Penetration Testing as a Service (PTaaS) for the Modern Financial Services Industry

The Challenge

The financial services sector faces a complex and unprecedented cybersecurity landscape. With sensitive customer data, ever-changing regulatory requirements, and increasingly sophisticated threat actors targeting financial institutions, traditional security approaches fall short. As a result, organizations across banking, insurance, investment services, and fintech face several critical challenges:
  • Evolving Regulatory Landscape: Trying to adhere to multiple compliance frameworks, including PCI DSS, GLBA, DORA, SOX, and even sector-specific regulations, requires comprehensive security testing programs with specific frequencies, methodologies, and flexibilities.
  • High-Value Target Status: Financial institutions remain prime targets for cybercriminals, nation-state actors, and insider threats seeking access to valuable financial data, payment systems, and customer information, so the threat is constant and shifts to new vectors of attack every day.
  • Complex Digital Infrastructure: Mainframe legacy systems, ongoing cloud migrations, shifting API ecosystems, and unique, evolving third-party integrations create expanding attack surfaces that are difficult to identify, secure, and monitor comprehensively.
  • The Compliance vs. True Risk Management Gap: Many organizations focus on meeting minimum regulatory requirements rather than building robust security programs that protect against real-world threats that could impact the firm’s resiliency and ability to recover from disruptions.
  • Resource Constraints: Internal security teams face the challenge of keeping pace with emerging threat vectors and new technology programs across multiple business units, application types, and infrastructure components while still working to maintain operational efficiency.

The result? Financial institutions face mounting pressure to demonstrate security effectiveness to regulators, customers, and stakeholders while protecting against ever-evolving cyber threats that could result in significant financial losses, regulatory penalties, and repetitional damage.

The Solution

Trusted by 90% of the top 10 U.S. banks, NetSPI understands the unique challenges facing financial services and delivers testing programs that create meaningful security improvements. Companies that work in financial services and insurance need more than compliance-driven security testing. They need a strategic approach that strengthens security posture while meeting regulatory obligations. NetSPI delivers penetration testing at scale built specifically for the financial services reality, helping teams validate security controls, achieve regulatory compliance, and maintain customer trust. By combining AI-driven efficiency and human oversight combined with the expertise of 350+ in-house security experts, NetSPI provides comprehensive PTaaS that delivers regulatory-ready documentation, expert-validated findings with low false positives, streamlined workflows, and ‘real-world’ risk identification programs that integrate with your existing risk management processes.

"System Intrusion, Social Engineering and Basic Web Application Attacks represent 74% of breaches."

Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, 2025 1

Verizon

Key Capabilities

  • Comprehensive Financial Services Testing: Conduct specialized testing across banking applications, payment systems, trading platforms, and regulatory-critical infrastructure, and staff security awareness, with an understanding of financial services.
  • Regulatory Compliance Support: Gain support to meet testing requirements for PCI DSS, GLBA, DORA, SOX, and other financial regulations with audit-ready documentation, such as evidence of findings and remediation.
  • Risk-Based Testing Programs: Prioritize testing activities based on business impact, regulatory requirements for financial services.
  • Continuous Security Monitoring: Maintain ongoing visibility into security posture with automated monitoring, threat intelligence, and regular assessment cycles aligned to regulatory timelines.
  • Third-Party Risk Assessment: Evaluate vendor security posture and supply chain risks critical to financial services operations and regulatory compliance.
  • Executive and Board Reporting: Deliver clear, business-focused reports that communicate security posture and compliance status to executives, boards, and regulatory bodies.

The NetSPI Advantage

NetSPI delivers the right balance of regulatory expertise and advanced security testing capabilities. Our approach ensures financial services companies get the depth of knowledge with the scale of automation.

People

  • 350+ In-House Security Experts with deep expertise in banking regulations, payment security, and financial threats.
  • Industry Certifications & Clearances including financial services certifications and clearances for sensitive testing.
  • Regulatory Knowledge spanning PCI DSS, GLBA, DORA, SOX, and emerging financial services regulations.

Process

  • Compliance-First Methodology designed specifically for financial services regulations and audit expectations.
  • Regulatory Reporting & Documentation with audit-ready evidence and executive summaries for stakeholders.
  • Flexible Engagement Models supporting everything from annual compliance testing to continuous security validation.

Technology

  • Attack Surface Visibility with coverage of banking applications, payment systems, and financial infrastructure.
  • Regulatory Compliance Mapping that aligns findings with specific regulatory requirements and remediation timelines.
  • Integration with Financial Risk Systems connecting results to existing GRC platforms and risk management workflows.