Penetration Testing Services | Nashville | ClearMax

Penetration Testing for Nashville Small and Mid-Sized Businesses

Annual pen tests used to be a big-company thing. Cyber-insurance carriers and compliance frameworks changed that — SMBs now need real evidence that their defenses actually hold up. A vulnerability scan tells you what could be exploited. A penetration test shows you what will be exploited, how far an attacker gets, and what they walk away with. ClearMax delivers practical, report-ready penetration tests sized for Nashville businesses.

Our pen testers are OSCP and CEH certified with real-world experience in incident response. We don’t run an automated scanner and hand you a PDF — we manually test your environment the way a motivated attacker would, document every finding with proof-of-concept evidence, and give you a prioritized remediation plan your team can actually execute.

Testing Options

External Network Penetration Test

We attack your internet-facing services the way a real adversary would: open-source intelligence (OSINT) reconnaissance, service enumeration, vulnerability exploitation, credential stuffing, password spraying, and pivoting through any foothold we establish. This covers your public IP ranges, VPN endpoints, email gateways, web servers, DNS, and any cloud services exposed to the internet. Most SMBs have more external attack surface than they realize — misconfigured cloud storage, forgotten test servers, and legacy VPN appliances are common findings.

Internal Network Penetration Test

This test assumes an attacker is already inside your network — a phished employee laptop, a compromised guest on your WiFi, or a rogue contractor with physical access. We measure how far they can move laterally, what credentials they can escalate, and what sensitive data they can reach. Common findings include: unpatched domain controllers, weak Active Directory configurations, cleartext credentials in network shares, and flat networks with no segmentation between departments or guest WiFi.

Web Application Testing

We test your customer portals, internal applications, booking systems, and patient portals against the OWASP Top 10 and business-logic flaws that scanners miss. This includes SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), authentication bypass, insecure direct object references, and API security testing. If your application handles PII, payment data, or protected health information, application-level testing is essential for HIPAA, PCI, and SOC 2 compliance.

Phishing and Social Engineering

Technology is only half the equation — people are usually the weakest link. We design and execute targeted phishing campaigns that measure real-world user risk: click rates, credential submission rates, and reporting rates. Results are broken down by department so you can focus security awareness training where it matters most. We also test physical security controls: badge cloning, tailgating, and pretexting calls to your front desk or help desk.

Wireless Security Assessment

We assess your wireless infrastructure for rogue access points, weak encryption (WPA2-Personal in a business environment is a red flag), guest network isolation failures, and wireless client attacks. For hotels and hospitality clients, we also test whether guest WiFi users can reach internal networks, POS systems, or property management systems — a common PCI violation.

What You Get

Every engagement delivers three documents:

1. Executive summary — a 2-page overview your CEO, board, or insurance carrier will actually read. Risk rating, key findings, and business impact in plain English.
2. Technical report — detailed findings with proof-of-concept screenshots, CVSS scores, affected systems, and step-by-step remediation instructions your IT team can act on immediately.
3. Remediation checklist — a prioritized punch list sorted by risk severity. Check off each item as you fix it. Your auditor or insurance carrier will accept this as evidence of remediation.

We re-test all critical and high-severity findings at no extra charge once you’ve applied fixes — so you can prove to your auditor that the vulnerabilities are actually closed.

Who Needs a Pen Test?

• Cyber-insurance applicants — most carriers now require annual penetration testing as a policy condition. We format reports to satisfy carrier requirements.
• HIPAA-covered entities — dental practices, clinics, and healthcare providers need to demonstrate that ePHI is protected against unauthorized access. A pen test satisfies the HIPAA Security Rule’s technical safeguard evaluation requirement.
• PCI DSS merchants — hotels, restaurants, and retailers processing credit cards need quarterly vulnerability scans and annual pen tests under PCI Requirement 11.
• SOC 2 candidates — SaaS companies and managed service providers pursuing SOC 2 Type II need penetration testing as part of the Trust Services Criteria.
• Businesses after a breach — if you’ve been hit with ransomware or a data breach, a pen test identifies how the attacker got in and whether they left backdoors.

How It Works

1. Scoping call — we define the test boundaries, rules of engagement, target systems, and timeline. Typical scoping takes 30 minutes.
2. Testing window — external tests run 5-7 business days. Internal tests require 2-3 days on-site or via secure remote access. We coordinate timing to minimize business disruption.
3. Report delivery — you receive all three documents within 5 business days of test completion, with a walkthrough call to discuss findings and answer questions.
4. Remediation support — need help fixing what we found? Our managed IT team can implement remediation as part of your existing service plan or as a standalone project.
5. Re-test — once critical and high findings are fixed, we re-test at no additional cost and update the report with verification evidence.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does a penetration test cost?

Pricing depends on scope — the number of IP addresses, applications, and locations tested. Most Nashville SMB engagements range from $3,000 to $12,000. We provide fixed-price quotes after the scoping call — no hourly billing surprises.

Will the pen test disrupt my business?

External tests have zero impact on your operations — we test from outside your network. Internal tests are designed to be non-destructive. We coordinate timing with your team and stop immediately if any test causes an unexpected service impact.

How often should we do a pen test?

At minimum, annually. PCI DSS requires annual testing plus quarterly vulnerability scans. Cyber-insurance carriers typically require annual tests. We recommend testing after any major infrastructure change — new office, cloud migration, or M&A integration.

What’s the difference between a vulnerability scan and a penetration test?

A vulnerability scan is automated — it identifies known vulnerabilities but doesn’t exploit them. A penetration test is manual — a human tester actively exploits vulnerabilities to demonstrate real-world impact. Scanners find CVEs. Pen testers find business risk. You need both.

Related Services

• Cybersecurity services
• Network security
• Managed IT services
• HIPAA-compliant IT services
• Hotel and hospitality IT

Ready to test your defenses? Scope a pen test or call 833-306-3168.