Download Your Guide to Physical Penetration Testing
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Not all cyberattacks happen online. Our white paper, Your Guide to Physical Penetration Testing, highlights the real-world risks of physical intrusions and how testing your onsite defenses can uncover blind spots that digital tools miss.
Learn how you can use physical penetration testing to improve your physical security, which is still a critical gap in many cybersecurity strategies.
Understand how using real-world tactics like tailgating, lock-picking, and social engineering reveals whether your physical defenses can stop a determined intruder.
See how our three-phase approach delivers actionable insights, validates your physical controls, and enhances security awareness across your team.
Executive Overview
When we talk about cyber threats, we usually imagine someone hacking in from miles away. But a surprising number of breaches still happen on-site. An unlocked server room. An unattended laptop. A visitor who walks in unchallenged. That’s all it takes for someone, posing as a contractor or employee, to slip past your defenses.
Physical Threats Are Still on the Rise
While digital threats get the headlines, physical intrusions remain a serious and growing risk. Attackers know that direct access is often the fastest way to steal data. Whether it’s swiping a hard drive, plugging in a rogue device, or just snapping a photo of a confidential document, the damage can be huge.
One Weak Spot Can Take Down Everything
Physical penetration testing helps you spot the gaps most people overlook, until it’s too late. Because protecting your business isn’t just about strong passwords and firewalls. It’s also about locking the front door.
Test the Obvious Before It’s Too Late
Even the best firewall can’t help if someone grabs a laptop off a desk or pops a USB into a network port. If your building is easy to get into, your entire system is at risk. One missed ID check or propped-open door can undo all your security investments.
Physical security compromises account for 9% of data breaches and cost $4.07 million on average.
- IBM’s 2025 Data Breach Report
The Risk of Neglecting Physical Penetration Testing
Too often, physical security is treated as an afterthought in cybersecurity planning, yet it’s one of the most easily exploited weaknesses. Ignoring this layer creates blind spots that no firewall or endpoint protection can cover. Without testing how well your on-site defenses hold up, you leave your organization exposed to real-world attacks that bypass digital controls entirely.
Financial Fallout
Recovering from a data breach is costly, and physical breaches can fast-track attackers to your most valuable information.
Reputational Damage
Headlines about intruders waltzing into a supposedly secure facility can severely erode trust with customers and partners.
Personal Liability
If your organization is entrusted with sensitive data (from healthcare to financial information), you have a duty to protect it, both digitally and physically.
The Clear Benefits of Physical Penetration Testing
Incorporating physical penetration testing into your security program does more than identify unlocked doors or weak badge controls; it brings real, lasting improvements across your entire organization. By simulating real-world intrusions, this testing helps expose vulnerabilities you can’t see from a dashboard and drives meaningful change in how security is understood, implemented, and maintained.
Enhanced Security Awareness
Physical testing highlights how human behavior impacts security. When employees witness how easily someone can tailgate into a restricted area or bypass a check-in process, it reinforces the importance of following protocols. This heightened awareness often leads to stronger internal vigilance and a more security-conscious culture across departments.
Validation of Security Measures
Badge readers, surveillance cameras, visitor check-in procedures, these systems may look effective on paper, but physical testing shows whether they actually work in practice. By attempting to breach physical defenses, you validate whether these measures detect, delay, and deter unauthorized access as intended.
Vulnerability Mitigation
Perhaps most importantly, physical testing reveals exploitable weaknesses, whether it’s an unlocked server room, an unmonitored entrance, or poor response from onsite staff. Once identified, these gaps can be quickly addressed, closing off critical paths an attacker could take to compromise your environment.
Our Physical Penetration Testing Process
At TrollEye Security, our physical penetration testing methodology is built around realism, precision, and actionable outcomes. Every engagement is designed to simulate real-world attack scenarios as closely as possible, ensuring your defenses are tested against the tactics adversaries actually use. Our structured, three-phase process delivers a complete view of your physical security posture, from initial planning to execution to final analysis.
Planning the Engagement
Our physical testing engagements begin with a structured planning process where we define objectives, identify high-priority targets, and establish testing boundaries. After the RoE is determined, we gather intelligence on your facilities, personnel, and access controls to develop our attack plan.
Executing the Engagement
The execution phase involves a range of testing methodologies, from entry point analysis and physical security control assessments to social engineering and surveillance techniques. Our experts assess the integrity of locks, gates, and access control systems, attempting to bypass security measures.
Concluding the Engagement
Following the testing, we provide your team with a detailed report and debrief session outlining the vulnerabilities we discovered, ranked by severity. The report and session include actionable recommendations to help your team address these weaknesses. We don’t just identify issues; we provide a clear, prioritized plan to bolster your defenses, so your organization remains resilient against both physical and digital threats.
Planning the Physical Security Assessment
Effective physical penetration testing doesn’t start at your front door, it starts with thorough, strategic planning. Before any attempt to breach your defenses is made, we work closely with your team to establish clear boundaries, conduct reconnaissance, and prepare realistic tools and strategies.
Defining the Rules of Engagement
Before our team arrives on-site, we collaborate with your organization to define the Rules of Engagement (RoE). This phase outlines exactly what areas, techniques, and targets are in scope, and what limitations must be respected.
Surveillance and Strategy Development
With the engagement parameters established, our team begins discreet surveillance of the target environment. This includes observing access control practices, identifying potential weak points, monitoring employee behavior, and assessing physical security controls.
