Pentera, a cybersecurity attack surface testing software company, founded in 2015 by CEO and cofounder Dr. Arik Liberzon, is leveling the playing field. Moving forward, their innovative platform places artificial intelligence (AI) support at every layer of adversarial testing. With over 1,200 enterprise customers and thousands of users, Pentera is transforming how organizations assess and fortify their security measures. The company’s vision is to make testing an ongoing, routine, and essential part of the day-to-day workflow for security teams around the world.
Dr. Liberzon is Founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Pentera. From the beginnings of the company, he’s been met with a lot of doubt. To see how his vision is gaining traction. The platform has further matured to now include AI-based web attack surface testing, adaptive testing logic, and deeper system awareness. These innovations allow the platform to instantly understand intent and evaluate surroundings. Equally impressive, it can create offensive attack plans and simulated adversaries in a matter of seconds.
AI-Driven Innovations in Cybersecurity
Pentera’s approach is what really makes the platform unique. Pentera’s total, proactive approach to cybersecurity helps them stand out in a crowded market. This new ubiquitous integration of AI including advanced payload generation means security teams can proactively simulate these real-life attacks. This new capability deepens the platform’s functionality, surfacing the most actionable insights which can be easily understood and conveyed to stakeholders.
AI-based web attack surface testing is a major step forward to finding these vulnerabilities. By leveraging machine learning algorithms, Pentera’s system is able to identify weaknesses that humans or traditional testing practices might miss. By taking these steps beforehand, organizations put themselves in a better position to deal with and mitigate threats before they develop into major breaches.
As an expert in cybersecurity risk management, Dr. Liberzon explained the need for ongoing testing in a dynamic cybersecurity environment. He stated, “Pentera’s goal is to make testing continuous, expressive, and part of daily security team operations.” This commitment aligns with the growing demand for organizations to remain vigilant against cyber threats.
Real-Time Threat Simulation
Pentera’s platform empowers users to execute continuous, realistic threat simulations that simulate real world attack scenarios. It’s new adaptive testing logic and greater system awareness are some of its more notable features. This enables it to smartly change its tactics according to the ecosystem it scans. For example, users can issue commands such as:
“Launch an access attempt from the contractor-okta identity group. Check if any accounts in that group can access file shares on 10.10.22.0/24. If access is granted, escalate privileges and attempt credential extraction. If any domain admin credentials are captured, pivot toward prod-db-finance.”
This level of granular, scientific simulation allows security teams to determine weaknesses, predict threat patterns and create the most effective strategies to minimize risk.
Additionally, the platform provides a syntax for custom commands to narrow the scope of testing. For instance:
“Pause lateral movement. Focus only on privilege escalation paths from Workstation-203.”
By narrowing the focus on particular pathways or scenarios, security professionals can conduct more targeted assessments that yield valuable insights without overwhelming their systems.
Bridging the Gap to Executive Understanding
One of Pentera’s most impressive features is its one-page readout. It is able to tell the story and articulate the risk in a way that translates complex technical findings into clear language executives and board members can easily grasp. This is an underappreciated capability — one that is key for organizations seeking to connect the dots between technical assessments and strategic decision-making.
According to Dr. Liberzon, converting technical language into usable information for decision makers is key. It is this shift that breeds the deep culture of security that organizations need to be successful. The readout ties security exposure to operational continuity, freeing up leaders to determine how potential vulnerabilities could affect their overarching business goals.
Additionally, Pentera’s methodology fosters a constructive conversation between technical teams and executive leadership. By framing security findings in terms that resonate with business goals, Dr. Liberzon believes organizations can prioritize their cybersecurity investments more effectively.
“Re-run credential harvesting using memory scraping instead of LSASS injection.”
These types of specific directives enable security teams to further hone their protection plans, allowing them to more swiftly respond to ever-evolving threats.