Penetration Testing Sydney
Core Sentinel provides penetration testing in Sydney from our own offices in Governor Phillip Tower, 1 Farrer Place, in the heart of the CBD. Every engagement is performed by a senior tester holding OSCE and OSCP, backed by 20+ years of hands-on experience and 30+ professional certifications. We exploit manually — never automated scan-and-send — quote a fixed price from your scope before we start, and include a free retest once you've remediated. Call 1300 859 443 or request a fixed-price quote.
- OSCE / OSCP-certified testers
- Senior-only — no junior bench
- Free re-test & letter of attestation
Penetration testing services in Sydney
We deliver the full range of penetration testing services to Sydney businesses, from single-application tests to full internal compromise assessments:
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Web application penetration testing
OWASP-based, senior-led testing of your web apps and the APIs behind them, including the business-logic and access-control flaws scanners can't reason about.
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External infrastructure penetration testing
Your internet-facing perimeter tested the way a real attacker approaches it: OSINT, enumeration, and safe exploitation of every exposed service.
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Internal penetration testing
Assumed-breach and Active Directory testing that shows exactly how far an intruder or malicious insider could get inside your network.
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Mobile application penetration testing
iOS and Android apps and their backend APIs, tested at the code, platform and traffic level.
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Wireless penetration testing
Delivered on-site at your Sydney premises: corporate and guest Wi-Fi, rogue access points and segmentation between wireless and corporate networks.
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Cyber security professional services
Red teaming, social engineering, source-code review, security advisory and audit support from the same senior specialists who run our penetration tests.
Every engagement ends the same way: a prioritised, evidence-backed report, a free remediation retest to prove your fixes hold, and a letter of attestation you can share with clients, partners and auditors. We work Australia-wide — see penetration testing across Australia for the national picture.
Who we work with in Sydney
Sydney's CBD concentrates much of Australia's financial-services sector, and that shapes a lot of our local work. For banks, insurers, superannuation trustees and other APRA-regulated entities, we scope penetration tests as evidence that information-security controls actually work — the kind of systematic testing CPS 234 expects — and map every finding to the control it affects.
Sydney is also one of the country's biggest technology hubs. SaaS and software companies come to us when a SOC 2 audit or an enterprise customer's vendor-security questionnaire demands an independent penetration test — usually with a deadline attached. Because scoping is fast and pricing is fixed, you can put a firm number and date in front of your auditor or your customer quickly.
Beyond finance and tech, we test for healthcare providers handling sensitive patient records, and for schools, universities and EdTech providers — including engagements scoped against ST4S. Whatever the sector, the model is identical: a senior OSCE/OSCP-certified tester does the work, and you deal with that tester directly — not an account manager relaying messages to a junior bench.
A real Sydney office — not a fly-in service
Plenty of firms rank for “penetration testing Sydney” from interstate or offshore. Core Sentinel operates from Governor Phillip Tower at 1 Farrer Place — a few minutes' walk from Circular Quay, Wynyard and Martin Place. That means scoping workshops in person if you prefer them, a tester who can be at your premises without booking flights, and a debrief across the table where your engineers can ask the person who actually broke in exactly how they did it.
Local presence matters most when things get nuanced: agreeing safe testing windows for production systems, walking your team through an attack chain finding by finding, or presenting results to a board or risk committee. You can do all of that with us face to face.
On-site or remote — how testing is delivered
Most penetration testing is delivered remotely, and that's usually the right call — it mirrors how real attackers operate and keeps your fixed price focused on testing time rather than travel. Web application, external infrastructure and mobile engagements run entirely remotely, with agreed rules of engagement and escalation contacts.
Two situations genuinely benefit from proximity, and Sydney organisations get the best of both:
- Wireless testing is always on-site. Radio doesn't travel over a VPN — we test your Wi-Fi from your premises, anywhere across Greater Sydney, from the CBD to Parramatta, North Sydney and Macquarie Park.
