Originally published February 20, 2019

What's Continuous Penetration Testing?

Continuous Penetration Testing (CPT) is ongoing monitoring, testing and remediation of vulnerabilities that can leave an organization’s network exposed to cyberattacks. CPT blends machine and human testing to ensure all aspects of a network security program are working as they should year-round. This differs from traditional penetration testing, which often is only performed annually.

This proactive approach is triggered by any changes in your network, ensuring that your security is always up to date. Testing cycles incorporate the latest hacking techniques and adjust the testing approach based on your company’s growth and security maturity.

What Continuous Penetration Testing is NOT

CPT is not a consulting firm dedicating X number of hours for Y intervals a year. Unlike traditional consulting engagements where a set number of hours are billed at specified intervals, CPT is an ongoing process that doesn't operate on fixed time frames.

CPT is not automated scanners generating rebranded vulnerability reports. While automated tools can scan for known vulnerabilities, they lack the human-driven insights required to identify evolving threats.

Why Continuous Penetration Testing is Essential Today

As cyber threats become increasingly sophisticated, traditional penetration testing methods can no longer provide the protection modern businesses need. CPT is essential for organizations today because:

  • Rapidly Evolving Threats: New attack methods and vulnerabilities are discovered regularly, so relying on outdated testing schedules is no longer viable.
  • Proactive Threat Detection: Continuous testing allows you to detect and address vulnerabilities before attackers can exploit them, reducing the risk of a breach.
  • Mature Security Posture: Continuous testing adapts to your organization's security maturity, transitioning from basic tests to more advanced red team engagements as your defenses evolve.

Key Differences in Continuous Penetration Testing

In order to maximize the effectiveness of CPT, several key actions are performed:

  • Automated Asset Discovery: Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) tools continuously scan to identify new attack surfaces or emerging threat models.
  • Real-time Change Detection: If your asset has changed, such as the introduction of a new plugin or an update, a pentester reviews the change to see if it warrants human-driven security testing.
  • Comprehensive Testing: Instead of testing assets individually, CPT focuses on testing groups of similar assets, such as all email servers or network devices at once. This approach reduces repetitive tasks and makes testing more affordable, while still allowing for a deep focus on custom, unique aspects of your environment.

12 Benefits of Continuous Penetration Testing

  1. Attack Simulation: Continuous testing simulates real-world attack scenarios, offering a comprehensive view of potential vulnerabilities.
  2. Staying Ahead of Threats: New attack techniques are emerging daily; CPT helps you stay ahead of the curve.
  3. Reduced Risk of Unexpected Breaches: CPT reduces the likelihood of vulnerabilities going unchecked, which are often discovered only after a breach has occurred.
  4. Meet Compliance Requirements: For industries like finance and healthcare CPT helps you stay compliant by testing frequently and continuously meeting audit requirements, such as PCI-DSS, HIPAA and more.
  5. Cost-Effective: By identifying vulnerabilities in real time, CPT reduces the costs associated with remediation tasks.
  6. Mitigates Shadow IT and DevOps Risks: Continuous testing accounts for changes driven by cloud adoption and DevOps practices, ensuring vulnerabilities are caught as they emerge.
  7. Enhances Internal Knowledge: Regular collaboration with penetration testers improves your team’s understanding of security risks and mitigation strategies.
  8. Promotes Better Communication: Continuous testing provides open communication between your IT team and security consultants, streamlining the remediation process.
  9. Unlimited Retesting: Once vulnerabilities are fixed, CPT allows for immediate retesting, ensuring that your security posture is continuously strengthened.
  10. Up-to-Date Reports: Your security test results remain dynamic and adaptable, ensuring they reflect the most current threat landscape and business priorities.
  11. Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) Model: Continuous testing creates the opportunity for a dynamic and forward-thinking security strategy that not only detects and addresses vulnerabilities but responds to emerging threats in real time, ensuring a more resilient security posture.
  12. Improved ROI: Continuous testing provides actionable metrics to demonstrate the return on investment, including insights into remediation times, cost savings, and improvements in security posture.

Micro Case Study

This is an example from one of our clients. The facts are real, but the names have been changed to protect the innocent.

“Acme Corp” had our CPT service for 7 months when we detected a set of credentials from a Twitter data dump that led to a breach of their network.

Action Taken by Sprocket Security Team:

1. Identified Compromised Credentials: We obtained a copy of the Twitter password dump and identified an employee’s credentials linked to their corporate email.

2. Tested the Credentials: The new password was tested across known single-factor authentication points.

3. Identified Password Reuse: We discovered that the employee reused their Twitter password for their corporate domain account.

4. Gained Internal Access: Using the compromised credentials, we successfully logged into the company VPN.

5. Alerted the Security Team: We immediately notified “Acme Corp” of the breach and added the finding to their portal for further remediation.

In this example “Acme Corp” already knew about some single factor authentication on the VPN and was working towards remediating it. However, the Sprocket Security team’s proactive discovery was able to identify a credential stuffing attack before it was used maliciously against “Acme Corp”. In this example, our CPT service provided detection and prevented a potentially larger breach from happening.

Why Move to Continuous Penetration Testing?

I've witnessed improvements from many organizations adopting this methodology of continuous testing. In today's fast-paced cybersecurity environment, relying on legacy penetration tests is no longer enough to protect your organization. Continuous Penetration Testing offers real-time, actionable insights into your security vulnerabilities, helping you stay ahead of emerging threats and reduce the risk of a costly breach.

If you're committed to improving your organization’s security, now is the time to make the switch to continuous testing. Don’t wait for the next scheduled test—take a proactive approach to cybersecurity.

Remember, it's not do you pentest, it's how you pentest.

Ready to Get Started? Contact Sprocket Security today to learn how Continuous Penetration Testing can help your organization stay secure.