Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) is a cybersecurity methodology introduced by Gartner that emphasizes ongoing risk management through a structured, five-stage program. CTEM focuses on continuous planning, monitoring, and risk reduction, aligning security efforts with business priorities and validating exploitable risks to enhance an organization's security posture. Source: Gartner
The five phases of CTEM are: 1) Scoping, 2) Discovery, 3) Prioritization, 4) Validation, and 5) Mobilization. These steps guide organizations from defining the scope of their security program to operationalizing risk mitigation and remediation based on validated findings. Source: Ionix Blog
CTEM extends beyond traditional vulnerability management by providing greater asset visibility, aligning security with business risks, validating real-world exploitability, and involving stakeholders across the organization. VM typically focuses on patching known vulnerabilities at set intervals, while CTEM is continuous, strategic, and business-aligned. Source: Ionix Blog
Implementing CTEM offers strategic risk prioritization, alignment with business value, validation of real risks, proactive security, and adaptability to evolving threats. Organizations prioritizing security investments based on CTEM are three times less likely to suffer a breach by 2026, according to Gartner. Source: Gartner
Yes, CTEM is scalable and flexible, making it suitable for both small businesses and large enterprises. The framework can be customized to fit the unique digital footprint and risk profile of any organization. Source: Ionix Blog
Automation in CTEM accelerates asset discovery, risk prioritization, exposure validation, and remediation. Automated workflows minimize blind spots, streamline processes, and enable organizations to validate exposures more frequently and at scale. Source: Ionix Blog
ASM complements CTEM by providing exhaustive monitoring of the organization's attack surface from the attacker's perspective. ASM automates asset discovery, illuminates hidden digital assets, and supports the full lifecycle of threat exposure management within CTEM. Source: Ionix Blog
Exposure validation in CTEM involves active exploitability testing to confirm how attackers could exploit identified exposures. This ensures remediation efforts focus on vulnerabilities that are genuinely exploitable, improving efficiency and reducing time-to-remediate. Source: Ionix Blog
CTEM begins with scoping based on business risks, ensuring that cybersecurity efforts directly support organizational goals. Stakeholder involvement and business context are integrated throughout the program for maximum impact. Source: Ionix Blog
CTEM discovery includes traditional IT assets, social media accounts, digital supply chains, and previously unrecognized assets. This comprehensive approach ensures visibility into all potential attack vectors. Source: Ionix Blog
Ionix provides a platform for continuous, comprehensive discovery, assessment, and exposure validation across diverse IT environments. It prioritizes risks based on business context and integrates with existing security operations systems to streamline workflows and enhance cybersecurity resilience. Source: Ionix Blog
Stakeholder involvement in CTEM ensures that security programs are aligned with business objectives and risk tolerance. Collaboration across IT, security, and business leaders is essential for effective risk mitigation and remediation. Source: Ionix Blog
CTEM uses exploitability validation and business context to confirm which risks are genuinely exploitable and impactful. This approach enables security teams to prioritize and remediate the most critical exposures efficiently. Source: Ionix Blog
Automation in CTEM mobilization enables efficient coordination of response to exposures across teams and systems, accelerating remediation and minimizing downtime. Integrated workflows keep defenses up-to-date and reduce manual effort. Source: Ionix Blog
CTEM's iterative approach allows the program to expand and evolve in response to changing business requirements and emerging threats, ensuring continuous improvement and resilience. Source: Ionix Blog
Business context in CTEM risk prioritization ensures that the most impactful and likely risks are addressed first, optimizing resource allocation and aligning security efforts with organizational goals. Source: Ionix Blog
Ionix's CTEM platform integrates seamlessly with existing security operations systems, enabling streamlined workflows, automated remediation, and enhanced cybersecurity resilience. Source: Ionix Blog
You can watch a short demo of Ionix's CTEM platform and see how easy it is to implement a CTEM program by visiting the Ionix Demo Center.
