Despite the growing risk and the increasing importance of securing digital assets, many organisations unfortunately, still lack the necessary frameworks, governance, and tools to effectively assess, measure and manage cyber risks. Furthermore, most IT Operations and Security Operations teams are siloed. And although technical vulnerabilities within an organisation may be identified, it can be difficult to translate them into business risks. This creates a disconnect making it difficult to prioritise and address exposures with the highest potential impact to your business.
This underpins the need to adopt advanced methodologies like Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM). Our CTEM service bridges the gap between technical findings and business risk.
Vulnerability Scanning
Attack Surface Management
Identity-Centric Security
Patch Management
Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) is a proactive cyber security framework and program designed to help organisations continuously monitor, assess and mitigate evolving digital risks. Unlike traditional vulnerability management approaches that rely on periodic scans and static assessments, CTEM emphasises continuous threat exposure management, real-time validation, and business-context prioritisation to stay ahead of modern attackers.
The CTEM cycle is an iterative, adaptive process that aligns security efforts directly with business objectives, ensuring that remediation actions are focused where they matter most. As the threat landscape evolves – driven by cloud adoption, remote work, third-party dependencies, and increasingly sophisticated adversaries – the question “what is continuous threat exposure management?” becomes central to building resilient, adaptive security programmes.
1) Scoping
In the scoping step, organisations define which digital assets, systems and services are critical – linking them to business value drivers (for example, revenue-generating systems, regulated or sensitive data repositories, and customer-facing applications). This establishes the boundaries for what will be monitored and protected under the CTEM program, and helps avoid “signal noise” by concentrating efforts on material risks. Effective scoping means selecting a manageable subset of assets (both internal and external) that pose the greatest threat if compromised, and aligning that scope with strategic risk and compliance goals. This foundational alignment ensures that subsequent CTEM activities remain relevant, measurable and actionable.
Why this matters: Without accurate scoping, CTEM efforts can become unfocused, leading to wasted resources and remediation efforts on low-value assets. Scoping helps define what CTEM is for that organisation – by clarifying what the threat exposure boundaries actually are.
2) Discovery
During the discovery phase, the organisation continuously identifies exposures across the scoped assets – this includes not only classic vulnerabilities, but also misconfigurations, exposed credentials, insecure third-party integrations, and cloud-related weaknesses. Discovery is often automated using continuous threat exposure management tools like attack surface scanners, cloud posture assessment platforms, credential monitoring tools, and threat intelligence feeds – ensuring that new exposures are discovered as soon as they emerge. The goal is a live, always-updating inventory of risk, not just a snapshot from a scheduled vulnerability scan.
Why this matters: In an environment of dynamic IT change – cloud deployments, microservices, and evolving supply chains – legacy vulnerability scanning alone is not sufficient. The CTEM discovery process ensures that hidden and emergent exposures are surfaced, allowing organisations to act before attackers exploit them.
3) Prioritisation
Once exposures are uncovered, the prioritisation step ranks them according to both business impact and exploitability, rather than relying solely on metrics like CVSS scores. This means considering how likely an exposure is to be exploited, what the consequences would be for business processes, and whether existing controls could mitigate the threat. This phase uses threat intelligence, asset criticality, attack path modelling, and contextual risk data to drive more nuanced decision-making. The result is a ranked list of security gaps, focusing remediation efforts on exposures that pose the greatest risk to business objectives. In short, prioritisation helps answer the question of “which exposures should be fixed first?” in a CTEM framework.
Why this matters: Security teams often face a backlog of vulnerabilities… and not all are equally dangerous. By prioritising exposures based on real-world risk and business relevance, CTEM enables more effective allocation of remediation resources, helping reduce threat exposure in a way that maximises return on effort.
4) Validation
The validation phase takes prioritised exposures and proactively tests them via breach simulations, threat-informed penetration testing, red teaming or adversary emulation exercises; to confirm if they are indeed exploitable, and to assess whether existing security controls would stop or slow an actual attack. This helps security teams distinguish between theoretical risk and actionable risk, and uncovers whether remediation plans or control measures actually work under realistic attack scenarios. Validation also provides feedback that helps refine prioritisation and remediation planning, and gives confidence that mitigation efforts will be effective when needed.
Why this matters: Not all vulnerabilities are equal in practice. Some are difficult or expensive to exploit, or already mitigated by strong controls; others may be trivial for attackers to leverage. Without validation, organisations risk misallocating remediation efforts or underestimating true risk. Validation closes the loop, helping refine what continuous threat exposure management should actually respond to.
5) Mobilisation
In the mobilisation step, validated exposures are remediated through coordinated workflows, cross-team collaboration, and automated remediation where appropriate. Mobilisation involves assigning tasks, tracking remediation SLAs, applying patches, reconfiguring systems, rotating credentials, or otherwise closing risk gaps. The CTEM framework emphasises feedback loops and monitoring to ensure that remediation actions are effective and that no residual exposure remains. This can include automated verification and reporting, as well as integration with ticketing, patch management or incident response systems for workflow orchestration. Mobilisation completes the risk-management cycle by executing fixes (not just planning for them), and preparing for the next iteration of the CTEM loop.
