What is CTEM? A Guide to Continuous Threat Exposure Management

By James Rees, MD, Razorthorn Security

Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) is gaining increasing recognition as a crucial component for mature cybersecurity programmes. Both Gartner and Forrester have highlighted CTEM as “a strategic imperative,” underscoring its importance in addressing modern cyber risks. This recognition is well founded, as demonstrated by recent cyberattacks on major organisations including Marks & Spencer, Co-op, Harrods, the NHS and American healthcare institutions. These incidents show that even organisations with substantial security investments can benefit from CTEM’s proactive approach.

What is CTEM?

CTEM is a comprehensive security strategy that evolves beyond traditional vulnerability assessments and penetration testing. It combines continuous automated monitoring with human expertise to provide ongoing assessment of an organisation’s exposure to threats.

While vulnerability scanning offers automated detection and penetration testing provides human insights during scheduled assessments, CTEM integrates both approaches into a continuous process. This human-in-the-loop model ensures technical findings are validated and contextualised by security experts, reducing false positives and providing actionable intelligence.

Unlike traditional security assessments that occur once or twice a year, CTEM provides ongoing insights into vulnerabilities with expert analysis. This approach allows businesses to address potential security issues as they emerge, rather than waiting for scheduled reviews, and ensures findings are relevant to your specific business context.

Why is CTEM Important?

1. Proactive Defence: By continuously monitoring threats, organisations can identify vulnerabilities before they are exploited by attackers. This proactive stance helps in mitigating risks more effectively than periodic assessments.
2. Adaptability: The cybersecurity landscape is constantly changing, with new threats emerging daily. CTEM allows organisations to adapt quickly to these changes by providing real time data and insights.
3. Cost Efficiency: By identifying vulnerabilities early, organisations can prevent costly breaches and reduce the resources spent on damage control after an attack.
4. Improved Decision Making: Continuous data collection enables better informed decisions regarding security investments and risk management strategies.
5. Compliance: Many regulatory frameworks require ongoing risk assessments, making CTEM a valuable tool for maintaining compliance with industry standards. Specific frameworks that align with CTEM principles include:
   • ISO 27001: CTEM supports the continuous improvement requirements
   • NIST Cybersecurity Framework: Aligns with the Identify, Protect, Detect functions
   • UK NCSC Cyber Assessment Framework: Supports all four objectives
   • GDPR: Helps meet the ongoing security monitoring requirements
   • PCI DSS: Assists with continuous security monitoring obligations

CTEM helps transform compliance from a periodic checkbox exercise into an ongoing security improvement programme.

The Business Case for CTEM

The wider implications of adopting CTEM extend beyond IT departments:

• Reduced Alert Fatigue: The human element to CTEM significantly reduces false positives compared to purely automated solutions. This means security teams spend less time investigating non-issues and can focus on genuine threats, improving operational efficiency.
• Operational Continuity: By preventing disruptions caused by cyber incidents, businesses maintain smooth operations and avoid costly downtime. Research suggests the average cost of IT downtime can range from £4,000-£40,000 per hour, depending on business size.
• Competitive Advantage: Organisations with advanced security strategies like CTEM are better positioned in the market. Many tenders and RFPs now include detailed security requirements that CTEM helps address.
• Risk Reduction: CTEM provides measurable risk reduction through earlier identification of security issues, helping organisations prioritise fixes based on actual exposure rather than theoretical risk.

Industry-Specific Benefits

While CTEM offers universal security improvements, different sectors can realise unique benefits:

Financial Services: Banks and financial institutions can use it to maintain continuous compliance with regulations like PSD2 and improve customer trust by demonstrating proactive security measures.

Healthcare: Medical organisations can better protect sensitive patient data and critical systems, helping meet NHS Digital and GDPR requirements while reducing the risk of service disruption.

Retail: Retailers can safeguard customer payment information and maintain business continuity during peak trading periods when traditional security testing might be too disruptive.

