Unmasking Risk: The CISO’s 100-Day Guide to Autonomous Testing, Security Validation, and CTEM

Horizon3.ai  |  July 1, 2025  |  Whitepapers

Table of Contents

A practical, offensive-minded playbook for CISOs who need to move fast, verify risk, and lead with proof.

Get the Proven 100-Day Plan to Cut Through the Noise

Whether you’re stepping into your first CISO role or leading your next mission, this guide shows you how to make an immediate, measurable impact. Written specifically for security leaders, it delivers a field-tested roadmap to align cyber risk with business priorities, implement Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM), and validate your defenses through autonomous penetration testing.

This is how modern CISOs establish credibility, secure budget, and build momentum—starting on day one.

What’s Inside

  • How to rapidly establish ground truth using autonomous discovery and attack surface validation
  • How to define and demonstrate impact based on real exploitability—not theoretical risk
  • How to implement CTEM and shift from point-in-time testing to continuous validation
  • How to scale security validation across DevOps, production, cloud, and third-party environments

What You’ll Learn

Phase 1: Weeks 1–3 – Laying the Foundation
Establish situational awareness, define risk impact, and identify critical exposures.

Phase 2: Weeks 4–9 – Driving Remediation and Implementing CTEM
Execute focused remediation sprints, re-test fixes, and formalize continuous validation practices.

Phase 3: Beyond Day 90 – Scaling for Long-Term Resilience
Integrate security into DevOps pipelines, expand CTEM across the enterprise, and communicate results with clarity.

Who It’s For

  • New CISOs looking to assess and act quickly
  • Security leaders responsible for CTEM, validation, or compliance
  • Teams overwhelmed by vulnerability volumes and reactive firefighting
  • Executives seeking clear evidence of security effectiveness and ROI

If you’re ready to verify risk, prioritize what matters, and build a security program grounded in reality—not assumptions—this guide is for you.

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