Penetration testing is the process in which a penetration tester generally a ethical hacker try to evaluate the security of a network or web server, pen tester use the techniques that usually used by the black hat hackers or crackers to break into the system, the main aim is to find the vulnerabilities and the ways that can be used by the black hat hackers to exploit the system and the network. 


In the process of penetration testing you can adopt both manual and automatic techniques to find the vulnerabilities but which technique is the best, effective, time consuming and reliable? these terms are based on some factor below is the quick discussion on both technique.
 

Automatic tools like Metasploit, Nessus and OpenVAS has changed the way of penetration testing, backtrack is the Linux distribution and it contain the necessary tools that can help in the process of penetration testing, the latest version of backtrack is backtrack 5 and we have discussed different tutorial click here to learn.


There are the numerous discussion has been made before like:

Penetration Testing: Tips For Successful Test

How To Write A Penetration Testing Report

Penetration Testing vs Vulnerability Assessment