Investment and Trading Platform Penetration Testing
CREST-accredited penetration testing for brokerage apps, investment platforms and trading systems: order authorisation, portfolio privacy, price and order integrity, and the market-data and pricing feeds your platform depends on. We test whether one client can see or act on another client’s portfolio, and whether an order can be placed, amended or filled outside the checks meant to stop it. Fixed quote in 24 hours.
- Unlimited retesting
- Unlimited pre-retesting
- No hidden fees
“I would highly recommend EJN Labs to any organisation seeking reliable, detailed, and well-managed penetration testing services, particularly for government or enterprise-level projects.”
“There wasn’t another company we could find that could deliver what we needed in the timeframe we needed. The client loved it, and we got instant ROI from the engagement.”
concurrent requests are enough to test whether your order book, wallet or portfolio total can be raced into an over-filled or inconsistent state: the minimum setup we ask for before active testing starts.
Order Integrity and Portfolio Privacy Are What This Test Is For
What we test. Whether one client can view or act on another client’s portfolio, holdings or trade history, whether an order can be placed, amended or cancelled by a role that should not be able to, and whether price, quantity or order type can be tampered with once it leaves the client and before it reaches the book.
Race conditions and feed integrity. Concurrent order submissions that can push a matching engine, wallet or portfolio total into an inconsistent or over-filled state, and the trust boundary between your platform and the market-data or pricing feeds it consumes, including whether a stale or spoofed price tick can reach an order.
Operational resilience and DORA. The FCA does not prescribe penetration testing, but operational resilience rules call for in-scope firms to identify important business services, set impact tolerances and test severe but plausible disruption scenarios; penetration testing can identify exploitable weaknesses in the systems supporting those services and inform that scenario testing. Where DORA applies, Article 26 requires threat-led penetration testing at least every 3 years for financial entities identified by their competent authority, not annually and not for every firm.
Who we test for. Brokerages and investment platforms, wealth managers running an adviser-facing client portal, and pension providers running a member portal. See our fintech and financial services pages for the wider regulatory picture. For retail and challenger bank apps, see our online banking penetration testing page.
SCOPE
What We Test on an Investment or Trading Platform
Order Authorisation, Price & Book Integrity
Whether an order can be placed, amended or cancelled by a role that should not be able to, whether price, quantity or order type can be tampered with in transit, and whether concurrent order submissions can race your order book into an over-filled or negative-balance state.
Portfolio & Account Privacy
Whether one client can view or act on another client’s portfolio, holdings, statements or trade history through the app, the API or an exported report. Object and account IDs are swapped across every role we are given.
Market-Data & Pricing Feed Integrity
The trust boundary between your platform and the market-data or pricing feeds it consumes: whether a stale, delayed or spoofed price tick can be accepted, and whether feed authenticity and freshness are checked before an order or valuation depends on it.
API Keys for Algorithmic & Partner Access
API keys issued to algorithmic trading clients, execution partners and data vendors. Key scope, rate limits, revocation, and whether a key issued for market data can also place orders.
Investor Onboarding & KYC
Identity verification and AML screening during onboarding. Exposure of identity documents and evidence, whether a reviewer’s approval step can be bypassed, and the authenticity of callbacks from your AML or screening provider.
Wealth Client Portals: Adviser vs Customer Access
Wealth management client portals where advisers and customers share a platform. Whether an adviser’s delegated access is scoped to their own clients, and the integrity of statements, valuations and other documents a customer can view or download.
Pension Member Portals
Member identity and login, access to benefit and contribution data, and the approval path for a withdrawal or beneficiary change. Whether one member can view or amend another member’s record.
Regulatory Reporting Platforms
Submission integrity for transaction and regulatory reports, who can see a report before or after it is filed, entity and boundary separation for firms reporting through a shared platform, and the audit trail behind every submission.
OUR PROCESS
From Scope to Attestation in 4-6 Weeks
Scoping Call
30-minute call to map your order flow, portfolio structure, roles and which market-data feeds sit in scope. Fixed-price quote within 24 hours.
Test Environment
You provide a staging or paper-trading environment with test accounts covering each client and adviser role, and sandbox market-data feeds where relevant.
Active Testing
3-15 days of hands-on testing by CREST-certified pen testers, covering order authorisation, portfolio access and the feeds and APIs the platform depends on. Live findings in your client portal.
Report & Retest
CVSS-scored report with reproduction steps for every finding, walkthrough call, free retest and a letter of attestation.
CREDENTIALS
Verified Accreditations Auditors Accept
Every credential below is independently verifiable. UK procurement teams, FCA supervisors, ISO 27001 / SOC 2 auditors, and cyber insurance underwriters all recognise these standards.
GET YOUR QUOTE
Get a CREST investment and trading platform pen test quote in 24 hours
A fixed-price quote back in one business day, from a named CREST assessor. No sales pipeline, no chasing.
- CREST and IASME accredited. Testing your auditors and clients already recognise.
- Fast-track testing within 24 hours where required. Free retest of every fix included.
- Live findings via your client portal, not a four-week PDF.
- Fixed price from £3,500 for a single-role, single-app scope, agreed up front. Most engagements run £5,000 and up. No day-rate surprises.
Dan WilcocksonFounder, CelloriUnder NDA Further named references available on a scoping call.
- We reply within one business day with a fixed-price quote from a named CREST assessor.
- You approve the scope and we book a start date, usually within 24 hours.
- Live findings land in your client portal as we test, with a free retest of every fix.
Get your fixed pen test quote in 24 hours
Quote request received
We will reply within one business day with your fixed-price quote from a named CREST assessor.
Your data stays with us. No newsletter signup.
or book a 20-min scoping call first
We reply within one business day. Your data stays with us. No newsletter signup.
