Penetration Testing in Columbus, GA

Penetration Testing for Columbus, GA Businesses | COMNEXIA

A firewall policy that looks correct on paper can still leave a Columbus business exposed if conditional access rules in Microsoft Entra ID are misconfigured, if legacy endpoints skip patch cycles, or if a Reynolds and Reynolds workstation at a Muscogee County dealership runs with overprivileged local accounts. Penetration testing finds those gaps before an attacker does. COMNEXIA, headquartered in Roswell, GA since 1991, delivers structured, scoped penetration tests for Columbus-area businesses that produce a ranked remediation list your IT team or ours can act on immediately.

What Penetration Testing Actually Tests

A penetration test is a controlled, authorized attempt to exploit real vulnerabilities in your environment. COMNEXIA scopes each engagement around your actual attack surface, which for a Columbus business typically includes external network perimeter (public-facing IP ranges, VPN concentrators, firewall rule sets), internal network segmentation, Active Directory and Microsoft Entra ID privilege configurations, endpoint posture on devices managed through NinjaOne RMM, and web applications. We do not run a scanner and hand you a PDF. A tester attempts lateral movement, privilege escalation, and credential harvesting using the same techniques documented in current MITRE ATT&CK frameworks.

Why Columbus Businesses Need a Test Right Now

Columbus hosts Fort Moore (formerly Fort Benning), Aflac, TSYS (a Global Payments company), and a significant auto retail corridor along Veterans Parkway. Organizations in the defense industrial base supply chain face CMMC Level 2 requirements, which include a scored CUI assessment where penetration testing validates the effectiveness of your controls before a C3PAO assessment. Auto dealerships processing customer financing through CDK Global, Dealertrack, or Reynolds and Reynolds are subject to the FTC Safeguards Rule (16 CFR Part 314), which since June 2023 explicitly requires a qualified penetration test of information systems at least annually, plus a vulnerability assessment every six months. Failing that requirement is not a theoretical risk: the FTC has brought enforcement actions, and a documented, dated pen test report is your primary evidence of compliance.

How COMNEXIA Conducts the Engagement

• Scoping call and rules of engagement: We define target IP ranges, test windows (off-peak hours for Columbus clients to minimize disruption), out-of-scope systems, and emergency stop procedures before a single packet is sent.
• External network test: We probe your public perimeter for open ports, unpatched services, weak TLS configurations, and authentication bypass paths on remote access systems including VPN and Remote Desktop Gateway endpoints.
• Internal network and Active Directory test: From a foothold on your LAN (simulating a compromised endpoint), we attempt Kerberoasting, pass-the-hash, and GPO abuse to reach domain admin. We review Microsoft Entra ID conditional access policies for gaps such as missing MFA enforcement on legacy authentication protocols.
• Endpoint and EDR validation: We verify that SentinelOne EDR or Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is deployed to 100 percent of in-scope machines, that tamper protection is on, and that no endpoints are in detect-only mode that should be in protect mode.
• Social engineering (optional add-on): Phishing simulation using the same platform as our ongoing security-awareness training, to measure click and credential-entry rates against your Columbus workforce.
• Findings report with CVSS scores: Every finding is assigned a CVSS v3.1 severity score, mapped to the corresponding MITRE ATT&CK technique, and paired with a specific remediation step (for example, "Disable NTLM v1 in GPO Security Settings > Local Policies > Security Options and enforce MFA on all Entra ID sign-ins via a conditional access policy targeting all users, all cloud apps").
• Remediation review call: We walk your team through the report, prioritize the critical and high findings, and confirm which items COMNEXIA's managed services will address versus what requires vendor action.

How Pen Testing Fits COMNEXIA's Managed Security Stack

For Columbus businesses already on COMNEXIA's managed IT program, the penetration test validates every layer of the security posture we maintain day to day: NinjaOne RMM patch compliance, Microsoft Entra ID conditional access rules, SentinelOne EDR coverage, 24/7 SOC monitoring thresholds, and immutable off-site backup integrity under a 3-2-1 architecture. If the test finds that a backup repository is reachable from a compromised endpoint, that is a configuration we correct in the backup platform before the report is closed. The test is not a one-time event. COMNEXIA recommends annual full-scope tests aligned with your FTC Safeguards, PCI DSS, or CMMC renewal cycles, with quarterly phishing simulations to track workforce awareness between tests.

Serving Columbus and the Atlanta Metro

COMNEXIA serves clients from Columbus and Muscogee County to the Atlanta metro from our Roswell, GA headquarters, where we have operated continuously since 1991. Our team works on-site in Columbus when scoping or remediation work requires physical access, and remotely through our 24/7 SOC for ongoing monitoring between engagements.

Schedule Your Columbus Penetration Test

If your dealership's annual FTC Safeguards pen test is overdue, if you are preparing for a CMMC assessment, or if you simply do not know whether an attacker could reach your domain controller from a compromised front-desk machine, contact COMNEXIA today. Call (877) 600-6550 to speak with a security engineer and get a scoped quote for your Columbus, GA environment. We will tell you exactly what the test covers, what it costs, and how long it takes before you commit.