so many "pentests" are:
* run scanner
* print out report
not a lot of deep diving
* run scanner
* print out report
not a lot of deep diving
Can you recommend companies that you've personally worked with who employ knowledgeable security engineers (hackers) to perform real penetration tests and conduct valuable security scans resulting in value-add reports your engineering team can work with?
Not looking for naming and shaming...but rather "Who doesn't suck at doing this?".
Trail of Bits is another big name because they hire and retain talent across a large number of enterprise, emerging tech, and research verticals.
Other established firms include Atredis Partners, IOActive, Security Innovation. There are more one could list.
Sometimes these companies work with partners who ask to publicly disclose some artifact resulting from the test. Here is a collection of those reports aggregated by firm: https://github.com/juliocesarfort/public-pentesting-reports (Edit: note this is not a great way to evaluate any particular company, but it does provide an objective listing of companies that exist in the pentesting space).
Each firm will also have variability in their personnel for your project which can yield different results for two independent tests on the same target from the same firm.
I could have done all of this myself and saved the company tens of thousands of dollars but I think management insisted it came from an outside company. It would be nice though to find an actual pen tester from the back alley of DEFCON who you have to pay in crypto or precious metals and have them do some actual hacking. :)