Four Ways Pentesting is Shifting to an “Always On” Approach

Citing CEO survey data and breach costs, NetSPI makes the case for PTaaS: continuous manual-plus-automated testing on a monthly or quarterly cadence instead of annual point-in-time penetration tests.

Drawing on Gartner's Innovation Insight on PTaaS, this piece argues continuous pentesting beats point-in-time engagements, with remediation cycles twice as fast for adopters by 2028.

NetSPI pitches continuous pentesting as the answer to ever-growing attack surfaces, pairing AI-driven discovery with human validation across external networks, cloud, and agentic MCP integrations.

Hackers strike every 39 seconds, so annual pentesting is not enough; four core elements of an always-on security program built around continuous testing and monitoring of a growing attack surface.

Do you know about ALL of the systems on your network? If so, you’re in the minority.

A pentest is a time-boxed, authorized attack where ethical hackers chain flaws to prove exploitable risk, not just run scans. It outlines deliverables, audit drivers, and when to test.