Penetration Testing Frequency: Proven Rules for Safer IT
Once a year is a floor, not a schedule. This guide sets out how often a business should conduct penetration testing and why the calendar date matters far less than what changed in the estate since the last report. It covers the twelve-month baseline and where it comes from, the seven change triggers that should force an unscheduled round, exactly what PCI DSS, ISO 27001, SOC 2, Cyber Essentials Plus and NIS2 actually require, where vulnerability scanning stops and human testing starts, indicative UK programme costs at every cadence, and how to build a calendar that survives a year of competing priorities.
