The one thing security teams are not short of is data. A day in the life of a security expert is filled with scanners, dashboards, pentest reports, tickets, and compliance checklists. But despite all this data, the one staggering question that every security team would literally trade their last brain cell for (or their entire month’s screen time for) is “What is pentesting (risk) moving towards?”
This question pushed us to look deeper into our pentesting data. And what pentesting 1,000+ companies revealed to us was not just a list of vulnerabilities but a much-needed reality check for your security team. It highlighted the gap between what security programs measure and what actually happens in reality. The silver lining playbook? That’s our State of Continuous Pentesting 2026 report.
While most other reports reiterate the importance of security, we started this report because the data kept pointing to the same problem: the way organizations measure security has structurally decoupled from the way attackers move, including:
- Where are vulnerabilities increasing?
- Which attack surfaces are producing more exposure?
- Are teams testing the right areas often enough?
- Are risks staying within one surface, or moving across web, cloud, API, mobile, and network environments?
- Most importantly, what does all of this mean for how security teams should approach pentesting in 2026?
How did we get these exclusive insights?
We started with anonymized, aggregated data from real-world pentesting activity across Astra’s continuous pentesting platform. From there, we looked for patterns across various dimensions: vulnerability severity, testing surface, engagement volume, scan frequency, recurring findings, and month-wise movement.
The State of Continuous Pentesting 2026 was built on 6.8 million findings, 150,000+ scans, and 8,000+ engagements. We analyzed the data from these findings, which led us to some really interesting insights. While some patterns were expected, most others were genuinely surprising even to us!
Who is this state of continuous pentesting 2026 report for?
This report primarily caters to security teams seeking to understand where modern risk is actually moving. CISOs, security leaders, compliance teams, and engineering leaders responsible for making security testing decisions across various attack surfaces, ranging from web, cloud, API, mobile, and network environments, would find the report to be insightful.
The report provides data-backed context to help teams make decisions with fewer assumptions, especially for those still on the fence about pentest budgets, testing frequency, remediation prioritization, compliance preparation, or evaluating continuous and autonomous pentesting.
The State of Pentesting report can also be useful for researchers and cybersecurity analysts who are on the lookout for data-backed pentesting trends in real-world pentesting activity, particularly vulnerability patterns, cloud risk, testing coverage, and the shift toward continuous/autonomous pentesting.
Why do you need to read the report?
As each year passes, old assumptions are becoming harder to defend or reason about. While annual pentests are still useful, they are no longer enough on their own. One-time tests are good enough for your compliance checklist, but where does your security posture stand after deployment, configuration change, product update, or even the addition of a new asset?
That means the real challenge is no longer just finding vulnerabilities. It is finding them early enough, often enough, and in the places where risk is actually growing.
The report found that 43% of next month’s risk was already visible in this month’s scan data. So we can now foresee tomorrow’s exposure today; the challenge is whether your team can connect the dots fast enough.
In 2026, security teams are no longer treating autonomous pentesting as just a concept. Security teams are now deploying it in the real world. As testing becomes faster and more automated, security teams will also require stronger governance to validate, prioritize, and act on findings. Because speed thrills but kills.
Finally, we saved the best for last. This is where the data starts getting interesting.
Cloud vulnerabilities grew from 60,000 in 2024 to 2.6 million in 2025; that’s a whopping 44x increase. Cloud also overtook the web in 3 out of 4 quarters. But the cherry on top was not just that cloud risk grew. It was that the testing coverage did not keep up. Cloud testing coverage grew by only 1.23x. This gap told us something important: risk and attention are not always moving in the same direction, as they should.
So the real question is no longer, “Did we test?” It is, “Are we testing where the risk is actually moving?” The most important takeaway is that modern risk is continuous, and your testing strategy should be too.
Final Thoughts
Security teams need to move testing forward without relying on assumptions. As mentioned earlier, they are definitely not short of data, but that does not automatically give them more clarity. This is exactly what our report solves.
The State of Continuous Pentesting 2026 turns millions of real pentesting findings into insights that help your program, along with practical guidance for teams preparing for the next era of security testing. The report provides a clearer view of where risk is moving, which assumptions are beginning to break down, and how teams can prepare for the next era of security testing. So, rather than focusing on having enough data, you need to focus on what the data is actually implying.
Take a Quiz to see where your security program stands in 2026, and read the full State of Continuous Pentesting 2026 report to understand where modern security risks are moving and how your team can stay ahead.
