ISO 27001 Penetration Testing
CodeShield delivers CREST-accredited ISO 27001 penetration testing that stands up to auditor scrutiny. Whether you are working towards your first certification, preparing for a surveillance audit, or renewing after three years, we give you the independent testing evidence ISO 27001 expects, in a report your auditor can actually use.
CREST-accredited penetration testing Services
Does ISO 27001 actually require a penetration test?
It is the first question almost everyone asks, and the honest answer has some nuance to it.
ISO 27001 does not name “penetration testing” as a mandatory, tick-box requirement. What it does require is that you identify and manage your technical vulnerabilities, test your security controls, and feed real evidence back into your risk assessment. In practice, penetration testing is the accepted way to do that, and it is what most auditors, enterprise customers and certification bodies expect to see.
Put simply: you can technically certify without a pen test, but very few organisations do, and even fewer keep their certification comfortably without one. If your auditor, your Statement of Applicability, or a customer’s due diligence expects independent testing, we make satisfying that requirement straightforward.
How penetration testing supports your ISO 27001 certification
An ISO 27001 penetration test is not a standalone exercise. It is evidence that feeds directly into your information security management system (ISMS). Here is how our testing maps to what the standard asks for:
Annex A control coverage. Penetration testing directly supports several technological controls, most notably A.8.8 (management of technical vulnerabilities) and A.8.29 (security testing in development and acceptance). Testing gives you demonstrable evidence that these controls are not just documented, but working.
Risk assessment and treatment (Clause 6.1). A pen test surfaces real, exploitable vulnerabilities rather than theoretical ones, so your risk assessment reflects the threats you actually face and your risk treatment plan targets the right things.
Statement of Applicability. Where you have marked testing-related controls as applicable, an independent penetration test is the evidence that backs that up.
Continual improvement (Clause 10). Regular testing, retesting and remediation demonstrate the ongoing improvement cycle auditors look for, not a one-off snapshot.
The result is a test that does double duty: it genuinely strengthens your security, and it produces the audit-ready evidence your certification depends on.
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Which penetration test do you need for ISO 27001?
ISO 27001 covers your whole ISMS, so the right test depends on what is inside your certification scope. Most organisations need one or two of the following, and we will help you scope the right combination on a short call. We regularly combine testing types, for example web application plus network testing, to cover a business’s full attack surface in a single engagement.
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ISO 27001 penetration testing for regulated and security-conscious sectors
Our clients come to us because certification is a condition of doing business, not a nice-to-have. We deliver ISO 27001 penetration testing across:
Software and data-driven businesses
- Financial Services and FinTech: testing that satisfies ISO 27001 alongside FCA and PCI DSS expectations, protecting payment flows and customer accounts.
- Legal Services: safeguarding confidential client and case data held within a certified ISMS.
- Healthcare and Health Tech: securing patient data and aligning ISO 27001 testing with NHS DSP Toolkit requirements.
- Insurance: testing the platforms that hold high-value personal and claims data.
- HR and Payroll Software: protecting some of the most sensitive personal data any system holds.
Infrastructure-heavy and multi-site organisations
- Retail, Manufacturing, Logistics and Distribution: assessing larger internal networks and connected sites within scope.
- Professional Services: protecting client data across distributed teams and remote access.
- Hospitality and Care Providers: securing multi-site networks, guest and resident data, and corporate Wi-Fi.
If you are pursuing ISO 27001, maintaining it through annual surveillance, or being asked to evidence it by an enterprise customer, our penetration testing is built for you.
Where penetration testing fits in the ISO 27001 lifecycle
Certification is not a single moment, and neither is testing. You should consider an ISO 27001 penetration test when:
Not sure which of these applies to you? A quick scoping conversation will tell you what you need, and just as importantly, what you don’t.
WHY CODESHIELD – 20+ YEARS EXPERIENCE
You work with the person doing the testing.
At CodeShield, our UK penetration testing team brings 20+ years of combined expertise delivering practical, results-driven security solutions tailored to your business.
You work directly with a fully-qualified pen tester. You meet them before you pay, so you know who you’re working with.
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What’s in your penetration testing report
The report is where a penetration test earns its value. A test is only as useful as the document that comes out of it, and ours are built to be read and acted on, not filed away. Every engagement ends with a clear, structured report that works for your technical team and your senior stakeholders alike.
See a sample report
Want to see the quality of our reporting before you commit? Download an anonymised sample penetration testing report and see exactly what you’ll receive: the structure, the depth of detail, and the clarity of our remediation advice.
Meet your ISO 27001 requirements with confidence
Many organisations first come to us because an auditor, a certification body, or an enterprise customer requires independent penetration testing as part of ISO 27001. We make that requirement straightforward to satisfy, and turn a tick-box exercise into genuine security improvement.
Our testing also supports the other frameworks you are likely juggling alongside ISO 27001:
- SOC 2: assurance for the security criteria your customers and auditors expect.
- PCI DSS: testing to meet cardholder data security obligations.
- Cyber Essentials Plus: hands-on assessment beyond the self-certified baseline.
- NHS DSP Toolkit: testing aligned to data security standards for health and care organisations.
- FCA and Financial Services requirements: supporting the security expectations placed on regulated firms.
You will receive a clear, audit-ready report that maps findings to what ISO 27001 actually asks for, with practical remediation advice to close the gaps, not just document them.
LIVE REPORTING
Stay informed throughout your penetration test with real-time access to findings through our secure client portal.
Stay informed throughout your ISO 27001 penetration test with real-time access to findings through our secure client portal.
As vulnerabilities are identified, they are immediately available for your team to review, giving you complete visibility as the assessment progresses. Any High or Critical findings are communicated straight away via your agreed contact channels, so urgent risks are never left waiting until the final report.
Our collaborative approach also allows for interactive re-testing during the engagement. As fixes are implemented, our consultants validate them in real time, helping you reduce outstanding vulnerabilities, and close findings, before your audit date. At the end of the engagement, your portal is updated with the final quality-assured report: a comprehensive, audit-ready record of the assessment, findings, remediation guidance and supporting evidence.
TRUSTED UK PENETRATION TESTERS
Contact CodeShield today to get your ISO 27001 pen test quote
At CodeShield, our UK penetration testing team brings 20+ years of combined expertise delivering practical, results-driven security tailored to your business.
Penetration testing FAQs
CREST accreditation is an internationally recognised standard that demonstrates a provider’s technical expertise, testing methodology, and quality processes have been independently assessed. For many compliance frameworks and enterprise customers, CREST accredited testing is either required or strongly preferred.
We start with a scoping conversation to understand your environment, objectives, and any constraints. Together we define exactly what’s being tested, the rules of engagement, and the timeline, ensuring the test aligns with your goals while minimising any risk of disruption.
Our testing is designed to minimise disruption. We agree all rules of engagement with you during scoping, and where any activity carries a risk to stability, we plan it carefully and keep you informed throughout.
External testing assesses your internet-facing perimeter, while internal testing simulates an attacker who is already inside your network. A complete strategy usually includes both, and we’ll help you decide the right combination for your risk profile during scoping.
Yes. Our support doesn’t end at the report. Once you’ve addressed the findings, we can retest to confirm the fixes are effective, giving you and your stakeholders verified assurance that the risks have been closed.
Cloud providers secure the underlying infrastructure, but securing how you configure and use their services is your responsibility. Our testing focuses squarely on that customer side, where the vast majority of cloud breaches actually occur.
