Following the CTEM process can help organizations continuously identify potential cybersecurity weaknesses and vulnerabilities.

Continuous threat exposure management, or CTEM for short, is a relatively new term in IT. It was coined by research and consulting firm Gartner in 2022 to describe a process that constantly tests an organization’s systems to identify potential weaknesses and vulnerabilities.

Unfortunately, there’s no industry today that is immune to potential cyberattacks. That’s why it’s recommended that all businesses undergo a cybersecurity audit to assess their current setup and figure out what changes need to be made.

CTEM is one of the best approaches to ensuring that all systems, assets and networks are prepared for any potential attack. Below, we dive deeper into what CTEM is and how you can integrate it into your organization’s IT plan.

What is Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM)?

Continuous threat exposure management can be best described as a stress test for an organization’s IT infrastructure. CTEM will expose the assets, systems and networks that an organization owns and uses to various simulated attacks on a continuous basis.

Doing this allows organizations to identify potential weaknesses in their systems, and what areas might be vulnerable to cyberattacks. In many ways, CTEM is a major part of strategic IT consulting today, as it is viewed as a preventative measure to ensure that potential vulnerabilities are addressed before a major problem occurs.

Despite the up-front cost of CTEM investment, the longer-term costs associated with a successful attack or penetration (both financial and to reputation) can cost an organization significantly more.

5 Stages of CTEM

There are five stages to CTEM, each of which helps organizations prioritize their risk mitigation and treatment strategies, which have become ultra-important because cyber threats are increasing in number and diversifying seemingly every day.

Together, the five stages of CTEM make up one CTEM cycle. How often you should complete one cycle depends on a number of factors, including your organization’s risk tolerance and needs, as well as its resources. That being said, you should schedule a CTEM cycle to be completed at least twice a year.

Having a CTEM plan in place allows the entire organization, and not just the IT network support team, to get a handle over what threats are possible, and what can and should be done to prevent them.

Let’s review the five stages of CTEM more completely:

1. Scoping

In this stage, organizations seek to identify and understand what assets are most important and what the potential impact of a cyberattack on these resources could have on the business. Every time you complete a new CTEM cycle, you should refine this insight.

2. Discovery

During discovery, you will identify all of your assets as well as evaluate all the associated risk profiles of each. This stage doesn’t just identify potential vulnerabilities, but also outlines potential gaps in security coverage, misconfigurations of various systems and more. You may even identify new cyber risks outside of your CTEM’s initial scope during the discovery stage.

3. Prioritization

The next stage is listing the potential threats in order of highest vulnerability to attack and the potential risk to the organization should that threat be realized. Creating this priority list will help clarify the landscape of potential threats facing the organization to formulate an action plan on which items to address and in which order.

4. Validation

During this stage, you will carry out controlled simulations of techniques that cyberattackers could take. Through this stage, you’ll be putting yourself in the mindset of the attackers so you can assess how successful they might be if they tried to breach your system. The validation stage gives you a well-rounded look at all possible threats.

5. Mobilization

Mobilization includes ensuring that all your teams operationalize all findings and plans to reduce any obstacles preventing approval, implementation and mitigation of deployments. To do so, you have to set clear communication standards as well as document all workflows across teams.

What are the benefits of CTEM?

In a world dependent upon technology and digital access, CTEM aims to outline any threats to uptime and security, each of which has dramatic implications to the ability to do business and maintain a reputation that drives future and ongoing business. In fact, because these benefits span across multiple business functions, an investment in CTEM should be seen as an organizational goal and not simply an IT department project.

A well-thought-out CTEM should help an organization realize some of the benefits listed below.

Stronger Security

CTEM ensures that you not only have a cybersecurity plan in place, but that the plan is customized to your business and the specific threats that it faces. In this way, your overall security can be much stronger than it would be with a generic plan not focused on your organization’s specific needs, resources and practices.

Reduce Costs of a Breach

If a breach does occur, it is often much less costly when you have a CTEM process in place. That’s because CTEM results in your organization being able to respond more quickly to threats and attacks, and the lesser the amount of time that a hacker has access to your system, the less damage they’re able to do.

Increased Adaptability

One of the main goals of CTEM is to create an IT environment that can adapt to different situations as they present themselves and evolve. By constantly going through the CTEM process, you’ll ensure that your cybersecurity approach is always up-to-date with current trends and threats.

Proactive Strategies

Risk mitigation is a major part of any organization. But, the key to mitigating risks is by taking a proactive approach. CTEM flips the switch on risk mitigation by enabling your organization to handle threats and vulnerabilities proactively and on a continuous basis before attacks cause damage.

Ensure Security Protocols Align with Business Goals

The CTEM process also allows your organization to ensure that all security protocols align with the overarching goals of the business. That’s because the iterative process of CTEM plan additions is something that’s always occurring on a cyclical basis — much like other major business processes such as budgeting and forecasting.

The Challenges of Implementing CTEM

Implementing CTEM is not as natural to the business planning practices for some companies as, say, forecasting and budgeting. That’s because it’s a relatively new concept, and one that’s very specific to IT processes and functions.

As such, there are some common challenges of implementing a CTEM process. By being aware of these, you can help your organization better navigate the process. Below are some of the main challenges.

Resource limitations

CTEM typically has a very wide scope, much more so than many traditional approaches to business operations. It’s very possible that your organization may not have the resources it needs in-house to handle such a process.

The Process May Feel Overwhelming

CTEM is a very involved process. As such, it can feel overwhelming at times, especially for employees who are unfamiliar with the process or are new to threat identification.

Lack of Collaboration with Non-Tech Teams

A successful CTEM involves more than just tech-based teams. It requires the input, participation, acceptance and compliance by teams that may not be familiar with tech at the depth of those outlining the plan. This is a common roadblock that many organizations face in successfully executing CTEM.

Not Sure Where to Start

As mentioned before, CTEM can seem overwhelming for many reasons, not the least of which is that it’s an in-depth process with many moving parts. This can sometimes cause people to hesitate to act since they don’t know where to start.

Does Your Business Need a CTEM Program?

The network infrastructure serves as the heart and soul of most organizations today, no matter what industry you’re in and how large your company is. And with cyberthreats increasing in breadth and depth seemingly every day, CTEM is becoming exponentially more important.

Not sure if your business needs a CTEM program? Simply ask yourself whether you know what cyberthreats could realistically affect your business, what you would do to stop them and/or mitigate damage, and what impact they might have on you and your customers.

If you struggle to thoroughly answer all of those questions, then it’s likely you could benefit from a CTEM program.

And while most organizations would benefit from a CTEM program, many would face challenges implementing it. This is where Techmate can help, by supplementing your in-house IT employees with experienced tech talent who can help you create and implement a CTEM program.

Want to learn more? Contact us today to schedule an intro call to learn more.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is continuous threat exposure management?

Continuous threat exposure management, or CTEM, is a five-stage process that continually monitors your main IT systems, assets and networks to help you create a proactive plan to mitigate cyberthreats.

What are the five stages of CTEM?

The five stages of CTEM are scoping, discovery, prioritization, validation and mobilization.

What is the primary goal of CTEM?

The primary goal of CTEM is to create a secure network that is constantly on top of emerging cyberthreats.

How Can CTEM benefit my business?

CTEM can help your business create a more secure environment, lower security costs and ensure your security protocols align with your business goals.

What are some strategies to implement CTEM in my organization?

If your organization is completely new to CTEM, you could realize immense benefits by partnering with Techmate to receive supplemental IT support services.