Manufacturing: Organisations with operational technology can gain visibility into security gaps between IT and OT environments that traditional testing might miss.

Public Sector: Government and public service organisations can demonstrate responsible stewardship of taxpayer resources while meeting increased security expectations.

Strategic Integration with Security Operations

CTEM will likely become standard practice for forward thinking organisations seeking to protect their assets in complex digital environments. Beyond enhancing security, it provides C-suite executives with ongoing ROI information and insights into how quickly security and IT teams resolve vulnerabilities.

CTEM also offers clear evidence of how security investments deliver tangible benefits, making it easier to quantify security ROI. Key metrics can be improved include mean time to detect (MTTD), vulnerability remediation times and reduction in security incidents.

This becomes particularly valuable when integrated with Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) tools and Security Operations Centre (SOC) capabilities. Together, these components strengthen an organisation’s risk management, optimise resource allocation and provide comprehensive protection. The integration also enables more meaningful security reporting to boards and executives who need clear, data-driven insights rather than technical jargon.

The Reality of Security Effectiveness

Will this make security 100% effective? No. Security issues and events will still occur, as no solution offers perfect protection. However, CTEM will significantly improve your overall security posture by providing real time visibility of vulnerabilities, rather than relying on annual or bi-annual penetration tests.

When you combine CTEM with continuous penetration testing performed by human experts, you gain even greater protection. While this approach costs more, it provides vital context to your security programme. Despite vendor claims about AI capabilities, current technology simply cannot match a human expert’s ability to understand vulnerabilities in context.

Here are the key points to remember:

1. 100% Security is Unattainable: No security measure can be entirely foolproof. Security issues will still occur, which is why incident response remains a crucial component of every security strategy.
2. Enhanced Security Posture: CTEM significantly improves your organisation’s security by providing continuous visibility into vulnerabilities, unlike traditional annual or bi-annual penetration tests. It also adds valuable context to risk management reporting, essential for effective C-suite communication.
3. Value of Human Testers: While CTEM offers continuous monitoring, human penetration testers provide critical contextual understanding of vulnerabilities. Though more expensive, this approach delivers insights that automated systems cannot.
4. AI Limitations: Despite technological advances, AI still cannot match human experts in providing contextual understanding of vulnerabilities. Be wary of exaggerated vendor claims.

Implementation Approach

Implementing CTEM successfully requires a structured approach:

1. Assessment: Begin by evaluating your current security posture and identifying gaps that could be addressed.
2. Proof of Concept: Start with a limited-scope implementation focused on your most critical assets. This allows you to measure benefits before wider deployment.
3. Stakeholder Engagement: Secure buy-in from both technical teams and business leaders by demonstrating early wins and tangible security improvements.
4. Phased Rollout: Expand your CTEM programme gradually, incorporating feedback and adapting to your organisation’s specific needs. During this phase, human analysts calibrate the system to understand your unique environment, reducing false positives and ensuring findings are relevant to your business context.
5. Integration: Connect CTEM with existing security tools and processes, including vulnerability management, threat intelligence and incident response.

Organisations typically see initial benefits within 4-6 weeks of implementation, with more substantial improvements after 3-6 months as the programme matures.

Looking Ahead

Looking ahead, major security and compliance frameworks will likely require this type of proactive approach. We’re already seeing indications from regulators and standards bodies that continuous security monitoring is becoming an expectation rather than a recommendation.

Consider exploring CTEM solutions now while they remain relatively affordable. As adoption increases, prices will likely rise. We recommend starting with a proof of concept to evaluate effectiveness and potential cost savings compared to traditional vulnerability scanning and annual penetration tests.

When selecting a CTEM provider, look for:

• Experience with organisations of similar size and complexity
• Experience and expertise of the analysts who review findings
• Integration capabilities with your existing security tools
• Customisable reporting aligned with your business metrics
• Support for implementation and ongoing optimisation

If you’re interested in learning more, contact us at Razorthorn to discuss the Razor’s Edge CTEM solution.