Rethinking Cyber Risk and the Future of Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM)

As the threat landscape evolves faster than ever, traditional vulnerability management is no longer enough. In this interview, Ravid Circus, Chief Product Officer at Seemplicity, breaks down Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM), a proactive, intelligence-driven approach reshaping how organizations handle cyber risk. From prioritization to mobilization, Circus offers practical insights on how security leaders can build more adaptive, integrated defense strategies.

What is Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM), and how does it differ from traditional vulnerability management?

CTEM is a cybersecurity framework introduced by Gartner that is designed to continuously identify, evaluate, and mitigate risks before they become incidents.

Unlike traditional vulnerability management, which tends to focus narrowly on patching known issues reactively, CTEM takes a broader, continuous – and therefore more proactive – context-driven approach. It leverages threat intelligence and predictive analytics to anticipate potential threats, considering not just technical vulnerabilities but also business context, asset criticality, and potential impacts. This means organizations can prioritize remediation based on actual risk rather than a static list of vulnerabilities, fundamentally shifting from a reactive to a predictive cybersecurity posture.

From your perspective, what are the biggest hurdles organizations face when implementing a CTEM strategy?

The main hurdles typically revolve around three areas: integration, collaboration, and resources.

First, integrating CTEM effectively requires organizations to synchronize multiple existing security tools, often leading to interoperability issues and fragmented data.

Second, organizational silos pose significant barriers – security, IT, and business units frequently operate with different goals and terminologies, making seamless collaboration challenging.

Finally, limited resources, whether budgetary or skill-based, can slow or even stall CTEM implementation. Without adequate staffing, skill sets, or investment, it’s tough for organizations to move from planning to practical execution.

With so many cybersecurity tools available today, how can organizations avoid tool sprawl and ensure effective integration?

Organizations should adopt platforms when possible, and selectively supplement those with best-of-breed tools to address specialized tasks or rapidly evolving threat areas. 

For success implementing CTEM, and in general, orchestration platforms can help platforms and point solutions work together, reducing manual effort and eliminating data silos to improve visibility and accelerate response. 

Equally important is establishing governance: regularly auditing the toolset, defining ownership, and ensuring each solution aligns with risk priorities. This lifecycle approach helps build a lean, interoperable stack that keeps security teams focused on threat management, not tool maintenance.

How important is team alignment and cross-functional collaboration in a successful CTEM program?

It’s critical. And it’s both a tooling and a cultural challenge. You need platforms that facilitate smooth collaboration across functions, but just as important is the cultural shift behind it. That means setting clear objectives, establishing a common language around risk, and ensuring leadership drives alignment from the top down. When teams stay siloed, even the best tools can’t compensate. True CTEM maturity comes when everyone – from engineering to risk to business – sees exposure management as a shared responsibility.

Can you elaborate on how organizations can effectively prioritize vulnerabilities within the CTEM framework?

Prioritization in CTEM is all about context. It's not enough to know a vulnerability exists – you need to understand its potential impact in your specific environment. That means factoring in business criticality, exploitability, exposure path, and whether compensating controls are already in place.

Threat intelligence and other data that adds context play a big role here, helping teams focus on what’s actively being targeted, most relevant, etc. The goal isn’t to fix everything: it’s to fix what matters most, and to do it fast. Prioritization helps cut through the noise so resources go where they’ll make the biggest difference.

Mobilization is often considered the "action phase" of CTEM. In practice, what does this look like for organizations?

Mobilization is where exposure reduction actually happens. It starts with standardized remediation plans and clear workflows to ensure consistency. From there, automation plays a significant role in streamlining repetitive tasks, routing issues to the right teams, and tracking progress.

The most effective programs integrate directly into the tools teams already use – like Jira or ServiceNow – so remediation fits into existing processes, enabling more efficient execution. Two-way integrations keep everything in sync and eliminate the need for manual check-ins, further enhancing program efficacy.

Ultimately, mobilization is the execution layer of the CTEM framework, moving from knowing to acting.

Where do you see AI and predictive analytics fitting into the broader CTEM picture?

AI and predictive analytics are increasingly essential for scaling CTEM. They help security teams move from reacting to incidents to anticipating them. For example, by analyzing historical patterns and threat intelligence, predictive models can flag which vulnerabilities are most likely to be exploited – before they are.

As these models continue to learn and refine over time, they’ll become even more effective at prioritization and identifying emerging risks. That evolving intelligence will help organizations focus their efforts more precisely, adapt faster, and stay ahead of threats in an environment that’s always changing.

What advice would you offer security leaders looking to launch or mature their CTEM initiatives?

Start small, but start with intent. Focus on a high-risk area or a specific business unit where you can prove value quickly, then scale from there.

Define clear objectives up front and align them with broader business goals as this helps secure buy-in and resources.

Tooling matters, but so does process: invest in automation, yes, but also build strong governance, clear workflows, and consistent metrics to track progress.

And perhaps most importantly, treat CTEM as an ongoing discipline, not a one-time project. The organizations that succeed are the ones that commit to evolving with the threat landscape, not just reacting to it.