Assembling Resources for Realistic Simulation
The final step in the planning phase involves preparing the resources needed to execute the strategy. This can include creating forged work orders, manufacturing counterfeit ID badges, sourcing uniforms, or gathering other materials that enable us to appear legitimate.
Executing the Physical Security Assessment
With a detailed plan in place, the next phase of the engagement focuses on executing the assessment. Our team moves from strategy to action, using a variety of realistic attack methods to test the effectiveness of your physical security controls. Every tactic we employ, from tailgating and social engineering to testing network jacks and bypassing access controls, is designed to mirror the techniques an actual adversary might use.
Social Engineering
We attempt to gain access to your facility by posing as a legitimate visitor, ranging from customers to vendors and even employees.
Testing Physical Security Controls
We rigorously test the effectiveness of physical security controls, including locks, gates, security personnel, and alarm systems.
Tailgating
A common but effective breach method, tailgating, involves following an authorized individual into a secured area.
Locking Picking
Testing the physical integrity of locks on doors and safes, our experts apply various lock-picking techniques.
Shoulder Surfing
We may use shoulder surfing, where you attempt to view someone using their password, to gain login credentials and access sensitive data.
Infiltrating Offices and Meeting Rooms
After gaining entry, our testers aim to access sensitive areas such as offices and meeting rooms.
Testing Server Rooms
Gaining access to server rooms is a critical aspect of our testing, where we evaluate the security surrounding an organization’s digital heart.
Breaking RFID Tags Encryption
We assess the security of RFID tags, which are often used for inventory or security purposes.
Testing Network Jacks
Direct access to a company’s network through network jacks can provide a direct line to sensitive data.
Intercepting EM Waves
Recognizing the potential for data interception through electromagnetic waves, our team employs techniques to capture these transmissions.
Concluding the Physical Security Assessment
After the execution phase is complete, we transition to the most critical part of the engagement: analyzing the results and translating them into clear, actionable guidance. Our team conducts a detailed debriefing, walking you through what was tested, what barriers were bypassed, and where your defenses succeeded or fell short.
Debriefing Session
A detailed walkthrough of what was tested, which barriers were bypassed, and where your defenses were effective.
Comprehensive Final Report
Full documentation of the methods used, vulnerabilities discovered, and supporting evidence for each finding.
Targeted Recommendations
Clear next steps for mitigating risks, including improvements to training, access controls, physical infrastructure, and overall security policies.
General Bank of Canada Case Study
General Bank of Canada wanted assurance that its security investments could hold up against real-world threats, not just on paper, but at the door.
As part of a broader red teaming initiative, the bank engaged TrollEye Security to test how well its physical defenses and employee vigilance would stand against a determined adversary.
Situation
General Bank of Canada (GBC) had invested heavily in security but wanted to know if a determined adversary could still gain physical access to its facilities. As part of a broader red teaming initiative, GBC included physical penetration testing to evaluate how well its defenses could withstand real-world intrusion attempts.
Solution
We conducted a physical penetration test across three locations, disguising ourselves as customers and local vendors to simulate unauthorized access attempts. The assessment evaluated employee responses, access control effectiveness, and the consistency of security protocol enforcement.
Results
GBC successfully validated its physical security investments, as employees identified and responded to suspicious behavior across all tested sites. The test reinforced security awareness, informed leadership on the link between physical and network security, and revealed targeted areas for further procedural enhancement.
“The physical penetration test was a standout success. Our employees demonstrated outstanding security awareness, and our physical controls effectively prevented the Red Team from achieving their objective of infiltrating our offices and planting a rogue device on our networks. This validated our investment in physical security measures and security awareness training for employees.”
The TrollEye Security Advantage You Need
We deliver a blend of rigorous real-world testing, expert insight, and long-term partnership, ensuring organizations are fortified against both current and emerging threats, making us a standout choice in the physical penetration testing arena.
Deep, Specialized Expertise
We go beyond the standard checklist approach. Our team of seasoned experts specializes in sophisticated social engineering and other high-level tactics used by modern threat actors, ensuring a more realistic assessment than many competitor offerings.
Comprehensive, Real-World Methodologies
Rather than focusing on just one or two breach methods, we simulate the full spectrum of potential physical security threats. By mirroring today’s most relevant, high-impact attack scenarios, we equip organizations with a thorough understanding of where weaknesses lie.
Actionable Intelligence & Clear Reporting
Our service extends well past simply finding vulnerabilities. We translate complex findings into clear, comprehensible reports that offer practical recommendations. This empowers security teams and decision-makers to take decisive steps toward remediation, immediately strengthening an organization’s overall security posture.
Ongoing Partnership & Support
Recognizing that security isn’t a one-and-done task, we provide continuous assistance, including post-assessment consultations, further testing, and guidance on implementing new security measures. This commitment to collaboration ensures that, as new threats arise, our clients stay ahead of the curve.
A Holistic View of Modern Threats
In an era where cyber and physical threats often overlap, our integrated approach helps protect against a wide range of attack vectors. By treating physical security as part of a larger, multifaceted threat landscape, we offer a robust, future-focused strategy that distinguishes us from traditional pen testing providers.
Get Your Demo
Don’t wait to secure your organization until a threat actor walks through your front door. Reach out to schedule a thirty-minute discovery call today, and learn how we can help eradicate the physical weaknesses in your cybersecurity strategy.
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(833) 901-0971