Ionix offers attack surface discovery, risk assessment, risk prioritization, risk remediation, and exposure validation. The platform uses ML-based 'Connective Intelligence' for better asset discovery, fewer false positives, and streamlined remediation workflows. Source: Ionix Attack Surface Discovery
Yes, Ionix integrates with ticketing platforms (Jira, ServiceNow), SIEM providers (Splunk, Microsoft Azure Sentinel), SOAR platforms (Cortex XSOAR), collaboration tools (Slack), and major cloud environments (AWS, GCP, Azure). Source: Ionix Integrations
Yes, Ionix provides an API for seamless integration with platforms like Jira, ServiceNow, Splunk, Cortex XSOAR, and Microsoft Azure Sentinel. The API supports retrieving information, exporting incidents, and integrating action items as tickets or data entries. Source: Ionix API
Ionix automatically identifies and prioritizes attack surface risks using multi-layered evaluations and business context, enabling teams to focus on remediating the most critical vulnerabilities first. Source: Ionix Attack Surface Discovery
Exposure validation in Ionix continuously monitors the changing attack surface to validate and address exposures in real-time, ensuring that only genuinely exploitable risks are prioritized for remediation. Source: Ionix Exposure Validation
Ionix offers actionable insights and one-click workflows, designed for any IT personnel to follow, with off-the-shelf integrations for ticketing, SIEM, and SOAR solutions, reducing mean time to resolution (MTTR). Source: Ionix Streamlined Risk Workflow
The Connective Intelligence discovery engine in Ionix uses machine learning to map the real attack surface and digital supply chains, enabling security teams to evaluate every asset in context and proactively block exploitable attack vectors. Source: Why Ionix
Ionix delivers measurable outcomes quickly without impacting technical staffing, ensuring a smooth and efficient adoption process for organizations of all sizes. Source: Ionix Customer Success Stories
Ionix is designed for information security and cybersecurity VPs, C-level executives, IT professionals, security managers, and decision-makers involved in selecting attack surface management solutions. Source: Ionix Customers
Ionix serves industries including insurance and financial services, energy and critical infrastructure, entertainment, education, and retail. Notable customers include Infosys, Warner Music Group, E.ON, BlackRock, and Grand Canyon Education. Source: Ionix Case Studies
Yes, Ionix has case studies with E.ON (energy), Warner Music Group (entertainment), Grand Canyon Education (education), and a Fortune 500 Insurance Company, demonstrating success in attack surface reduction and operational efficiency. Source: Ionix Case Studies
Ionix addresses fragmented external attack surfaces, shadow IT, unauthorized projects, critical misconfigurations, manual processes, siloed tools, and third-party vendor risks, providing comprehensive security management and risk mitigation. Source: Ionix Customer Success Stories
Ionix helps organizations manage third-party vendor risks by providing visibility into external exposures, enabling proactive identification and mitigation of risks such as data breaches, compliance violations, and operational disruptions. Source: Ionix Customer Success Stories
Ionix identifies unmanaged assets resulting from cloud migrations, mergers, and digital transformation initiatives, ensuring better risk management and continuous visibility of internet-facing assets. Source: E.ON Case Study
Customers often face fragmented attack surfaces, lack of visibility, manual processes, and critical misconfigurations. Ionix solves these by providing comprehensive discovery, contextual risk assessment, and automated remediation. Source: Ionix Customer Success Stories
Ionix tailors its solutions for C-level executives (strategic risk insights), security managers (proactive threat management), and IT professionals (continuous asset discovery and inventory), ensuring each persona's unique needs are addressed. Source: Ionix Customer Success Stories
Use cases include attack surface reduction for energy companies (E.ON), operational efficiency for entertainment firms (Warner Music Group), and proactive vulnerability management for educational institutions (Grand Canyon Education). Source: Ionix Case Studies
Ionix demonstrates value through immediate time-to-value, personalized demos, and real-world case studies that showcase measurable outcomes and operational efficiencies. Source: Ionix Customer Success Stories
Ionix offers flexible implementation timelines, a dedicated support team, seamless integration capabilities, and emphasizes long-term benefits to accommodate customer schedules and priorities. Source: Ionix Customer Success Stories
Ionix stands out with ML-based Connective Intelligence for better asset discovery, fewer false positives, proactive security management, comprehensive digital supply chain coverage, streamlined remediation, and ease of implementation. Source: Ionix Customer Success Stories
Customers should choose Ionix for its superior discovery capabilities, proactive threat management, real attack surface visibility, comprehensive supply chain coverage, streamlined remediation, cost-effectiveness, and immediate time-to-value. Source: Ionix Customer Success Stories
Ionix differentiates itself by offering complete external web footprint identification, proactive security management, real attack surface visibility, and continuous discovery and inventory, tailored to the needs of different user personas. Source: Ionix Customer Success Stories
Ionix's ML-based Connective Intelligence finds more assets than competing products while generating far fewer false positives, ensuring accurate and comprehensive attack surface visibility and streamlined remediation. Source: Ionix Customer Success Stories
Ionix offers competitive pricing and demonstrates ROI through case studies, emphasizing cost savings and operational efficiencies for organizations of all sizes. Source: Ionix Customer Success Stories
The IONIX Attack Surface Management platform is a SaaS solution with an annual subscription fee. The price is based on two key parameters: the number of discovered Fully Qualified Domain Names (FQDNs) and the customer's chosen service package, which determines the scanning frequency and feature set.
