Executive Summary
Operational continuity is vital at an international airport. The Sabiha Gokcen Airport cybersecurity team adopted the Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) approach with Picus to take the mature security program protecting its critical infrastructure one step further through continuous validation and contextual prioritization.
Thanks to Picus’s integration capability and contextual prioritization structure, the team consolidated data from different security tools on a single platform and directed its focus to genuinely exploitable risks. The result: more precise prioritization, faster response times, and a tangible increase in team motivation.
The Challenge: Taking Security Maturity to the Next Level
The team protecting this critical infrastructure, which serves millions of passengers a year, managed a large and complex inventory through expert assessment. With security scans producing thousands of findings every day, distinguishing which of those findings were genuinely exploitable, faster and with greater precision, became the team’s next goal.
The team focused on two core areas: going beyond vulnerability scores to assess real exploitability in the environment with full context, and consolidating data from multiple security tools on a single platform to make faster, more unified decisions.
“Protecting a large and diverse inventory of critical infrastructure systems alongside standard IT requires serious expertise and coordination. Keeping operational continuity secured at the highest level is the core priority behind running our security work with precision and discipline at every stage.”
Melike Ates, Cybersecurity Specialist, ISG
The Solution: Separating the Right Risks from Thousands of Findings
Rather than adding another tool to the security stack, the ISG cybersecurity teams chose to validate and strengthen their existing defenses with Picus. Its high integration capability brought vulnerability data from different security products, attack simulation output, and inventory information together on a single platform.
Security Control Validation (SCV) tested the effectiveness of existing controls against real-world attack techniques. Simulations revealed which attack vectors needed attention, and vector-focused fine-tuning raised the level of protection.
Exposure Validation (EXV) went beyond findings that only looked “critical” on vulnerability scores, enabling the team to identify the security gaps that required urgent assessment. The team focused on remediating critical vulnerabilities by taking the steps that would create the highest impact.
Picus showed us which threats were genuinely exploitable in our environment rather than just flagging everything by vulnerability score. It let us focus on the right risks.
Melike Ates, Cybersecurity Specialist
The Results: A Security Discipline Reinforced by Continuous Validation
Integrating Picus with the CTEM approach, the ISG cybersecurity team further strengthened the security program it was already running with a data-driven model built on continuous validation. Seeing prioritized risks on a single platform significantly reduced the workload and directed focus to the genuinely critical areas. Evidence-based output strengthened communication with IT teams, and action times dropped visibly.
“Seeing the security score improve after every remediated vulnerability didn’t just strengthen our security posture. It significantly boosted team motivation.”
Melike Ates, Cybersecurity Specialist
This approach reflects what modern security now demands. As threats grow more complex and regulatory pressure increases, many organizations remain reactive, investing in prevention tools while going without real-world testing. According to Ates, a mindset shift is underway:
I see CTEM and Picus becoming an integral part of our long-term cybersecurity strategy. The benefit isn’t limited to the security team alone; it delivers real value for every IT team we work with.
Why ISG Chose Picus
The Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International Airport cybersecurity team chose Picus for both its performance and its collaborative approach. Deployment moved fast and without friction. Weekly meetings kept the setup steps on track, and scan configurations went live in a short time.
Compared to many other products we’ve worked with, this was one of the easiest to deploy and configure.
Advice for Security Leaders
Don’t approach this as just a tool investment. Approach it as a holistic security discipline. When implemented correctly, CTEM reduces workload while directing focus to the risks that genuinely matter. The key is to position CTEM as a sustainable, measurable practice that the entire organization owns.
Melike Ates, Cybersecurity Specialist, ISG
