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Unlock the State of Pentesting 2023! Explore 3,100 pentests with expert insights on vulnerabilities, security challenges, & maximizing pentest value.

Save Money
& Time While
Improving Security

Legacy penetration testing doesn’t integrate into a modern secure development cycle.
Pentest as a Service (PtaaS) solves this problem and more.

The PtaaS Book

PtaaS or Pentest as a Service offers developers and security professionals relief from the traditionally long process tangled with PDF files, closed-loop systems and results that don’t integrate into other tools.

Regardless of why you need pentesting — for compliance, customer’s requests, or simply to operate more securely — PtaaS platforms offer a modern and cost-savings avenue for businesses to pursue.
Download the Ptaas Book for the Ultimate Guide on Questions Such As:
  • What is Pentest as a Service? (What isn’t Pentest as a Service?)
  • What sets PtaaS apart from old-school, traditional models?
  • How does PtaaS improve your security posture?
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Key Takeaways from the PtaaS Book

Accelerate pentesting efficiency with automation, freeing up resources for enhanced security coverage.
Foster collaboration between security teams, developers, and pentesters through seamless integration, driving focused and effective vulnerability management.
Harness the power of a cloud platform for long-term analytics, optimizing pentest data utilization and simplifying setup for future tests that allow for new testers without burdensome procurement processes.
Embrace manual pentesting with agile tests to support your SDLC without hindering critical releases, while streamlining security test workflows and leveraging native integrations with tools like Jira and GitHub.

What Is PtaaS?

Pentest as a Service Defined

Pentest as a Service (PtaaS) combines manual, human testing with a modern delivery platform to deploy ongoing pentest programs with integrations, ease of reporting, and not wasting time on procurement for each pentest. To truly understand the benefits of a PtaaS platform, you have to experience it for yourself and see the innovative delivery model in action.

Continuous Pentesting: PtaaS Platform Benefits

PtaaS platform benefits range widely but boil down to clear savings on both time and money. Customers leveraging this intuitive SaaS platform benefit from real-time integrations, results, and more dynamic reports than static PDF files sent through email.

Furthermore, SaaS pricing options coupled with the ingenuity of human testing help bring more value to customers than traditional penetration testing solutions. With a PtaaS model, customers will find their testing efforts easier to scale, all while being more efficient. Finally, the pentesting data generated over time helps security leaders find ways to optimize their security programs in ways that could otherwise be easily overlooked.

For a discussion of
coverage checklists and
how they can be used:

Cloud Testing
PtaaS-platform-get-started

PtaaS eliminates the inefficiencies of traditional penetration testing, leveraging a digital platform for efficient and flexible testing with the ability to conduct multiple tests at one time while avoiding lengthy procurement processes to bring on new pentesters.

Read more with The PtaaS Book
Real-Time Integration & Results
PtaaS-platform-vulnerability-findings-overview

Seamlessly integrate with Jira, GitHub, or use the Cobalt API to relay the manual pentest findings to your development teams. Benefit from detailed insights and tailored fixes to remediate risks intelligently and strengthen security.

Read more about Real-Time Integrations & Results
SaaS Pricing, Through Testing
PtaaS-platform-coverage-checklist

Avoid compromising between competitive pricing and human expertise. Circumvent the limitations of traditional pentesting and automated scanning solutions, ensuring thorough detection of complex exploits and business logic flaws with Cobalt's PtaaS platform and manual penetration testing services. 

Learn about PtaaS pricing
Scalable & Efficient
PtaaS-platform-vulnerability-findings

Launch new pentests rapidly with PtaaS and access to a pool of expert pentesters and the ability to start tests within 24 hours. Reuse stored asset data for subsequent tests and scale your security efforts effortlessly with our SaaS approach, catering to all testing requirements.