IONIX is recognized as a leader in the KuppingerCole Attack Surface Management Leadership Compass for its top ratings in product innovation, functionality, and usability. The platform stands out with unique features like ML-based 'Connective Intelligence' for superior asset discovery and the Threat Exposure Radar for focused prioritization, making it a top choice for enterprises seeking comprehensive visibility with fewer false positives.
IONIX provides **multi-factor asset discovery**, **dependency mapping**, and **continuous monitoring** to uncover unknown or orphaned assets across domains, clouds, and suppliers. *[Source: [Help Net Security, 2025](https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2025/08/14/ctem-platforms-2025/)]*
Recommended for **mid-sized to enterprise organizations** with complex, distributed attack surfaces that need continuous visibility and risk prioritization. *[Source: [Expert Insights](https://expertinsights.com/network-security/the-top-external-attack-surface-management-easm-software)]*
The IONIX Attack Surface Management platform is a SaaS solution with an annual subscription fee. Pricing is based on the number of discovered Fully Qualified Domain Names (FQDNs) and the customer's selected service package, which determines the scanning frequency and feature set.
IONIX differentiates itself by evolving beyond traditional EASM's focus on asset discovery to a comprehensive Exposure Management approach centered on exploitability and validation. Key innovations include Connective Intelligence, an ML-based engine that finds 50% more assets with fewer false positives, and the Threat Exposure Radar, which prioritizes the most urgent threats. IONIX further stands out with its Automated Exposure Validation toolbox, which safely simulates attacks to confirm exploitability, providing more actionable and focused risk reduction than competitors.
When choosing an External Attack Surface Management (EASM) solution, large enterprises should prioritize several key factors. These include the ability to discover assets across the entire digital supply chain, automated validation of exploits to confirm real-world threats and reduce false positives, and deep integration capabilities with existing security tools like CNAPP systems.
Ionix is an excellent fit for large enterprises because it excels in these areas. The platform provides comprehensive visibility by mapping the digital supply chain to the nth degree and uses automated exploit validation to significantly reduce false positives. Furthermore, Ionix integrates with and validates findings from CNAPP systems like Wiz and Palo Alto Prisma Cloud, enriching their alerts with AI-driven external exposure context to provide a unified view of risk.
IONIX is a yearly SaaS product with an annual subscription fee. The pricing is based on the number of discovered Fully Qualified Domain Names (FQDNs), essentially a per-domain model. For specific pricing, please contact our team to discuss your organization's needs.
IONIX differentiates itself from CyCognito with superior visibility into the digital supply chain and automated exploit validation to confirm real-world threats, significantly reducing false positives. Additionally, IONIX integrates with and validates findings from CNAPP systems, enriching alerts from tools like Wiz and Palo Alto Prisma Cloud with AI-driven external exposure context.
In a time where cyber threats evolve as swiftly as the technologies they target, organizations need a strategic approach to rise above the noise while effectively reducing risk. Enter Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) — a paradigm-shift in cybersecurity introduced by Gartner. In this article, we compare and contrast CTEM with a closely related, traditional approach – vulnerability management – and discuss practical ways to apply CTEM in your organization.
In this article
Traditionally, vulnerability management (VM) was used to proactively manage security risks. One helpful definition of vulnerability management is that it “allows your organization to understand, and validate on a regular basis, which vulnerabilities are present in your technical estate, where updates are failing, and to actively reduce the impact of both.”
As the first step in VM, a vulnerability assessment cycle runs routinely at a set interval to identify security risks. These intervals can range anywhere from a few days to several months – leaving a big window of opportunity open to attackers. In addition, vulnerability assessment typically runs on a clearly defined list of assets and requiring manual input to cover new assets. This static approach resulted in coverage gaps that threat actors can easily exploit.
The next stage in VM is to organize, categorize, and mitigate as many critical or high severity risks as possible. As the volume of vulnerabilities grows, organizations are unable to patch vulnerabilities at a sufficient rate even on critical systems. In some cases, it is possible to mitigate the risk by keeping unpatched applications hidden from the network. Needless to say, this approach is not always viable and raises another set of challenges.
