Well. CTEM or Continuous Threat Exposure Management is an evolving framework, not a rigid set of technology! When we search for CTEM solutions, we find many, each claiming to be CTEM and when we dig deeper, we find that they do not address all the 5 objectives even!

CTEM is a strategic, continuous framework that helps organizations proactively identify, assess, prioritize, validate, and remediate security exposures across their digital environment.

It is not a single technology, but a goal-driven program that integrates various tools and processes to reduce real-world cyber risk.

Detection and Remediation are integral parts of CTEM.

  • Detection helps identify new threats and vulnerabilities as they appear—without this, you’re blind to what’s going wrong.
  • Remediation ensures that once something risky is found, it’s fixed. Without remediation, you’re just creating a list of problems without solving them.

So, CTEM without detection and remediation is like a smoke detector that doesn’t beep and a fire extinguisher that you never use.

Thus, CTEM is to be started, maintained and must evolve continuously over time.

Think of CTEM like a fitness program:

  • The program is the CTEM framework.
  • The equipment (treadmill, weights, tracker apps) are the tools (SIEM, ASM, etc).
  • The goal is better security health — not just having gear but using it strategically.

Maybe, soon we’ll have CTEM Auditors to certify CTEM program maturity! Just like ISO 27001!