Why this matters: Without effective mobilisation, validated exposures remain potential attack vectors. Automating and orchestrating remediation helps reduce the remediation window, ensures accountability, and drives sustained risk reduction. It also helps embed continuous threat exposure management into regular operational practices, rather than letting it remain a one-off assessment activity.
Our CTEM service involves consulting to understand the critical assets in your business, continuous monitoring, dynamic risk management, and resilient security strategies that surpass traditional vulnerability assessments. We bring together a range of best-in-breed technology partners and offer an integrated premier solution that is exclusive to Infotrust.
Infotrust can deliver the full CTEM methodology to our customers through our consulting, technical design and managed services teams, providing our customers with more than just advice but an outcome-based service with agreed SLAs.
By embedding CTEM into our customer’s ways of working, Infotrust can deliver:
Measurable risk reduction
Enhance customer trust
Specialised cyber security knowledge required to address complex threats
Actionable strategic advice and recommendations
Cyber risk reporting that your leadership can understand and rely on
An end-to-end service that covers all stages of the CTEM cycle
Why is CTEM the right solution?
CTEM is the right solution because it provides a proactive, business-aligned approach to cybersecurity. Instead of relying on occasional audits or static scans, continuous threat exposure management ensures exposures are continuously discovered, prioritised, validated, and remediated.
This cycle allows organisations to adapt to evolving threats while aligning remediation efforts with business objectives.
How is CTEM different from Red Team exercises?
Red Team exercises are point-in-time simulations designed to test defences against specific attack scenarios. While valuable, they are limited in scope and frequency. CTEM, by contrast, is a continuous framework that integrates automated discovery, prioritisation, and validation on an ongoing basis.
In other words, Red Teaming provides a snapshot that could be part of a broader CTEM program that delivers continuous, iterative visibility and risk reduction.
How does CTEM differ from traditional threat management or vulnerability management approaches?
Traditional vulnerability management often focuses on identifying and patching vulnerabilities using static scoring systems such as CVSS. CTEM goes beyond this by considering business impact, exploitability, and real-world attack paths.
Unlike conventional threat management, the CTEM framework integrates validation and mobilisation to ensure exposures are not just detected but effectively remediated in alignment with business priorities.
How is CTEM different from Penetration Testing?
Penetration testing is a targeted, manual assessment of systems at a single point in time – while useful for regulatory compliance and deep-dive testing, it does not provide continuous visibility. CTEM, on the other hand, is ongoing and supported by continuous threat exposure management tools that continuously map and validate exposures.
A pen test may highlight issues once a year and be part of a broader CTEM program. CTEM ensures your risk posture is monitored and managed every day.
How can I implement a continuous threat exposure management (CTEM) program?
Implementing CTEM starts with defining scope – identifying which assets are most critical to business objectives. Next, organisations should adopt CTEM tools that automate discovery, integrate threat intelligence, and support prioritisation.
Validation methods such as breach simulations and attack emulation should then be applied, followed by structured mobilisation workflows for remediation. Partnering with an experienced provider can help organisations design and operationalise a CTEM program effectively.
How can organisations measure the effectiveness of their CTEM strategy?
Success in CTEM can be measured through metrics such as:
These KPIs provide tangible evidence that the CTEM framework is reducing real risk over time.
How does CTEM deal with zero-day vulnerabilities?
Zero-day vulnerabilities are especially challenging, but CTEM provides a framework for handling them by ensuring rapid discovery of unusual exposures, validating potential exploitability, and prioritising temporary mitigations until patches are available.
By maintaining a continuous threat exposure management program, organisations can respond faster and integrate zero-day risks into ongoing remediation workflows.
How often should a CTEM cycle be repeated?
The CTEM cycle is designed to be continuous – discovery and validation are ongoing, with mobilisation triggered as soon as new exposures are identified.
While specific activities such as breach simulations may be scheduled monthly or quarterly, the continuous threat exposure management framework ensures that risk visibility and remediation never pause.
What is the difference between CTEM and SIEM?
A Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) system focuses on monitoring logs, detecting suspicious activity, and supporting incident response. CTEM, however, is not about monitoring live events; it’s about exposure management – discovering, validating, and closing weaknesses before attackers can exploit them.
SIEM tells you when an incident might be happening, while CTEM helps ensure those incidents never happen in the first place.
Solving complex cyber security challenges comes with some serious business benefits.
To win the cyber security battle and protect your business, you need to connect next-generation technologies with business policies to create a robust security ecosystem. It’s no mean feat, but with the right support, your business can thrive.
