What is exposed right now, and does it matter?
Continuous Threat Exposure Management
Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) is a year-round program, not a product, that continuously discovers, prioritizes, validates, and helps remediate exposure across your attack surface. It replaces the annual snapshot with a live, expert-run view of what is exploitable right now.
What you get
- Continuous discovery across your digital and physical attack surface
- Validated, prioritized exposure instead of raw scanner noise
- Quarterly trend reporting your leadership can act on
Overview
Point-in-time tests leave blind spots between engagements. CTEM is a continuous program that scopes your attack surface, discovers new exposure as it appears, prioritizes by real business risk, validates what is actually exploitable, and mobilizes your team to fix it. You get a live view of exposure and an expert who owns the cycle with you.
Scope
What is typically in scope. The final list is agreed with you before testing starts.
- External attack surface discovery and monitoring
- Recurring validation of new and changed exposure by our testers
- Quarterly focused penetration testing rotating through your estate
- Prioritization tied to your business-critical assets
- Remediation tracking with your teams
- Quarterly executive trend reporting
- Optional: internal and cloud discovery through a connector
Methodology
Phases run in this order. Each one produces evidence that feeds the next.
Scoping
We agree on the business processes, systems, and data an attacker would target and the attack surface that supports them.
Discovery
Assets, exposures, and identities are enumerated continuously, including the ones nobody remembers deploying.
Prioritization
Exposure is ranked by exploitability, business impact, and live threat intelligence rather than raw CVSS.
Validation
Our testers prove which exposures are actually exploitable in your environment before anyone is asked to fix them.
Mobilization
Validated risk becomes owned, tracked remediation, and the trend is reported to leadership every quarter.
Deliverables
- Live exposure view with validated findings
- Monthly summary of new exposure and closed items
- Quarterly focused penetration test reports
- Quarterly executive trend report
- Remediation tracking and retest on demand
- Annual attestation letter covering the program
Sample report excerpt
One finding, in the structure every finding follows. The content is illustrative.
New internet-facing test environment exposed between scheduled tests
- Severity
- High
- Status
- Open, retest pending
- Affected assets
- Listed in appendix A
Impact
A staging copy of the customer portal with production data and no authentication appeared 14 weeks after the last annual test. Under an annual model it would have stayed exposed for the rest of the year.
Evidence
Discovered by continuous monitoring within 48 hours of deployment, validated by a tester, and reported to the owning team the same day.
Remediation
Require authentication and IP restriction on non-production environments, add environment creation to the change process, and keep continuous discovery in place to catch the next one.
Verification
Retested after remediation. Result and date are recorded here and reflected in the attestation letter.
Timeline
Typical duration
Annual program with monthly cycles and quarterly deep dives
What affects it
Onboarding takes two to three weeks. From then on, discovery runs continuously and our testers validate new exposure as it appears.
Compliance drivers
Need this for an audit or renewal? This test provides accepted evidence for PCI DSS, SOC 2, ISO 27001, Cyber insurance, NYDFS.
See the full requirement mappingFrequently asked questions
Is CTEM a product or a service?
A service. We use tooling for discovery, but the prioritization, validation, and reporting are done by the same testers who run our penetration tests.
How is this different from an annual penetration test?
An annual test is a snapshot. CTEM is continuous: exposure that appears between tests is found and validated within days, and leadership sees the trend every quarter.
Does CTEM replace penetration testing?
It includes it. Quarterly focused tests rotate through your estate and satisfy the annual testing evidence auditors expect, while continuous discovery covers the gaps between them.
How long does onboarding take?
Typically two to three weeks to agree scope, connect discovery, and produce the first baseline.
What do we need to commit?
A named owner for remediation tracking and a short monthly review. We handle discovery, validation, and reporting.
Related
Often paired with
External penetration test
Can an outsider get in?
Your internet-facing perimeter, tested from the outside in.
Learn moreCloud penetration test
Is our cloud configured the way we think it is?
AWS, Azure, and GCP environments assessed for the mistakes attackers look for.
Learn moreRed team operation
Would we notice a determined attacker?
A goal-driven adversary simulation against people, process, and technology.
Learn moreReady to scope a CTEM program?
Tell us about your environment and timelines. You will talk to the people who run the engagement and hear back within one business day.