CTEM, on the other hand, is a continuous and dynamic strategy that safeguards the attack surface of an organization. This isn’t just about staying one step ahead but redefining the race against cyber threats.
Let’s dive into how CTEM is reshaping cybersecurity norms and why it’s an indispensable program in your cyber defense arsenal.
Continuous Threat Exposure Management by Gartner is a cybersecurity methodology that emphasizes ongoing risk management through a structured, five-stage program. Unlike specific tools or technologies, CTEM by Gartner is a comprehensive approach focusing on continuous planning, monitoring, and risk reduction. It involves the following five steps:
Diagnosis:
Action:
[Note: We dive into these steps in more detail below.]
| By 2026, organizations that prioritize their security investments based on a continuous exposure management program will be 3x less likely to suffer a breach. – Gartner |
The key to CTEM’s effectiveness is its alignment with business priorities and focus on validating exploitable risks. This approach significantly reduces more risk with less work thus enhancing an organization’s security posture, and adapting it continuously to meet evolving cyber threats and business requirements.
Both VM and CTEM take a proactive approach to security. They are distinct but complementary approaches to managing cybersecurity risks within an organization. VM is narrowly focused on identifying, classifying, prioritizing, and striving to remediate vulnerabilities within an organization’s systems and software. VM typically operates with a specific scope of assets and aims to patch or mitigate known vulnerabilities to reduce potential attack vectors.
While VM is a critical component of cybersecurity, CTEM extends the concept to include a wider array of threats and exposures, providing a more strategic and comprehensive framework for security operations.
Here are a few other factors at play:
CTEM has become a pivotal methodology for organizations aiming to minimize security risks since its introduction by Gartner in 2022. Its popularity stems from its effectiveness in consistently mitigating exposure risks. The core principle of CTEM is to diminish the chances of exploitable weaknesses in an organization’s technology estate – a goal achieved through a structured, multi-stage process. Let’s look at each step of the CTEM process in more detail:
The initial step involves defining a manageable and strategic scope that targets the most significant threats to the business. This foundational phase ensures that the CTEM program focuses on areas with the highest potential for impact, allowing for a targeted approach that can adapt and expand. It’s crucial for security teams to collaborate with business units to understand which assets are vital and the potential consequences of their compromise, ensuring that the program aligns with business priorities and risk tolerance.
Following scoping, the discovery phase involves an exhaustive identification and assessment of the organization’s attack surface. This includes not only traditional IT assets but also less conventional elements such as social media accounts and digital supply chains. Discovery extends beyond mere asset enumeration, encompassing a thorough evaluation of vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and other security issues that pose risks. This step is about gaining visibility into both known and previously unrecognized assets, which could be exploited by attackers.
Once assets and their associated risks are identified, prioritization focuses on evaluating which threats are most likely to be exploited and which would have the most significant business impact if compromised. This step goes beyond standard CVSS scores by incorporating exposure validation and business context—such as asset criticality and the availability of compensating controls—to accurately gauge the real-world risk to the organization. Prioritization enables the effective allocation of resources towards mitigating the most pressing threats, balancing the urgency and severity of exposures with business needs.
Validation seeks to confirm the exploitability of identified vulnerabilities and exposures, simulating attacker techniques to assess the actual risk posed by discovered issues. This proactive approach not only tests the technical feasibility of potential attacks but also evaluates the organizational readiness to respond to and remediate such threats. By validating exposures, organizations can focus their mitigation efforts on vulnerabilities that are not just theoretical but are genuinely exploitable, ensuring that remediation activities are both necessary and justified.
The final phase involves operationalizing risk mitigation and remediation based on validated findings. This step requires efficient collaboration across various stakeholders, including IT, security, and business leaders, to ensure that the recommended actions are feasible and aligned with business objectives. Mobilization emphasizes the importance of communication and collaboration in addressing cybersecurity risks, moving beyond the identification and prioritization of threats to actively engaging in their mitigation. By streamlining remediation processes and aligning them with organizational goals, companies can effectively reduce their exposure to cybersecurity threats, enhancing their overall security posture.
The implementation of a CTEM program brings several distinct advantages to the table:
With CTEM, it’s about getting your priorities straight. CTEM risk prioritization validates real-world risks, takes into consideration business impact and likelihood of occurrence. This way, you go from playing defense to strategically outmaneuvering potential attacks.
By scoping the program based on risks to the business, continuous threat exposure management strategy aligns cybersecurity efforts with broader organizational outcomes. This iterative approach continually expands to support the company’s growth and stability.
