
The 2026 threat landscape in Raleigh is shaped by several converging forces. Nation-state threat groups target the defense supply chain extending from Research Triangle Park to Fort Liberty, seeking access to Controlled Unclassified Information and ITAR-restricted technical data. Ransomware syndicates target healthcare systems because clinical downtime creates life-safety urgency that pressures organizations to pay. Financially motivated attackers deploy sophisticated business email compromise and wire-fraud schemes against the city's banking and financial-services sector. And the rise of AI-powered attack tools means that adversaries can now generate convincing phishing lures, automate exploitation, and evade traditional defenses at speeds that outpace manual security operations. Penetration testing is how you validate that your defenses can withstand these real-world attacks rather than assuming they can based on scanner output and vendor promises.
Penetration Testing Engagements We Deliver
Tailored testing methodologies for the industries and attack surfaces that define Raleigh's business landscape.
External Network Penetration Testing
We test your internet-facing attack surface the way an external attacker would approach it: enumerating public IP ranges, discovering exposed services, testing web applications, attempting credential attacks against remote access portals, and exploiting misconfigurations in DNS, email, and cloud infrastructure. For Raleigh financial institutions, we specifically test online banking portals, payment processing endpoints, and customer-facing APIs against the attack techniques that financially motivated threat groups use in the wild.
Our external testing methodology covers open-source intelligence gathering, subdomain enumeration, SSL/TLS configuration analysis, exposed credential databases, and misconfigured cloud storage. The deliverable is a detailed report mapping every discovered vulnerability, its exploitation proof, business impact assessment, and prioritized remediation guidance that your IT team can execute immediately.
Internal Network Penetration Testing
An insider threat or an attacker who has gained initial access through phishing now operates inside your network. Internal penetration testing simulates this scenario: we test from a position inside your network perimeter to evaluate Active Directory security, network segmentation effectiveness, privilege escalation paths, lateral movement opportunities, and data exfiltration channels. For Raleigh healthcare organizations, we focus on clinical network segmentation and the accessibility of electronic health records from compromised workstations. The goal is to determine how far an attacker can get and how much damage they can inflict once past your perimeter defenses.
Web Application Penetration Testing
Custom web applications power Raleigh's SaaS companies, patient portals, banking platforms, and government services. Our web application testing follows OWASP methodology to identify injection flaws, broken authentication, sensitive data exposure, cross-site scripting, insecure deserialization, and business logic vulnerabilities. We test both the application layer and the supporting infrastructure, including API endpoints, authentication flows, session management, and data-validation routines.
For Raleigh healthcare organizations, we test patient portal authentication, prescription request workflows, and API integrations with electronic health record systems. For fintech companies, we target transaction processing logic, account enumeration, and rate-limiting controls. Our web application testing satisfies PCI DSS sections 6.5 and 11.3 requirements and produces reports formatted for auditor review.
Social Engineering and Phishing Assessments
The majority of breaches begin with a human being making a mistake. Our social engineering assessments test your organization's human attack surface through realistic phishing campaigns, pretexting phone calls, and physical security tests. We craft phishing scenarios tailored to your industry — fake wire-transfer requests for financial institutions, fraudulent patient record requests for healthcare providers, and spoofed vendor communications for defense contractors. Results quantify your organization's susceptibility to social engineering and provide the baseline data needed to measure the effectiveness of your security awareness training program.
Wireless and Physical Penetration Testing
Wireless networks in multi-tenant office buildings across downtown Raleigh and the Centennial Campus often share physical proximity with neighboring organizations. Our wireless testing identifies rogue access points, weak encryption protocols, network isolation failures, and evil-twin attack susceptibility. Physical penetration testing evaluates badge access controls, tailgating susceptibility, and the ability to access network infrastructure through unattended network drops, exposed server closets, or social-engineering-based building access. For Raleigh defense contractors, physical security testing addresses the NIST 800-171 physical protection control family that C3PAO assessors evaluate.
AI-Augmented Penetration Testing
PTG integrates artificial intelligence into our penetration testing methodology to expand test coverage and accelerate vulnerability discovery. AI-powered reconnaissance automates the enumeration of attack surfaces that would take human testers days to map manually. Machine learning models identify anomalous configurations and predict high-probability attack paths across complex environments. AI-driven analysis correlates findings from multiple testing phases to discover compound vulnerabilities that individual tests might miss.
We also test your organization's resilience against AI-powered attacks: LLM-generated phishing campaigns that bypass content filters, AI-assisted credential stuffing that adapts to lockout policies, and automated exploitation frameworks that use machine learning to identify and exploit vulnerabilities at machine speed. Understanding how AI changes the attacker toolkit is essential for defending against the 2026 threat landscape.
How a PTG Penetration Test Works
A rigorous, transparent methodology that delivers actionable intelligence rather than scanner output.
Scoping and Rules of Engagement
We define the test scope, targets, timing, and boundaries. For Raleigh healthcare organizations, we establish clinical-system protections. For financial institutions, we coordinate with fraud-detection teams to prevent false alarms. For defense contractors, we ensure CUI environments are tested within NIST 800-171 assessment guidelines. You receive a formal rules-of-engagement document that protects both parties.
Reconnaissance and Vulnerability Discovery
Our testers enumerate your attack surface, identify services, map network topology, and discover vulnerabilities through both automated scanning and manual investigation. AI-augmented reconnaissance expands coverage while human analysts focus on the complex, logic-based vulnerabilities that automated tools miss.
Exploitation and Impact Demonstration
We exploit discovered vulnerabilities to demonstrate real business impact: accessing sensitive data, escalating privileges, moving laterally to critical systems, and simulating the actions a real attacker would take. Every exploitation step is documented with screenshots, log evidence, and a clear narrative explaining the attack chain. Critical findings are communicated immediately rather than waiting for the final report.
