Part 1: CBEST Series – Beyond the Checklist
Explore how threat-led penetration testing helps financial institutions go beyond traditional checks to strengthen resilience and meet regulatory expectations like CBEST, STAR-FS and DORA.
Explore how threat-led penetration testing helps financial institutions go beyond traditional checks to strengthen resilience and meet regulatory expectations like CBEST, STAR-FS and DORA.
As financial services face increasing regulatory pressure and escalating cyber threats, operational resilience has become a board-level priority. But building true resilience requires more than policies and plans, it demands evidence of how your organization holds up under attack.
That’s where threat-led penetration testing (TLPT) adds critical value.
TLPT simulates real world, high impact attacks using current threat intelligence to reflect the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) of actual adversaries.
Unlike traditional pen testing, which often focuses on surface-level exploits in isolated systems, TLPT delivers something fundamentally different:
Intelligence-driven: Built on live threat intelligence specific to your sector and organization, not generic test scripts.
Scenario-based: Designed around plausible, high consequence attack paths that mirror real adversary behavior.
Regulator-aligned: Mandated or guided by regulatory bodies, often with national security implications.
Business-integrated: Tests not just tech defenses, but also decision-making, incident response, and internal governance.
There is often a significant gap between an organization’s perceived level of cyber risk and its actual level of risk. TLPT closes this gap by showing exactly how your organization would fare against an attack designed by a capable, well-informed threat actor.
Understanding TLPT means understanding the frameworks shaping its application. Here’s what you need to know:
CBEST (UK)
STAR & STAR-FS (CREST)
TIBER-EU
DORA (Digital Operational Resilience Act)
While the ecosystem is broadening, CBEST remains the most mature and rigorously enforced TLPT framework. It demonstrates what ‘good’ looks like in terms of threat intelligence integration, provider accreditation, scope definition, and board-level accountability.
Tier 1 financial institutions: Required to run CBEST and similar mandatory frameworks.
Financial institutions: Increasingly expected to adopt STAR-FS or prepare for DORA.
Risk & Compliance Teams: Need to understand the frameworks to translate results into operational resilience strategy.
Security Leadership: Must steer testing priorities based on realistic, regulator-validated threat scenarios.
The difference between conventional penetration testing and threat-led approaches isn’t academic, it’s critical to resilience. Many standard tests are focused on a narrow scope of technology or systems. TLPT, on the other hand, mirrors how a real attacker behaves: persistent, adaptive, and relentless.
TLPT isn’t about passing or failing; it’s about pressure-testing your ability to withstand a real-world breach and using that insight to adapt, mature, and build resilience that lasts.
Understanding frameworks like CBEST, STAR-FS, and TIBER-EU isn’t just a compliance requirement, it’s an opportunity. It helps security leaders translate testing into strategic advantage and deliver value that goes well beyond assurance alone.