Here's What a Successful CTEM Deployment Looks Like
SC Media, Wednesday, October 21st, 2026
Explains how continuous threat exposure management differs from vulnerability management and five signs a program hasn't made the shift.
The column contrasts risk-based vulnerability management with CTEM, Gartner's five-stage loop of scoping, discovery, prioritization, validation and mobilization that also covers misconfigurations, credentials and identity weaknesses.
It argues point products find exposures but leave remediation handoffs manual, so validated findings should reach system owners with context and be rechecked after fixes.
Five signs a program is still VM: it starts with the scanner, treats single vulnerabilities as the unit of work, equates ranking with proof, handles handoffs by hand and ends at ticket closure.
Buyers should judge platforms on remediation flow, not raw coverage.