The cybersecurity industry is saturated with tools and technologies that claim to revolutionize security but often fail to deliver on their promises. Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS) is a prime example: a once-promising category that ultimately fell short of addressing enterprise needs.

A recent survey highlights the shortcomings of BAS.

Horizon3.ai’s survey of nearly 400 IT security professionals across the US, UK, and EU reveals significant shortcomings in BAS solutions. Among the respondents:

• 20% reported scalability issues as their organizations expanded.
• 18% cited integration challenges that hindered seamless adoption within their existing IT environments.
• Only 17% of those using BAS solutions stated that it delivers “tremendous value” to their organizations.

This dissatisfaction highlights a broader industry shift, with organizations seeking automated breach and attack simulation solutions that minimize manual effort, scale effortlessly, and deliver actionable insights to enhance security outcomes.

Enter Autonomous Pentesting

Autonomous pentesting isn’t just the next evolution of cybersecurity validation – it’s a complete reset. As organizations turn to Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM), they need to know what’s actually exploitable in production at any given time as discussed in this white paper.

Autonomous pentesting from a multi-tenant SaaS platform delivers real-time, scalable, and actionable insights that meet the needs of enterprises, MSSPs, and regulators alike. It replaces not only breach simulation tools but also manual pentesting approaches, traditional vulnerability scanners, and even supplements internal red team efforts.

BAS tools failed because they were slow, noisy, and didn’t scale.

Breach and attack simulation vendors started strong with the promise of simulating attacks to validate security controls. But security leaders quickly suffered the pain of their limitations:

• Siloed deployments: On-premises architectures meant updates were slow and inconsistent, especially for new threats like CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV).
• False positives: BAS outputs often lacked proof of exploitation, leaving security teams drowning in noise.
• Static testing: Enterprises need continuous testing, not static, snapshot reports. BAS just couldn’t keep up.
• Lack of credibility: Regulators and auditors dismissed BAS reports as incomplete and insufficient for risk management.

“During a past life as an enterprise CIO, my team became one of the largest adopters of BAS tools. Within 60 days, we realized the limitations: testing was restricted to hosts with BAS credentialed agents, production servers couldn’t be tested, and the team spent more time maintaining custom BAS runbooks than fixing real problems.”

• Snehal Antani, CEO Horizon3.ai

BAS became an expensive, labor-intensive tool with limited ROI. And investors have picked up on the pain and low value delivery, leading BAS to become a failed category with little funding.

The stakes for the C-suite have never been higher.

Enterprises today face relentless regulatory scrutiny and an evolving threat landscape. Executive leadership and boards of directors are increasingly held accountable for cybersecurity under the “Duty to Know” obligation, which demands proactive, continuous, and comprehensive testing—not the outdated annual snapshots of traditional pentesting.

Beyond the failures of BAS, security leaders are also feeling the challenges of vulnerability scanners, which flood teams with false positives and require significant manual effort to filter out noise. It’s clear that organizations need more:

• Proof of exploitation to prioritize critical vulnerabilities.
• Continuous testing to keep pace with evolving threats.
• Real results, not hypothetical scenarios.

Modernize with Autonomous Pentesting

Given the ever-increasing pressure to protect your organizations – and demonstrate you’re doing so – autonomous pentesting is the only strategy against modern cyber threat exposure. It’s not just a replacement for BAS – it’s a complete rethinking of how we approach testing and validation. Here’s why:

It replaces traditional pentesting approaches.

Let’s face it: traditional pentesting is expensive, slow, and limited to annual or semi-annual engagements. Autonomous pentesting does the job faster, better, and for less cost:

• Speed: Hours instead of weeks. Autonomous pentests deliver results faster, enabling organizations to act immediately.
• Accuracy: Automated processes eliminate human error and deliver consistent, reproducible results.
• Cost savings: A single autonomous pentest costs far less than hiring consultants for a one-off engagement.

It amplifies red team impact, extending their capabilities.

It supercharges existing red teams while bringing red team capabilities to organizations that lack them. For internal red teams, often stretched thin by high-priority initiatives, autonomous pentesting acts as a force multiplier by:

• Handling repetitive or large-scale assessments, freeing red teams to focus on strategic objectives.
• Facilitating real-time collaboration with blue teams for effective purple teaming, enhancing defense strategies.
• Providing advanced learning opportunities, simulating sophisticated attack techniques to upskill teams and refine tactics.

Don’t have a red team? Autonomous pentesting is a powerful way to bring in offensive expertise before you’re ready to hire, bringing you comprehensive security assessments.

It consolidates tools and eliminates noise.

Organizations are tired of tool sprawl. BAS tools, vulnerability scanners, and manual pentesting approaches all require separate investments in time, money, and effort. Autonomous pentesting replaces these with a single, comprehensive solution:

• Proof of exploitation: Validates vulnerabilities with real-world exploitation, eliminating false positives.
• Comprehensive coverage: Holistic assessments across the entire attack surface.
• Actionable insights: Precise, prioritized remediation steps reduce workload and improve efficiency.

It meets regulatory and risk management requirements.

Autonomous pentesting produces reports that regulators, auditors, and risk management professionals trust:

• Audit-ready documentation: Comprehensive and reproducible reports meet compliance standards.
• Continuous testing: On-demand or automated assessments provide up-to-date risk visibility.
• Proactive risk management: Aligns with the Duty to Know, giving leadership confidence in their security posture.

Its delivery model enables continuous improvement.

The key to autonomous pentesting’s success lies in its delivery model. A multi-tenant SaaS platform ensures that organizations stay ahead of emerging risks while scaling effortlessly.

• Real-time threat updates: SaaS platforms can rapidly integrate new vulnerabilities like CISA KEVs, ensuring you’re always validating against the latest risks.
• Scalability: Whether you’re a single enterprise or an MSSP managing dozens of clients, SaaS scales seamlessly without additional infrastructure costs.
• Centralized management: MSSPs benefit from multi-tenant architecture, streamlining operations and delivering value-added services to their customers.

A Call to Action for Cybersecurity Leaders

The writing is on the wall: BAS is dead, and the era of autonomous pentesting is here. For cybersecurity leaders, this is the time to act. The stakes are higher than ever, with evolving threats, increasing regulatory pressure, and the Duty to Know obligation placing unprecedented demands on leadership and boards,

Autonomous pentesting isn’t just a tool; it’s a strategy for building a resilient, proactive, and scalable security program. It’s time to embrace solutions that replace labor, eliminate tool sprawl, and deliver the real-world results you need to protect your organization.

Say goodbye to BAS. Say hello to autonomous pentesting.