Picus Security Announces Recognition in Gartner® Market Guide for Adversarial Exposure Validation

Picus Security strives to empower offensive and defensive security teams working to validate threat exposures against attack scenarios and techniques.

SAN FRANCISCO, March 31, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Picus Security, the leading security validation company, today announced that it has been named a Representative Vendor in the Gartner® Market Guide for Adversarial Exposure Validation (AEV). The AEV category includes technology that validates vulnerabilities and identifies techniques that allow adversaries to exploit an organization. This research helps security and risk management leaders understand the key use cases of adversarial exposure validation and navigate the AEV solution market.

The AEV market category brings breach and attack simulation (BAS), automated penetration testing and red teaming technologies together, three categories that were previously separate in the Gartner® Hype Cycle™ for Security Operations. Gartner states that by “2027, 40% of organizations will have adopted formal exposure validation initiatives, most relying on AEV technologies and managed service providers for maturity and consistency.”

The Picus Security Validation Platform enables organizations to simulate real-world attack scenarios, providing continuous, automated validation of exploitable exposures while assessing the effectiveness of security controls. By emulating adversarial tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs), Picus assists security teams in identifying critical vulnerabilities, prioritizing remediation efforts and enhancing overall security posture without increasing the skill level required by security defense teams.

"The flood of analyst inquiries proves that organizations want to validate threat exposures through real-world attack scenarios to justify security investments and prioritize vulnerabilities," said Picus Security co-founder and CTO Volkan Ertürk. “Organizations have too many vulnerabilities that are disconnected from their security controls and context. The Picus platform uniquely provides evidence-based exposure prioritization and validation, derisking critical vulnerabilities that are not truly exploitable, so security teams can focus on what matters the most.”

After a comprehensive review of the Gartner Market Guide for Adversarial Exposure Validation, Picus Security found:

• AEV solutions help organizations strengthen defenses, prioritize vulnerabilities and improve readiness for real-world attacks.
• The AEV market is rapidly evolving, with vendors offering both specialized and comprehensive capabilities to address diverse security validation needs.
• AEV technology reduces complexity and lowers the skills barrier required for offensive testing.
• Integration and automation capabilities within AEV solutions streamline security operations, enhance collaboration among teams and improve the precision and effectiveness of security testing.

To learn more, download the Gartner® Market Guide for Adversarial Exposure Validation or read our recent blog on how AEV is a force multiplier.

About Gartner®
GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

About Picus Security 
Picus Security, the leading security validation company, gives organizations a clear picture of their cyber risk based on business context. Picus transforms security practices by correlating, prioritizing and validating exposures across siloed findings so teams can focus on critical gaps and high-impact fixes. With Picus, security teams can quickly take action with one-click mitigations to stop more threats with less effort. Offering Adversarial Exposure Validation with Breach and Attack Simulation and Automated Penetration Testing working together for greater outcomes Picus delivers award-winning, threat-centric technology that allows teams to pinpoint fixes worth pursuing.

Follow Picus Security on X and LinkedIn.

Contact
Jennifer Tanner
Look Left Marketing
picus@lookleftmarketing.com