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Reintroducing PTaaS: A Smarter, Continuous Approach to Security Testing

February 26, 2025

In today’s fast-moving digital landscape, security is no longer a static concern—it’s a continuous battle. Traditional penetration testing remains a crucial tool for identifying risk, but its one-time, point-in-time nature leaves gaps as businesses evolve, deploy new applications, and integrate third-party services. The reality is that new attack vectors emerge constantly, and security teams can’t afford to wait months or years between tests to uncover them. 

That’s why we’re reintroducing Penetration Testing as a Service (PTaaS)—a more agile, scalable, and continuous approach to security testing. At iON United, our PTaaS solution aligns with Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM), ensuring that vulnerabilities are continuously identified, prioritized, and addressed before they become exploitable. This shift from reactive, compliance-driven security testing to a proactive, intelligence-led practice enables organizations to stay ahead of evolving threats. 

 

Why PTaaS? A Proactive, Continuous Approach to Security 

Traditional penetration testing offers a valuable snapshot of an organization’s security posture at a single point in time. However, businesses don’t stand still—applications are updated, new technologies are deployed, and attack surfaces expand. This is where PTaaS provides a strategic advantage by offering: 

  • Continuous Security Validation – Instead of a single test per year, PTaaS enables ongoing security assessments with automated scanning and expert-led validation, providing real-time insights into risks and exposures as they emerge. 
  • Faster, More Cost-Effective Testing – Automation reduces the time and cost of repeated assessments while expert human oversight ensures that risks are properly identified and addressed. 
  • Alignment with Compliance and Enterprise Risk ManagementPractices – With regulatory frameworks evolving, PTaaS provides continuous testing and detailed reporting to support compliance with SOC2, HIPAA, DORA, CMMC, GDPR, PCI, and more. 
  • Actionable Threat Intelligence – By combining automation with expert-driven attack path analysis, we deliver insights that go beyond raw vulnerability data, helping organizations prioritize real-world risks. 

 

The iON PTaaS Advantage 

At iON United, our PTaaS service blends automation with hands-on expertise to create a scalable and effective security testing model. Automated scanning and testing provide rapid identification of risks to your business, reducing the manual workload for security teams. However, automation alone has its limits. Complex attack vectors, business logic flaws, and sophisticated exploits require the expertise of experienced security analysts. 

Our skilled penetration testers go beyond automated findings to conduct contextual analysis, simulate real-world attack scenarios, and prioritize threats based on business impact. This combination of automation and human expertise creates a continuous security validation loop, allowing organizations to detect and remediate exposures faster than ever before. 

Cyber threats are evolving, and so should your security strategy. With iON’s PTaaS, you gain a continuous, intelligence-driven approach to penetration testing—one that adapts as your business grows and as new threats emerge.

 

Flexible, Tiered Offerings for Businesses of All Sizes 

Security needs vary from business to business, which is why our PTaaS offering is designed with flexibility in mind. We provide tiered options that cater to organizations with different budgets and security requirements. From foundational security testing to comprehensive, expert-driven assessments, our PTaaS services include: 

  • Attack Path/Impact Analysis – Evaluating how an attacker could move through a network to reach critical assets, helping prioritize remediation efforts. 
  • Cloud PenTesting – Identifying exposures in major public cloud environments. 
  • Identity Attack Surface Assessment – Detecting potential compromises in user accounts, service accounts, and shared identity credentials. 
  • Hybrid Attack Surface Testing – Covering external, internal, and Kubernetes security assessments. 
  • Operational Testing – Uncovering gaps in existing security operations and procedures. 
  • Compliance Testing – Delivering continuous testing and reporting to maintain compliance with major cybersecurity regulations. 
  • Attack Surface Management – Proactively identifying and mitigating external-facing vulnerabilities before they can be exploited. 
  • Data Security Assessment – Mapping vulnerabilities to data assets to reduce potential exposure risks. 
  • OSINT Report on External PenTesting – Reporting on publicly available information that could be leveraged by attackers, such as leaked credentials or exposed secrets. 
  • Rapid Response Alerting – Providing proactive alerts on emerging threats outside of scheduled tests. 

 

Available in three service tiers to suit your needs:  

Tier 1 – Essential Security Report: All the above features, with reports delivered monthly. 

Tier 2 – Advanced Security Assessment: All the above features from the Essentials tier with analyst insights from our Pentest team. 

Tier 3 – Comprehensive Security Assurance: All the above features from the Advanced tier with analyst insights, and an annual manual penetration test. 

 

iON PTaaS Tier Matrix

 

Future-Proof Your Security with PTaaS

 

Cyber threats are evolving, and so should your security strategy. With iON’s PTaaS, you gain a continuous, intelligence-driven approach to penetration testing—one that adapts as your business grows and as new threats emerge. 

Let’s move beyond outdated, one-time security assessments and embrace a future where security is continuous, proactive, and aligned with the ever-changing threat landscape. Contact us today to learn how PTaaS can help protect your organization from the threats of tomorrow. 

Stephen Mathezer

From the desk of Stephen Mathezer, VP of Service Delivery & Innovation

Stephen is a seasoned security expert with over 20 years of experience in operating system and network security. He specializes in architecting, implementing, and managing security solutions, prioritizing the optimization of existing tools before adopting new technologies.

With a background in both operational and architectural security, he has secured industrial control networks in the oil and gas sector and conducted extensive security assessments and penetration tests. His expertise helps organizations enhance visibility, detect threats, and reduce risk.

Stephen holds multiple cybersecurity certifications and is a SANS Certified Instructor.