Stage 1

Sourcing and Initial Review

Candidates are often referred by existing Core members, customers, or employees; applications are reviewed for tenure, skill, and expertise.

Stage 2

Assessment

Promising candidates undergo rigorous online technical skills assessments to objectively measure expertise.

Stage 3

Interviews

Successful candidates have in-depth interviews with our Core team to further evaluate technical capabilities and professional fit.

Stage 4

Verification

Candidates undergo comprehensive third-party background checks. Tax documentation is confirmed, and NDAs and Terms of Engagement are signed.

Stage 5

Continuous Quality Assurance

All testing occurs over Cobalt's secure VPN. All work undergoes reviews by trusted leads and specialists, and pentesters receive ongoing performance reviews.

Elite Expertise, Proven & Vetted

Deep experience and proven skills

Critical Vulnerabilities Found

Global scale, proven scale

Real-Time Pentest Collaboration

Elite Expertise, Proven & Vetted

Confidently engage elite, globally-sourced pentesters with proven skills and rigorous vetting. Our multi-stage vetting includes technical skill assessments, interviews, and comprehensive background checks to ensure quality and trustworthiness. This ensures your assets are tested by deeply knowledgeable professionals delivering reliable results.

Deep experience and proven skills

Apply deep, specialized expertise across your attack surface on demand, for breadth and depth of testing that might otherwise require significant investment or multiple niche consultancies.

Centralized assets and findings-modified

Critical Vulnerabilities Found

Our Core pentesters excel at finding critical, high-impact flaws that truly matter, not just surface-level noise. With a track record of identifying over 10,000 serious vulnerabilities, we help your organization prioritize and remediate risks effectively. This focused approach materially reduces the likelihood of damaging breaches by highlighting exploitable issues that could be missed by scanners or less experienced testers.

Global scale, proven scale

With over 5000 pentests conducted annually, our experience ensures we can scale your security testing capacity worldwide, leveraging diverse, specialized skills for any project size or complexity. We provide the right team with the specific expertise needed for your unique requirements, overcoming resource constraints and ensuring comprehensive coverage wherever your assets reside.

Real-Time Pentest Collaboration

Experience seamless communication with pentesters via modern collaboration tools, including ChatOps platforms. Get rapid, detailed responses to your queries, discuss findings in real-time, and receive expert guidance directly. This accelerates your team's ability to understand, validate, and remediate vulnerabilities, enhancing overall pentest efficiency and making results more actionable for your team.

How does Cobalt ensure the same quality as a traditional boutique firm?

Cobalt delivers boutique-level depth through a combination of proven methodologies and elite human expertise, powered by our modern PTaaS platform. We match the rigor of traditional firms while offering greater consistency and scale. Learn more about methodologies.

Comprehensive Pentesting encompasses all vulnerability categories across an asset. Primary use cases include compliance testing, customer requests, and M&A due diligence.

Agile Pentesting has a targeted scope focused on a specific piece of an asset or a specific vulnerability across an asset. Primary use cases include new release testing, delta testing, exploitable vulnerability testing, single OWASP category testing, and microservice testing.

Read more about the key benefits of PTaaS.

Can we request specific pentesters who have worked on our assets before?

Yes, we understand the value of continuity and historical knowledge. While The Cobalt Platform automatically matches the best-vetted experts to your tech stack, you can certainly request specific pentesters from the Cobalt Core who have previously worked on your assets.

What background checks and NDAs are required for members of the Cobalt Core?

Yes, Cobalt Core members are thoroughly vetted prior to joining. This includes background checks, NDAs, and Terms of Engagement are signed. Each Core member must also undergo a successful in-depth interview process to evaluate their technical capabilities and professional fit. Furthermore, members of The Cobalt Core go through rigorous online tehcnical skill assessments.

Do your pentesters hold specific certifications like OSCP, CREST, or CISSP?

Yes! Many Cobalt Core members hold different security certifications to ensure we have a good match to your exact needs including geographical location or tech stack expertise. Learn more about the pentesting vetting process and pentester certifications.

Chris Wallace,

Principal Cybersecurity Architect at Vonage

“I was really impressed with how responsive pentesters are, not just in how quickly they go. They get back to us pretty quickly, and the answers we get are full, complete, and detailed. When we're questioning them about something, we get what we're looking for and the information we need to take that data and then operationalize it on our side.”

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Adam Davis,

Director of Application Security at Insurity

“Cobalt’s pentesters give us specialized talent, delivering exceptional value compared to maintaining the same talent in-house. And we don’t just get one person, we get a team. We’re ecstatic that we can have these highly talented pentesters with diverse skills and perspectives working on our applications.”

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Director of Cloud Security at Healthtech

“It’s easy to saturate pentest reports with tons of findings, so one thing I appreciate about Cobalt is quality. Our other security tools could overlap pentest findings, but Cobalt’s expert pentesters discover the most critical, exploitable issues.”

View Customer Story