Explore Solutions
Pentest Data & Report Delivery
PtaaS-platform-vulnerability-risk-findings

PtaaS brings data front and center, alongside advanced reporting options that executive teams are sure to love. Businesses can actively monitor their tests’ results over longer periods of time to identify trends, root causes, and opportunities for improvement.  Better align with your SDLC by purchasing pentesting credits in advanced and ensure you're able to quickly launch a test as needed.

Read more with the SANS industry report
Cloud Testing

PtaaS eliminates the inefficiencies of traditional penetration testing, leveraging a digital platform for efficient and flexible testing with the ability to conduct multiple tests at one time while avoiding lengthy procurement processes to bring on new pentesters.

Read more with The PtaaS Book
PtaaS-platform-get-started
Real-Time Integration & Results

Seamlessly integrate with Jira, GitHub, or use the Cobalt API to relay the manual pentest findings to your development teams. Benefit from detailed insights and tailored fixes to remediate risks intelligently and strengthen security.

Read more about Real-Time Integrations & Results
PtaaS-platform-vulnerability-findings-overview
SaaS Pricing, Through Testing

Avoid compromising between competitive pricing and human expertise. Circumvent the limitations of traditional pentesting and automated scanning solutions, ensuring thorough detection of complex exploits and business logic flaws with Cobalt's PtaaS platform and manual penetration testing services. 

Learn about PtaaS pricing
PtaaS-platform-coverage-checklist
Scalable & Efficient

Launch new pentests rapidly with PtaaS and access to a pool of expert pentesters and the ability to start tests within 24 hours. Reuse stored asset data for subsequent tests and scale your security efforts effortlessly with our SaaS approach, catering to all testing requirements.

Explore Solutions
PtaaS-platform-vulnerability-findings
Pentest Data & Report Delivery

PtaaS brings data front and center, alongside advanced reporting options that executive teams are sure to love. Businesses can actively monitor their tests’ results over longer periods of time to identify trends, root causes, and opportunities for improvement.  Better align with your SDLC by purchasing pentesting credits in advanced and ensure you're able to quickly launch a test as needed.

Read more with the SANS industry report
PtaaS-platform-vulnerability-risk-findings

Pentest as a Service Lifecycle

Ptaas Benefits for Each Step of the Process

Whether you’re looking to pentest to meet compliance needs, improve customer trust, or strengthen the security posture of your applications and software, Cobalt’s modern PtaaS solution can help.

Speed

Launch a pentest in days, not weeks, with our intuitive SaaS platform and team of on-demand security experts

Validation

Close the remediation loop by submitting your fixed findings for unlimited free retesting

Collaboration

Accelerate find-to-fix cycles through
real-time collaboration with pentesters

Progress

Mature your security program through a scalable, data-driven approach to pentesting

Who Benefits from PtaaS

InfoSec
Between legacy data, having a fresh perspective with new testers without new procurement processes, and the platform's ease of use, security professionals will be thrilled with the added benefits from a PtaaS platform.
Learn more
Developers
Developers will love the native integrations into their existing workflows, direct collaboration with testers to align with the SDLC, and the ability to access Cobalt's API.
Learn more
Executives
Supercharge your budget negotiations using the more cost-efficient solution for your pentests. Executives will also love the added insights from its intuitive dashboards and centralized view of pentest data over time.
Learn more
Company
PtaaS offers more than just convenience — save money too! Learn more about the cost-savings with insights from the ROI of Modern Pentesting.
Learn more
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Tushar Chandgothia
Information security and risk Management
“When we first went with Cobalt it was purely for PCI requirements, but we were looking to scale our program and pentest on a more continuous basis. Cobalt gave us the ability to pentest on a frequent basis with minimum effort from our teams. Saving us time and providing us quality results on a consistent basis.”
Read the full story
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Henning Christiansen
Chief Information Security Officer, Axel Springer
“Part of protecting information, part of protecting data is to show that you're regularly checking whether there are any security issues. And this model that we have set up with Cobalt, the continuous security monitoring, helps a lot.”
Read the full story
Cobalt-Get Started-Pendo logo@2x
Chuck Kesler
Chief Information Security Officer, Pendo
“I looked at the numbers for Cobalt and thought, ‘If they're able to deliver what they're saying at this cost, it's close to twice the value I would expect from a traditional pentest.’ And it turned out that way.”
Read the full story

