Pentesting Service Delivery Models – Which is Right For You?

Since as early as the 1960s when specialized military “tiger teams” began testing computer networks to assess their level of resilience against attacks, organizations have relied on penetration testing to help them safeguard their digital assets from an increasingly sophisticated array of threats.

Penetration testing has proven to be a crucial component of a robust cybersecurity strategy over the decades, providing organizations with insights into the vulnerabilities in their assets and allowing them to patch them before malicious actors could exploit them. Although the overarching objective of penetration testing has stayed intact over the decades, the delivery models of the service have adapted and expanded to meet the demands of the ever-changing digital environments.

Choosing the right pentesting service delivery model is a strategic decision influenced by factors such as the organizational size, infrastructure, pace of its operations, frequency of testing required, and use case.

In this blog, we delve into three key delivery models: human-delivered or manual pentesting, hybrid pentesting or Penetration Testing as a Service (PTaaS), and Continuous Automated Pentesting.

Key Differences Between Pentesting Delivery Models

Pentesting service delivery models can broadly be categorized into three main types: human-delivered (manual pentesting), hybrid (manual and automated pentesting), and continuous automated pentesting.

1. Human-Delivered (Manual Pentesting)
   Human-delivered or manual pentesting is often considered the traditional approach, which employs skilled cybersecurity professionals, or ethical hackers with specific certifications (e.g. CREST, OSCP, OSCE, CEH, etc.) to manually assess an organization’s systems to exploit defined assets to identify vulnerabilities. Human penetration testers bring an attacker’s perspective into the equation, offering nuanced insights and identifying complex, known and unknown vulnerabilities that automated tools might overlook.
   Penetration testing is traditionally delivered as a project-based engagement, and typically the provider will deliver a scope of work (SOW) based on the customer’s requirements, conduct the penetration test, and compile the findings in a detailed report. Reports are typically delivered in PDF or CSV formats with minimal prioritization or remediation guidance. Today, these reports can be instantly available for download within the testing platform itself.
   While human testers can adapt their approach based on the unique characteristics of an organization’s infrastructure and emerging threats to identify complex vulnerabilities, manual penetration testing is highly resource intensive in comparison to the other delivery models, as it is inherently time-consuming, and limited in its scalability and agility. Large enterprises with expansive digital environments may find it cost-prohibitive to conduct assessments at the frequency they need, especially with large IT environments, expansive computing, and heavy workloads.
   Nonetheless, human-delivered pentesting can meet the penetration testing needs of organizations of all sizes if budgetary constraints and internal resource limitations are not prohibitive. For smaller organizations that may require one or two penetration tests per year to meet compliance requirements or adhere to internal policies, for example, a manual penetration test can suffice.
2. Hybrid Pentesting (PTaaS)
   Hybrid pentesting, commonly recognized as Pentesting as a Service (PTaaS), combines both human expertise and automated tools and typically provides both point-in-time and continuous testing for clients. The unique blend of human expertise and automated technology can accelerate speed and effectiveness, increase testing accuracy, and provide flexibility for organizations to test their systems at a frequency that serves their needs.
   PTaaS can be offered as a fully managed subscription-based SaaS or as a self-serve as-a Service (aaS) which is automated so that you can schedule a pentest on demand through the provider’s platform. PTaaS relies heavily on the integration of effective security solutions and features and functionalities that are shared collectively.
   Today’s most innovative PTaaS providers are driving the convergence of their security solutions delivered through a unified platform. When choosing a PTaaS provider, organizations must carefully evaluate both the automated technology embedded into their process and the skills, certifications, and governance of the people or human experts involved.
   Overall, PTaaS delivers actionable results to enterprises to more accurately prioritize and remediation exposures with both point-in-time and continuous security testing to improve their security posture.
3. Continuous Automated Pentesting (APT)
   Continuous APT involves the simulation of invasive and less-invasive real-world attacks to identify and exploit vulnerability in a system. APT is fully automated and aims to provide a comprehensive view of the security posture by proactively probing the system for exposed assets and vulnerabilities.
   Due to the scale and complexity of their IT environments, applications, and networks, large enterprises may need to monitor their systems continuously to detect and mitigate emerging threats in a timely manner, especially when deploying new systems, applications, or updates – which often happens rapidly. Simultaneously, they must adhere to numerous regulations and overcome any resource constraints presented. Automated continuous penetration testing enables large enterprises with heavy workloads and high-volume, high-frequency testing requirements to address emerging threats that pose a risk to their environment.
   It is important to note that automated penetration testing can be used to supplement manual pentesting efforts – it isn’t always leveraged as a stand-alone service.

