Beyond the annual pen test: which modern approach to cyber security is right for your organisation?

Cyber threats don’t wait for quarterly scans or annual pen tests. Yet many UK organisations, especially in local government, education and small to medium enterprises (SMBs), still rely on these legacy models to evaluate their cyber defences. That might have sufficed a decade ago, but today’s threat landscape demands more. 

Vulnerability scans might highlight exposed areas, but they don’t show whether weaknesses could be chained into an actual attack. Nor do they prove your security controls would detect or block a live threat. 

This is where modern approaches like Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS), Continuous Security Control Validation, Penetration Testing as a Service (PtaaS) and Automated Penetration Testing (or Attack Path Validation) come into play. 

So, how do you decide what’s right for your organisation? Let’s break down each method and see who they’re best suited for. 

The case for continuous testing 

Traditional pen tests give you a snapshot in time – like checking your car’s brakes once a year and assuming they will work perfectly the other 364 days. But misconfigurations happen, patches fail, and threat actors change tactics. This makes it essential to spot issues sooner. 

Continuous testing offers real-time visibility. It helps catch and fix vulnerabilities in near real time before attackers can exploit them – and proves whether your security controls are actually working. 

Breach and attack simulation (BAS) 

BAS tools simulate known cyber attacks across endpoints, networks, cloud and email – to check if your defences detect, prevent, or log them properly. Think of it as a security alarm test that runs regularly. 

While it won’t uncover unknown vulnerabilities or emulate a human attacker’s creativity, BAS is great for validating existing tools and maintaining operational assurance. 

Best for: 

• Organisations with mature security tools 

• Ongoing control validation without deep manual testing 

• Teams focused on tuning detection and prevention 

Continuous security control validation 

This is more of a strategy than a product. It involves continuously testing whether security controls, firewalls, endpoint agents, SIEM rules and IAM policies are functioning as expected. 

It may include BAS, threat emulation scripts and repeatable micro assessments to build a near-real-time picture of your security posture, offering assurance that your tooling is effective. 

Best for: 

• Organisations undergoing rapid change (cloud migrations, staff turnover) 

• Risk teams wanting to move from periodic audits to living assurance 

• Environments with limited visibility 

Penetration testing as a service (PtaaS) 

PtaaS makes traditional human-led pen testing more agile and collaborative. Rather than waiting weeks for a scheduled test and report, you can launch tests through an online platform, collaborate with testers in real time, and track findings as they emerge. 

This is a good option for compliance-heavy sectors or teams that need to prove regular testing (e.g. public contracts, internal audits). 

Many UK providers offer CREST-certified testers through PtaaS platforms, helping meet formal assurance requirements. 

Best for: 

• Regulated or contractual test requirements 

• Complex systems needing creative human insight 

• Agile or DevSecOps teams integrating security testing into workflows 

Automated penetration testing (attack path validation) 

These tools simulate real-world attack paths — showing how a misconfigured account or exposed share could lead to privilege escalation or domain compromise. 

They go beyond surface-level scanning, often using attack graph logic to map how attackers could chain vulnerabilities to reach critical assets.  

You can evaluate daily, weekly, or after every infrastructure change. While the creativity of a human pen tester may still be required, automated pen testing offers scalable adversary emulation that fits well in internal networks and Active Directory heavy environments. 

Best for: 

• Internal network assessments 

• Continuous attack surface validation 

• Cost conscious organisations needing frequency over depth 

Making the right choice 

Here is a quick guide to help you choose: 

These options aren’t mutually exclusive. In fact, a layered approach often works best: 

• Use BAS or automated pen testing for regular feedback  

• Engage PtaaS for expert-led assurance  

• Adopt continuous validation to maintain ongoing security hygiene 

Final thoughts 

For many UK organisations, relying solely on an annual pen test just isn’t enough anymore. The threats are constant — your testing should be too. 

By aligning your testing approach with your organisation’s maturity, risk appetite and regulatory obligations, you can make smarter, more strategic investments in your cyber resilience.  

Whether you start with a simple BAS platform, adopt PtaaS for human expertise, or run automated testing to stay a step ahead, the key is frequency, visibility and taking meaningful action… Because in cyber security, assurance is not an event, it is a habit. 

Softcat can help 

Softcat’s Threat Exposure Management (TEM) service combines Security Control Validation and Attack Path Validation to help you stay ahead of attackers. 

Whether you’re looking to validate technical controls, reduce risk, or gain board-level assurance, we can tailor the right mix of testing approaches for your needs. 

Contact your Softcat Account Manager, Network and Security Specialist or email us at Cyberservicesteam@softcat.com.