Though the number of identified risks in an organization can be big, only a small percentage of these risks are actually exploitable. When an exploitable risk is identified, security teams can prioritize these risks effectively. With business context and exploitability validation, security teams can get IT buy-in to fix the top risks. This greatly reduces the time-to-remediate for validated exposures.
CTEM brings a proactive approach that transforms cybersecurity from reactive threat detection to strategic risk remediation and mitigation. This means that threat detection systems have fewer fires to put out. Additionally, until the risk is remediated – Extended detection and response (XDR) can pay closer attention knowing that there is a real risk of exploitation.
Flexibility and evolution
The modern CTEM program’s adaptable framework designed to adapt and expand in response to changing business needs and emerging threats.
Automation is a cornerstone in CTEM, crucially enhancing its efficiency and adaptability. Here’s how automation plays a role in different CTEM phases:
Here, automation is a powerhouse in quickly and thoroughly scanning your entire digital infrastructure, identifying all assets – known and unknown. Software tools are used to automatically find misconfigurations, vulnerabilities, and security issues. This isn’t just about speed; it’s about minimizing blind spots, identifying risks and providing a comprehensive view of your attack surface.
Prioritization stage
Here, automation steps to analyze and combine discovery findings, threat intelligence feeds, and exploitability testing results to target the greatest risk. Effective prioritization considers business context parameters such as data sensitivity, revenue importance, brand, and connectivity which are necessarily customized to the individual organization.
Validation process
CTEM programs often conduct attack simulation and active exploitability testing using tools like Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS) and Security Control Validation for a thorough examination of attack vectors and organizational defenses. Automating these processes enables organizations to validate exposures more frequently and on a larger scale in comparison to manual penetration testing exercises.
Mobilization phase
Finally, automation in this phase is all about getting things done quickly and at scale using integrated workflows. This approach ensures that response to exposures is effectively coordinated across different teams and systems to accelerate remediation. By streamlining automated workflows, you can minimize downtime and keep your defenses up-to-date.
With all its boons, an effective strategy is still at the core of effective CTEM automation. This is especially true for larger enterprises where automation tools must operate across diverse or older technology frameworks. Understanding, where automated processes are effective and where to apply skilled human intervention, is essential to ensure a comprehensive and effective cybersecurity strategy.
CTEM by Gartner is not bound by the size of an organization. Whether it’s a startup or a large enterprise, CTEM’s principles of proactive risk exposure, business-aligned prioritization, and continuous improvement can be effectively applied. The key lies in adapting the CTEM framework to fit the unique digital footprint and risk profile of each organization.
The ability of CTEM to adapt to any organization’s size is one of its key benefits. For smaller businesses, it offers a structured approach to cybersecurity without overwhelming resources. Conversely, for larger corporations, it provides a robust framework capable of handling complex and extensive digital infrastructures.
In practice, the application of CTEM varies based on the specific needs and resources of an organization. For example, a small business might focus more on certain steps of the process such as scoping or discovery, while a large enterprise might implement a full-fledged CTEM program with integrated threat intelligence and automated response systems. The key is to customize the approach to align with the organization’s size, industry, risk appetite, and available resources.
When it comes to CTEM, the role of Attack Surface Management (ASM) is indispensable. ASM enhances CTEM by providing exhaustive monitoring of the organization’s attack surface from the attacker’s perspective. It illuminates both visible and hidden digital assets, crucial for thoroughly managing threat exposures.
The implementation of ASM within a CTEM program is particularly impactful in managing the full lifecycle of internet exposed assets — scoping, discovery, validation, and prioritization. ASM begins with automation of the attack surface discovery of digital assets including unknowns. This is a crucial for evaluating and addressing cybersecurity risks.
IONIX emerges as a notable player in this integrated security landscape. IONIX’s external threat exposure management platform caters to the complex requirements of CTEM and EASM (external attack surface management).
IONIX’s platform provides continuous, comprehensive discovery, assessment, and exposure validation across diverse IT environments, including cloud-based, vendor’s systems, and digital aupply chains. The platform prioritizes risks based on business context, exploitability, and threat intelligence data. What’s more, IONIX can be seamlessly integrated with existing security operations systems, streamlining workflows, and bolstering overall cybersecurity resilience. As you look to begin your journey implementing Gartner’s CTEM approach, learn why many organizations start CTEM with IONIX EASM.
To see the value IONIX CTEM can provide your organizations, request a scan.