Which Penetration Testing Model Is Right For Your Organization?

Each penetration testing delivery model has its place – here are some key considerations to consider when selecting a penetration testing solution that aligns best with your organization’s security objectives:

Rapid Pace of Change in Large Enterprise Environments

Project-based, human-delivered testing, while suitable for smaller organizations with fewer requirements, may fall short in addressing the rapid pace of changes in high-volume enterprise environments. In this case, automated pentesting may be considered.

Need for More Frequent Testing

Manual penetration testing, while thorough and effective in smaller scale applications, may not be suitable for large enterprises with large scale and complex environments. For large organizations where scale and speed are of the essence, continuous automated pentesting to schedule on-demand testing may be the best choice and can be augmented by manual pentesting, if needed.

Need for Continuous Visibility Through Automated Pentesting

Point-in-time or single penetration tests are typically conducted quarterly or yearly but often fail to keep pace with the speed at which new vulnerabilities are discovered and exploited. Automated Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) principles and practices can be applied to security and compliance processes to ensure security measures and compliance requirements are continuously monitored and addressed.

Need for Professional Experts or Ethical Hackers

The need for penetration testing experts is an important component of testing. There are two schools of thought that in-house experts are most efficient, while crowdsourcing – or using different and multiple individuals that are outsourced – may be the best choice. However, there are pros/cons to both.
In-house experts bring consistent testing methodologies that provide more consistent, repeatable, and accurate results. This allows enterprises to establish baselines and benchmarks to measure realistic improvements in the security posture over time.
Crowdsourcing is also popular allowing organizations to use multiple pentesters that are outsourced. However, crowdsourcing can be unpredictable, as different pentesters use different methodologies and the interpretation of results is subjective. Thus, baseline results and benchmarks are not always accurate, and change based on the pentesting expert. Nonetheless, this may be exactly what the organization wants to compare and validate results from previous testing.

Resource and Budgetary Constraints

The need for more frequent testing is evident due to the increasingly dynamic and changing attack surface. However, manual testing, despite its thoroughness, is resource intensive, making it cost-prohibitive for some organizations. The labor-intensive nature of manual testing also limits its scalability and agility. As organizations scale up their infrastructure, an automated pentesting solution may be more practical.

Need for Communication and Collaboration

Collaboration between security professionals and their security providers has never been so important. The ability to directly communicate with experts regarding testing findings is crucial.

Security providers who offer an integrated platform that enables DevOps integration with a built-in ticketing solution foster automated collaboration between security operations and development teams and eliminate silos to address findings collectively.
The need for security professionals to interact with pentesting experts who can advise an enterprise on the findings is also important. A built-in ticketing solution is valuable in these situations as well so that context and insights into vulnerabilities can be analyzed by both security professionals and provider experts. Evidence-backed Proof of Concepts (POCs) should be available within the platform to help determine the most effective mitigation strategy.
BreachLock’s Flexible Penetration Testing Delivery Models
Breachlock pentesting solutions align precisely with your business and security requirements, giving you the flexibility and versatility to choose the solution and methodology that works best for your enterprise. BreachLock delivers a more advanced and nuanced approach to PTaaS providing deeper and more enriched context and insights across your entire attack surface. Our pentesting solutions accelerate prioritization and remediation of your pentesting results and drive more effective outcomes.

Schedule a discovery call today to learn how BreachLock’s human-delivered, AI-powered, and automated pentesting solutions give you the versatility and flexibility you need to meet your business and security requirements.

About BreachLock

BreachLock is a global leader offering human-delivered, AI-powered, and automated solutions for Attack Surface Management (ASM), Penetration Testing as a Service (PTaaS) Automated Pentesting (APT), and Red Teaming as a Service (RTaaS). Collectively, these solutions go beyond providing an attacker’s view of common vulnerabilities and exposures to provide enterprises with evidence-based risk across their entire attack surface to determine how your organization will respond to an attack.
Know Your Risk. Accelerate risk prioritization and remediation accuracy across the entire security ecosystem with BreachLock.