Re: Penetration testing via shrinkware

[Bennett Todd <bet () mordor net>]

Automated software scanners are useful tools for scanning many machines.

If all you're interested in is a single machine, you can look at it by hand
quicker than you can configure an automated scanner, and do a more thorough
job.

But if you want to check up on hundreds or thousands of hosts, an automated
scanner is a must. An automated scanner is therefore good for raising the
overall security of all the machines on a large network, up above some low
baseline threshhold. If you get the very best security scanner, that baseline
may even be slightly above the level hit by automated burglarly tools
currently in circulation --- though I wouldn't want to bet on it.

-Bennett