Pentest Program:
Introducing the Pentest Maturity Model

Planning
and workflows

Collaboration

Collection and
Dissemination
of Information

Alignment

Level 1

Ad Hoc
  • Reactive
  • Unstructured
  • Multiple methodologies and tools

  • Haphhazard
  • No ground rules
  • Multiple media
  • Manual collection and dissemination
  • Spreadsheets and document
  • Responding to "squeaky wheels"

Level 2

Structured
  • Categorize assets
  • Regularly test critical assets
  • Limited flexibility
  • "Preferred" methodologies and tools
  • Ground rules for communications and tasks

  • Online team collaboration tools
  • Standards for collecting data and structuring findings
  • Processes still manual
  • Teams start to set priorities jointly
  • Systems not integrated

Level 3

Automated
  • Processes automated
  • More frequent testing and wider coverage
  • Flexibility for unexpected requests
  • Clear responsibilities for tasks
  • Standard team collaboration tool
  • Collection and dissemination of information automated
  • Information and findings maintained centrally
  • Data and analysis guide priorities

Level 4

Strategic
  • Processes structured and automated
  • Flexibility and fast response
  • Continuous improvement
  • High levels of collaboration
  • Joint problem-solving
  • Automated processes
  • Integration with related systems
  • Short tests support DevOps
  • Analytics guides decisions
  • Pentesting aligned with enterprise priorities

Pentesting at the Speed of Your SDLC

Check out Cobalt's new offering, Agile Pentesting! With Agile Pentesting, you can conduct a pentest that has a targeted scope focused on a specific area of an asset, or a specific vulnerability across an asset. Agile Pentesting is flexible in nature, and aligns pentesting to DevSecOps workflows in a way that's friction-free.

FAQ

What’s included in Cobalt’s PtaaS offering?

Cobalt offers expansive manual penetration testing services with increased speed, a collaborative environment, integrations to speed up remediation, and complimentary retesting. Cobalt buckets pentests into two offerings: Comprehensive Pentesting and Agile Pentesting.
Comprehensive Pentesting encompasses all vulnerability categories across an asset. Primary use cases include compliance testing, customer requests, and M&A due diligence.

Agile Pentesting has a targeted scope focused on a specific piece of an asset or a specific vulnerability across an asset. Primary use cases include new release testing, delta testing, exploitable vulnerability testing, single OWASP category testing, and microservice testing.

Read more about the key benefits of PtaaS.

What’s the difference between PtaaS, security scanners, & traditional penetration testing?

PtaaS brings together some of the best attributes of both security scanners while still leveraging human testers to investigate business logic. Learn more about the difference between traditional pentesting, security scanners, & traditional pentesting here.

How soon can I start a pentest using Cobalt’s PtaaS platform?

Customers using the quality at speed offered by a PtaaS platform can start a test in as little as 24 hours, depending on scope of the test.

How much time is saved with report building when using a PtaaS platform compared to traditional pentesting?

77% of IT security professionals say they don’t receive any findings from pentesters until the final report, which takes an average of 7 weeks. With this, companies report a reduction in time-to-results by 50% compared to traditional consulting engagements.

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Download a Free Copy of the Buyer’s Guide to Modern Pentesting

Cut through the noise and quickly find the right pentest vendor for you: one that will give you a detailed picture of where your security program is strong, where it can be improved, and how.

Customized Pentest Services

Can’t find what you’re looking for? Reach out to learn about a more customized pentest, from micro engagements to continuous testing. As one of the world’s leading security penetration testing companies, we offer services customized to your testing needs.
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