Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

SaaS companies face a 20% yearly likelihood of a significant DDoS attack, according to the Indusface State of Application Security H1 2025, underlining the risks to uninterrupted operations. Even brief downtime can have severe consequences. On average, a DDoS attack requires 12 hours for monitoring, analysis, and mitigation, translating to roughly 2.4 hours of annual downtime per SaaS application. This can disrupt workflows, breach SLAs, and erode customer trust.

In the first half of 2025 alone, AppTrana blocked over 64 million bot attacks across industries, a number that highlights how automated abuse has become a daily battle for digital businesses. With 30,000+ SaaS providers powering the workflows of 14 billion users worldwide, SaaS sits at the core of digital transformation, making it a prime target for credential stuffing, account takeover, API abuse, and other bot-driven exploits.

Running a penetration test is only half the battle. The real challenge is translating complex technical findings into insights that leadership can act on. The right metrics do not just highlight vulnerabilities; they tell a story about risk, resilience, and readiness. In this guide, we explore the penetration testing metrics that truly matter and how to present them in a way that resonates with decision-makers.

In the first half of 2025, more than 742 million attacks were recorded across 600+ financial sites, according to the Indusface State of Application Security Report: Banking and Financial Services, underscoring a 51% year-over-year surge in threats. Bots were the most persistent threat, detected on 95% of applications, where they powered campaigns to crack credentials, scrape sensitive data, and exploit payment systems.

Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) and Web Application & API Protection (WAAP) platforms are designed to stop attacks before they reach your applications. Yet many organizations fall into a dangerous comfort zone. They deploy a WAF, leave it in monitor mode for months, or configure environments in ways that allow attackers to bypass the WAF entirely and reach origin servers directly.

Globally, the VAR market for IT products is projected to exceed USD 11.8 billion in 2024 and grow at a CAGR of 7.5%, potentially doubling by 2033. Within security software, where overall market spending is expected to surpass USD 200 billion, VARs(Value Added Resellers) play an outsized role by packaging products with services that help enterprises implement, manage, and get measurable outcomes from their technology investments.

For Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs), Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Web Application and API Protection(WAAP) services have become table stakes. Enterprises expect MSSPs to deliver continuous security-policy management, rapid patching, zero false positives, real-time responses to zero-days, and audit-ready compliance reporting. The challenge? Delivering all of this as a part of MSSP managed WAF service can quickly become a margin drain.

Penetration testing for eCommerce and retail has become critical as these industries face escalating cyber threats, making them prime targets for attackers seeking financial gain and sensitive customer data. According to IBM’s 2025 Cost of a Data Breach Report, the global average cost of a data breach reached $4.44 million.

Penetration testing for insurance firms has become a necessity as the sector faces a 309% surge in cyberattacks in H1 2025, compared to H1 2024. Attackers are no longer just after sensitive policyholder data; they are increasingly focused on disrupting core operations and undermining customer trust. With insurers handling massive volumes of personal and financial data, the stakes could not be higher. This heightened threat landscape makes penetration testing a necessity, not a checkbox.

The healthcare sector is one of the most targeted industries for cyberattacks. According to the Indusface State of Application Security H1 2025, exploit attempts on EMRs, test result dashboards, and online consultation platforms grew by 247%, highlighting the sector’s rising exposure. APIs and third-party integrations further expand the attack surface, giving adversaries more entry points to access sensitive patient data.