- Internal testing is your choice. We can ship a pre-configured VPN implant device to your office or work from a jump host you provide — the standard approach for our clients Australia-wide — or, being local, simply test on-site inside your Sydney network.
Either way the testing itself is identical: manual, senior-led exploitation with evidence for every finding.
How a Sydney engagement runs
The process is deliberately simple, and it's the same whether you're a two-person startup in Surry Hills or a regulated institution on Martin Place:
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Scope and quote
You tell us what needs testing — applications, IP ranges, user roles, environments. We turn that into a fixed-price quote. No day rates that drift, no surprise variations halfway through.
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02
Rules of engagement
Before anything starts we agree targets, testing windows, credentials and escalation contacts — in writing, and in person if you'd like to sit down with us in the CBD.
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03
Manual testing
A senior OSCE/OSCP-certified tester attacks the scope by hand, chaining findings into real attack paths and safely proving impact. Automated tools support the work; they never replace it.
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Report, debrief and retest
You receive a prioritised, evidence-backed report with an executive summary for leadership and reproducible steps for engineers, followed by a debrief. Once you've remediated, we retest every finding at no extra cost and issue a letter of attestation.
Compliance-driven penetration testing: CPS 234, SOC 2 and more
Most Sydney organisations that call us have a framework behind the request. We scope and report against the one you answer to:
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APRA CPS 234
Regulated entities must test the effectiveness of their information-security controls; a scoped penetration test with control-mapped findings is direct evidence.
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SOC 2 and ISO 27001
Auditors expect regular independent technical testing; our report and letter of attestation slot straight into your evidence pack.
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PCI DSS
Requirement 11.4 mandates penetration testing at least annually (and after significant change) for in-scope entities.
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Essential Eight, IRAP, the SOCI Act and ST4S
We map findings to the controls and maturity levels your assessors care about.
For a framework-by-framework breakdown of what each standard actually requires, see our guide to penetration testing for Australian compliance.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a penetration test cost in Sydney?
Every engagement is fixed-price, quoted up front from your scope — the number of applications, IP ranges, users and the depth of testing required. You get a firm number before any testing starts, and the free remediation retest is included in it. Send us your scope and we'll return a fixed quote with no surprises.
Do you do on-site penetration testing in Sydney?
Yes. Wireless testing is always performed on-site at your premises, and internal testing can be run on-site anywhere across Greater Sydney — or remotely via a VPN implant device we ship to your office or a jump host you provide. Scoping sessions and debriefs can be held in person at your office or ours in the CBD.
Are you CREST certified?
Our testers hold OSCE and OSCP — the hands-on offensive-security certifications — backed by 20+ years of experience and 30+ professional certifications. Every test is senior-led and manual: the certification is held by the person actually testing your systems, not by a company badge.
How long does a penetration test take?
A typical application or infrastructure engagement runs a few days to two weeks of active testing, depending on scope, followed by a prioritised report, a debrief and a free retest of your fixes. We agree the start date and rules of engagement up front.
Is DAST the same as penetration testing?
No. DAST is automated dynamic scanning — useful in a CI pipeline, but it only finds what its signatures already know and can't chain findings or reason about business logic. A penetration test is a skilled human manually exploiting your systems, combining small weaknesses into real attack paths. Many of our clients run DAST continuously and use a penetration test to find what it misses.
How often should Sydney businesses run a penetration test?
At least annually, and after any significant change to your applications or infrastructure. Some frameworks make this explicit — PCI DSS 11.4 requires testing at least annually for in-scope entities, and APRA CPS 234 requires regulated entities to test the effectiveness of their security controls systematically.
Book penetration testing in Sydney
Let us hack you before they do. Tell us what you need tested and a senior OSCE/OSCP-certified tester — based right here in Sydney — will come back with a fixed-price quote.
Prefer to talk it through? Call 1300 859 443 or visit us at Governor Phillip Tower, 1 Farrer Place, Sydney NSW 2000.