Operational Analysis
Penetration testing remains one of the most effective ways to identify real-world security weaknesses before adversaries do. However, as the threat landscape has evolved and the frequency of offensive testing has increased, the traditional methods for delivering pentest results—static PDFs, emailed documents, and manual spreadsheet tracking—have failed to keep pace. These outdated workflows introduce critical delays, create inefficiencies, and ultimately undermine the value of the security work being performed. To keep up, security teams are turning to automation to get faster insights and clearer paths to remediation.
Key Insights
The shift from manual to automated pentest delivery is driven by several key factors and provides significant advantages:
- The Static Delivery Problem: In today’s dynamic world, delivering a pentest report solely as a static document is a major bottleneck. Critical findings are often buried in lengthy reports. Security and development teams must then manually extract this information, create tickets in systems like Jira or ServiceNow, and track remediation in a disconnected workflow, a process that can take days or weeks.
- The Core Benefits of Automation: Automating the delivery of pentest findings addresses the core issues of speed and efficiency. The key benefits include: real-time actionability on findings as they are discovered; faster response and remediation times (MTTR); standardized, repeatable operations for every vulnerability; and less manual work, freeing up security teams to focus on more strategic initiatives.
- The Pillars of an Automated Workflow: A mature automated delivery system is built on several key components. It starts with centralized data ingestion to create a single source of truth for all vulnerabilities. This is followed by automated real-time delivery of findings as they are identified. From there, automated routing & ticketing assigns the finding to the correct team based on predefined rules. This feeds into standardized remediation workflows and, finally, triggered retesting & validation once a fix has been implemented.
Getting Started with Automation
For organizations looking to move beyond static reports, the transition to automated delivery should be a thoughtful, iterative process:
- Map Your Current Workflow: Before automating anything, document exactly how findings are delivered, triaged, assigned, and tracked today. This process will immediately highlight the most significant friction points, such as repetitive manual tasks, handoff delays, or areas where communication breaks down.
- Start Small and Iterate: Avoid the pitfall of trying to automate everything at once. Begin by automating one or two high-impact but simple steps, such as automatic ticket creation for critical findings or standardized email alerts to asset owners. Use the success of these small steps to build momentum and gradually add more complexity to the workflow.
- Avoid Automating a Chaotic Process: Jumping into automation without first defining and agreeing upon your workflows often leads to more problems than it solves. Ensure you have clear, established rules for routing, ownership, and escalation before you begin building the automation.
- Choose the Right Platform and Measure Impact: Look for centralized platforms that can integrate with your existing security scanners and ticketing systems. Once implemented, it is critical to measure the impact of your automation efforts by tracking key metrics like Mean Time to Remediation (MTTR), handoff delays, and retest completion rates to demonstrate the value to leadership.
Secure Your Organization with Brinstech As a cybersecurity provider, we can protect your business from the threats discussed here. Contact us to learn more about our services.
Questions or Feedback? For expert advice, use our ‘Ask an Analyst’ feature. Brinztech does not warrant the validity of external claims. For general inquiries or to report this post, please email us: contact@brinztech.com
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