Over the past five years authorities have taken an increasingly hard line on computer crime. The cost to businesses that suffer malicious attacks by disgruntled employees or skilled hackers in the UK alone runs to millions of pounds. Rarely is it possible for authorities to successfully prosecute due to lack of hard evidence or appropriate incident management procedures. Quite apart from the financial cost, "incidents" can lead to employees being wrongfully suspected, or can generate a prevailing feeling of mistrust within a whole department.

Pentest offers two services in the field of forensics. The most basic and difficult of these services is that which happens after an incident. The perpetrator may have attempted to cover their tracks and an independent specialist is brought in to establish how the incident occurred and who is responsible. Most company's security measures are such that the culprit does not have to work too hard to cover their own tracks. In the event of a malicious attack on a critical system, a complete re-build of the machine often implies a total loss of all electronic evidence. Pentest is able to offer a variety of forensic techniques to help to trace such an incident.

For the second service offering, Pentest is able to provide a review of existing security practices and procedures. Such visits often follow an incident that was impossible to trace, ensuring that in the event of a repeat occurrence, evidence will be available to guarantee a successful conviction or the appropriate disciplinary action.