What is CTEM and why your business needs it now

With the pace of change in the realm of cyber security constantly accelerating, waiting for the next security audit or penetration test is no longer enough. With cyber criminals exploiting exposures at pace, and the number of Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) rising year-on-year with a record breaking 40,009 in 2024, organisations must rethink how they manage risk. The days of relying on periodic scans and reactive patching are over.

This is where Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) comes into play. CTEM enables businesses to stay ahead of adversaries by identifying, prioritising, and remediating security exposures before they can be exploited.

If your organisation is looking to enhance its cyber resilience, reduce breach risk, and optimise security investment, then CTEM is no longer a nice-to-have it’s a must.

What is CTEM?

Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) adopts a continuous, iterative approach to managing cyber security exposures. Rather than chasing endless vulnerability lists or responding reactively to threats, CTEM allows businesses to act with precision by treating the exposures that truly matter, based on how real-world attackers operate.

CTEM goes beyond basic vulnerability management by incorporating an attacker’s perspective and focusing on exposure chaining - how cyber criminals combine weaknesses to move through your environment and reach critical assets. It helps organisations understand and break those attack paths, thereby lowering the likelihood of a successful breach.

The five stages of CTEM

The strength of CTEM lies in its methodology. The programme follows five interconnected stages, designed to provide full visibility and control over your organisation’s exposure landscape:

1. Scoping
   Define the scope of your attack surface—on-premises infrastructure, cloud platforms, identity and access permissions, and more. This step ensures all relevant systems and assets are included, adopting the viewpoint of a would-be attacker.
2. Discovery
   Identify security exposures, including vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, excessive permissions, and ineffective controls. This stage provides a far richer understanding of your environment than traditional scans.
3. Prioritisation
   Focus remediation efforts on exposures that create the highest risk. CTEM considers how different issues can be chained to reach critical assets, allowing teams to work smarter, not harder.
4. Validation
   Simulate how an attacker might exploit a given exposure and evaluate how your security controls would respond—with or without remediation in place. This provides vital context and impact analysis.
5. Mobilisation
   Convert insights into action. CTEM integrates with your ticketing and ITSM systems, ensuring remediation tasks are assigned, tracked, and completed effectively—keeping security and IT teams aligned.

Why CTEM matters now

Gartner predicts that by 2026, organisations that prioritise security investments based on a CTEM programme will be three times less likely to experience a breach. Why? Because CTEM makes it possible to cut through the noise and tackle the exposures that pose the greatest actual risk—not just those with the highest CVSS score.

Even risk-based vulnerability management (RBVM) can fall short in today’s dynamic environment. CTEM addresses the operational challenge of vulnerability overload and helps organisations focus on business-critical threats that adversaries are actively seeking to exploit.

Key benefits include:

• Risk reduction: Stop attackers from progressing along exposure chains.
• Enhanced resilience: Proactively reduce risk instead of reacting to incidents.
• Improved prioritisation: Tackle exposures based on real-world impact.
• Cost optimisation: Direct resources toward remediations with the highest return.
• Security-IT alignment: Create clarity and focus between teams.
• Continuous improvement: Adapt to new exposures and changing environments.

How Integrity360 delivers CTEM as a Service

At Integrity360, we offer CTEM as a Service powered by the XM Cyber platform. This isn’t just a technology deployment it’s a fully managed, strategic service designed to reduce your risk posture in an effective and measurable way.

We provide two tailored service tiers:

• Continuous Threat Exposure Prioritisation
  Ideal for organisations that want to identify and prioritise exposures with expert guidance. Includes platform setup, configuration, ongoing management, and prioritised remediation recommendations.
• Continuous Threat Exposure Management
  For organisations that require more hands-on support. In addition to prioritisation, this includes full remediation management, integration with tools like Jira or ServiceNow, and dedicated progress tracking with weekly KPI reports.

Struggling with resource limitations? Integrity360 also offers CyberConnect360, a resource augmentation solution that provides experienced remediation experts to support your internal teams—whether for backlog clearance or ongoing support.

Why your business needs CTEM today

Attackers aren’t waiting for your next penetration test. They’re probing continuously, looking for chained exposures and misconfigurations that give them an edge. CTEM puts your organisation in a position of strength—arming you with real-time visibility, data-driven prioritisation, and actionable remediation plans.

Whether you're a mid-sized enterprise with limited security resources or a large organisation juggling complex hybrid environments, CTEM provides the clarity and control needed to proactively manage cyber risk.

Ready to take control of your exposure risk?

Don’t let your organisation become another breach statistic. With Integrity360’s CTEM as a Service, you’ll gain the tools, insights, and expert support needed to stay ahead of threats—every day, not just during audits.

Speak to our CTEM experts today to arrange a consultation or demo.