COMPLIANCE READY
Reports Aligned to Every Framework
Findings map to specific control references in each framework, so your audit team submits the report directly without translation work.
UK GDPR
Article 32(1)(d) evidence that you regularly test the effectiveness of your security measures.
ISO 27001
Annex A 8.8 technical vulnerability management, once you declare that control applicable.
Operational Resilience
Evidence for FCA and PRA work on important business services and severe-but-plausible scenario testing, where you are in scope.
DORA
Threat-led penetration testing (TLPT) at least every 3 years, for financial entities identified by their competent authority under Article 26.
Cyber Essentials Plus
Often asked for during institutional and partner due diligence. Certified directly by us as an IASME certification body.
Institutional Due Diligence
An independent report you can attach to institutional investor, partner and platform security questionnaires.
PRICING
Transparent Investment and Trading Platform Pen Testing Pricing
Pricing depends on order-flow complexity, the number of roles and market-data feeds in scope, and integration depth with custodians, exchanges or liquidity providers. The day count flexes; the included deliverables stay the same across all engagements.
Depends on app complexity
Single user role, basic CRUD application, marketing website with auth. Around 5 working days from kickoff to report.
Get a fixed quoteDepends on app complexity
Multi-role SaaS, business application with payment integration. Around 8 to 12 working days from kickoff to report.
Get a fixed quoteDepends on app complexity
Multi-tenant platform, complex authorisation matrix, integration-heavy applications. Around 15 to 20 working days from kickoff to report.
Get a fixed quoteWHY EJN LABS
What You Get From Investment and Trading Platform Penetration Testing
Six concrete differentiators competitors don’t all match.
CREST-Certified Testers, Verifiable
Every test by a CREST-certified pen tester (CRT, CCT APP, CCT INF where applicable). Verify our company status at crest-approved.org.
24-Hour Startup, Where Required
From signed scope to active testing in a single business day for incident response, audit deadlines, or regulator-driven timelines.
Live Findings, Not 4-Week PDFs
Critical issues reported during testing through your client portal. Your team remediates while testing continues.
Audit-Ready Reports
Executive summary plus full technical report with CVSS scores and explicit framework mappings (ISO 27001, SOC 2, PCI DSS, FCA SYSC).
Free Retests, Standard
Verify remediation of every finding before close-out. Letter of attestation for audit submission included. Most competitors charge £1,500-£3,000 per retest.
UK-Based CREST Testers
Every engagement performed by vetted, UK-based CREST-certified testers, matched to your needs, security clearance, and compliance scope.
FAQ
Frequently Asked
What is investment and trading platform penetration testing?
Testing of a brokerage, investment or trading platform to find out whether an order can be placed, amended or cancelled outside the checks meant to stop it, whether one client can view or act on another client’s portfolio, and whether the market-data feeds and APIs the platform depends on can be tampered with or spoofed.
Do you test how our platform funds accounts, such as deposits, withdrawals or open banking transfers?
Yes, up to a point. Deposits, withdrawals and open banking-funded transfers into a trading account cross into payment territory. We test the payment or payout path itself on our payment and payout platform page, and open banking consent, tokens and redirect integrity on our open banking API page. On this page we test how a deposit or withdrawal request is authorised once it reaches your trading platform.
Do you test our FIX or WebSocket market-data feed integrations?
Yes. We test how your platform authenticates the feed, whether a stale, delayed or spoofed tick can be accepted, and whether the feed’s authenticity is checked before an order, valuation or portfolio total depends on it. See our WebSocket and streaming API page.
Can you test a wealth management adviser portal that shares a login with customer access?
Yes. Where advisers and customers use the same platform, we test whether an adviser’s delegated access is scoped to their own clients only, and the integrity of the statements, valuations and other documents a customer can view or download. See our customer portal page for the wider portal scope.
Do you test pension member portals, including withdrawal and beneficiary changes?
Yes. We test member identity and login, access to benefit and contribution data, and the approval path for a withdrawal or beneficiary change, including whether one member can view or amend another member’s record.
Can you test our mobile trading app as well as the web platform?
Yes. Where your brokerage or trading platform has a companion mobile app, we test it alongside the API it talks to: device storage of session tokens and account data, deep links, and whether authorisation checks exist server-side as well as in the app. See our mobile application penetration testing page.
Does DORA require us to test our trading platform every year?
Only if you are a financial entity identified as in scope by your competent authority. Article 26 requires threat-led penetration testing at least every 3 years for those entities, not annually and not for every firm. The FCA does not separately prescribe penetration testing, though operational resilience rules call for testing severe but plausible disruption scenarios where you are in scope.
What’s in the report?
Executive summary (board-ready), technical report with CVSS 3.1 scores, reproduction steps, screenshots, specific remediation guidance, and a 60-minute walkthrough call. Letter of attestation issued after free retest.
Do you sign NDAs?
Yes. We sign client-supplied NDAs as standard. Engagement data is protected under our ISO 27001 (BSI-audited) information security management system.
How quickly can you start?
From signed scope to active testing in 24 hours where required. Standard pipeline is 3-5 business days from initial scoping call to test start.
Are your testers UK-based and what certifications do they hold?
Every engagement is performed by vetted UK-based CREST-certified testers matched to your engagement based on security clearance, compliance scope, and sector specialism. Testers hold CREST certifications relevant to their discipline (CRT, CCT APP, CCT INF, CCSAM).
20+ CREST-accredited testing services in one place
Web, mobile, API, cloud, AI, infrastructure, red team. Pick the test that fits your environment.
Get my investment or trading platform pen test scope
Tell us about your order flow, roles, market-data feeds and any wealth or pension portals in scope. A CREST-certified pen tester will contact you within one business day with a fixed price.