Reporting and Remediation Guidance
You receive a comprehensive report with an executive summary for leadership and a technical detail section for your IT team. Each finding includes severity rating, exploitation evidence, business impact assessment, and specific remediation steps. We debrief your team in person, answer questions, and provide post-test support to verify that remediations are effective. The report satisfies PCI DSS, HIPAA, CMMC, and SOC 2 pen test documentation requirements.
Raleigh's Trusted Penetration Testing Team
Craig Petronella's 30+ years in cybersecurity encompass both offensive testing and digital forensic investigation of real-world breaches. That dual perspective means our penetration testers think like attackers and investigators simultaneously — finding the vulnerabilities that tools miss and demonstrating the real-world consequences that motivate leadership to fund remediation. Petronella Technology Group, Inc. has been BBB Accredited since 2003 and has served over 2,500 clients across the Research Triangle, delivering pen test engagements that satisfy regulators, auditors, and boards of directors.
Years Cybersecurity Experience
Clients Served
Breaches (Clients Following Our Program)
Accredited Since 2003
Penetration Testing Questions from Raleigh Organizations
What is the difference between a vulnerability scan and a penetration test?
A vulnerability scan is an automated tool that checks your systems against a database of known vulnerabilities and produces a list of potential weaknesses. A penetration test uses skilled human testers to actively exploit vulnerabilities, chain them together into attack paths, and demonstrate real business impact. Scans find individual weaknesses. Pen tests prove whether those weaknesses can actually be used to compromise your organization. Both are valuable, but they serve different purposes — and most compliance frameworks require both.
How often should a Raleigh business conduct penetration testing?
At minimum, annually. PCI DSS requires annual penetration testing and testing after significant infrastructure changes. HIPAA expects periodic security testing as part of its risk analysis requirement. SOC 2 auditors look for annual pen test reports as evidence of control effectiveness. CMMC and NIST 800-171 require periodic security assessments that include offensive testing. For Raleigh organizations in high-risk industries or those that deploy new applications frequently, semi-annual or quarterly testing provides better coverage. We also recommend testing after major infrastructure changes such as cloud migrations, network redesigns, mergers and acquisitions, or the deployment of new customer-facing applications that expand your attack surface.
Will a penetration test disrupt my business operations?
Professional penetration testing is designed to minimize operational disruption. Our rules of engagement define testing windows, exclude fragile systems when necessary, and establish emergency contacts for immediate de-escalation if an unintended impact occurs. For Raleigh healthcare organizations, we schedule clinical-system testing during maintenance windows and coordinate with IT teams to ensure patient care is never affected. For financial institutions, we coordinate with fraud-detection and transaction-monitoring teams to prevent false alarms during testing. In our 24 years of pen testing, we have maintained a zero-disruption record for client production systems.
How much does a penetration test cost in Raleigh?
Costs depend on scope, complexity, and testing type. A focused external network pen test for a small Raleigh business typically starts at $5,000 to $10,000. Comprehensive engagements that include internal, external, web application, and social engineering testing for mid-market organizations range from $15,000 to $40,000. Enterprise-scale engagements with multiple locations and complex environments are priced based on scope. We provide detailed proposals with fixed pricing before engagement begins.
Does the pen test report satisfy PCI DSS requirements?
Yes. Our penetration test methodology and reporting format satisfy PCI DSS Requirement 11.3, including testing of the cardholder data environment, critical systems, and both internal and external network segments. Reports include the scope definition, methodology description, findings with severity ratings, and remediation guidance that PCI assessors require. For Raleigh businesses processing credit card payments, our pen test report can be submitted directly to your QSA or used as evidence for SAQ validation.
What do you do if you find a critical vulnerability during testing?
Critical findings are reported immediately through a designated secure communication channel — not held until the final report. If we discover an actively exploitable vulnerability that presents imminent risk, we notify your designated contact within hours so remediation can begin immediately. This is especially important for Raleigh healthcare and financial organizations where delayed notification could result in patient-safety incidents or financial losses during the testing window.
Can you test our cloud infrastructure?
Yes. We test AWS, Azure, and GCP environments for misconfigurations, excessive permissions, insecure storage buckets, exposed APIs, and cloud-specific attack paths. Cloud penetration testing follows the shared responsibility model and complies with each cloud provider's acceptable-use policies. For Raleigh organizations that have migrated to hybrid cloud environments, we test both the cloud infrastructure and the integration points between cloud and on-premises systems where security gaps frequently exist. We evaluate IAM policies, network security groups, container orchestration configurations, serverless function permissions, and cross-account access patterns that create lateral-movement opportunities attackers exploit in multi-cloud environments.
How does AI enhance your penetration testing methodology?
AI augments our human testers in three key areas: reconnaissance automation that maps attack surfaces faster and more comprehensively than manual enumeration alone, pattern recognition that identifies anomalous configurations across large environments, and AI-powered correlation that connects findings from different testing phases to reveal compound vulnerability chains. AI does not replace human creativity and judgment — it amplifies them, enabling our testers to cover more ground and discover more sophisticated attack paths within the same engagement timeline.
Find Your Vulnerabilities Before Attackers Do
Every day you operate without a penetration test is a day you are trusting that attackers have not already found what your security tools missed. Schedule a pen test with Petronella Technology Group, Inc. to discover your real risk exposure and get actionable remediation guidance from Raleigh's trusted cybersecurity team.
BBB Accredited Since 2003 • Founded 2002 • 2,500+ Clients • Zero Breaches Among Clients Following Our Program