0 Breaches Among 2,500+ Managed Clients
IT Security Risk Assessment • Raleigh, Durham, RTP & Triangle, NC

Know Every Risk Before
Attackers Find Them First

PTG delivers comprehensive IT security risk assessments that map every vulnerability in your environment, score each risk by real-world exploitability and business impact, and align your security posture with NIST, HIPAA, PCI DSS, and other critical compliance frameworks. Serving organizations across Raleigh, Durham, Research Triangle Park, and all of North Carolina for more than 22 years.

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22+
Years Experience
2,500+
Companies Protected
0
Client Breaches
6
Major Frameworks
The Risk Landscape

You Cannot Protect What You Cannot See

Most organizations operate with a dangerous blind spot: they assume their firewalls, antivirus software, and good intentions are sufficient to keep attackers at bay. The data tells a different story. The average data breach now costs $4.45 million, takes 277 days to identify and contain, and exposes thousands of sensitive records to malicious actors. Regulatory penalties compound the damage: HIPAA violations can trigger fines exceeding $1.5 million per incident category, PCI DSS non-compliance penalties reach $100,000 per month, and state attorneys general are increasingly aggressive in pursuing organizations that fail to meet baseline security standards.

The root cause behind most breaches is not a sophisticated zero-day exploit. It is the accumulation of overlooked vulnerabilities, misconfigured systems, outdated access controls, and gaps between what compliance frameworks require and what organizations actually practice. Shadow IT, unpatched endpoints, overly permissive cloud permissions, and employees who have never been trained to recognize phishing emails create an attack surface far larger than most leaders realize.

Businesses across Raleigh, Durham, Research Triangle Park, and the broader Triangle region face a unique threat profile. The concentration of healthcare organizations, financial services firms, government contractors, technology companies, and research institutions makes this area a high-value target for both opportunistic and state-sponsored attackers. Yet many of these organizations, particularly small and mid-size businesses, lack the internal resources to conduct the kind of rigorous, framework-aligned security risk assessment that reveals their true exposure.

Without a systematic assessment, security spending becomes guesswork. Teams invest heavily in the wrong areas while critical vulnerabilities remain unaddressed. Compliance audits turn into fire drills rather than routine validations. Insurance applications get denied or premiums skyrocket because underwriters see an organization that cannot articulate its risk posture. And when a breach finally occurs, the absence of documented risk assessments becomes a legal liability that plaintiffs' attorneys and regulators exploit to maximum effect.

The question is not whether your organization has vulnerabilities. Every organization does. The question is whether you know where they are, how severe they are, and what it will take to close them before an attacker or an auditor finds them first.

The PTG Approach

A Structured, Framework-Driven Risk Assessment That Delivers Clarity

Petronella Technology Group's IT security risk assessment methodology transforms the unknown into a documented, scored, and prioritized action plan. Our six-phase process is built on more than two decades of protecting organizations across the Research Triangle and beyond.

PTG's risk assessment begins with a comprehensive asset discovery and data-flow mapping exercise. Before we can evaluate risk, we need to know exactly what exists in your environment: every server, endpoint, cloud instance, SaaS application, database, network segment, and data repository. Many organizations are surprised by the number of assets our discovery process reveals, from forgotten development servers still connected to the production network to personal devices syncing corporate email without mobile device management controls. This inventory becomes the foundation of your risk register and ensures nothing falls through the cracks.

With the asset inventory established, our assessors deploy enterprise-grade vulnerability scanning tools that probe your external perimeter, internal networks, wireless infrastructure, web applications, and endpoint configurations for known weaknesses. We cross-reference findings against the National Vulnerability Database, vendor security advisories, and our own threat intelligence feeds to ensure coverage extends to the latest disclosed vulnerabilities. Every finding is validated to eliminate false positives, because a risk register filled with noise erodes trust and wastes remediation effort.

What separates PTG from automated scan-and-report vendors is the human analysis layer. Our senior assessors review your security policies, interview key personnel, evaluate physical security controls, and analyze access management practices. Technology is only one dimension of risk. Organizational processes, employee awareness, vendor management, and incident response readiness are equally critical factors that no scanner can evaluate. PTG examines all of them.

Every vulnerability and gap we discover goes through PTG's quantitative risk scoring methodology. We evaluate each finding on multiple dimensions: the likelihood of exploitation based on current threat intelligence, the technical severity as measured by CVSS scores and exploit availability, the business impact if the vulnerability were exploited considering data sensitivity, operational dependency, and regulatory implications, and the effort and cost required for remediation. The result is a risk heat map and prioritized register that gives your leadership team a clear picture of where the most dangerous exposures exist and where each remediation dollar will deliver the greatest return.

For organizations subject to regulatory compliance, PTG maps every finding to the specific controls required by your applicable frameworks. Whether you need to demonstrate compliance with the HIPAA Security Rule, achieve PCI DSS certification, prepare for a CMMC audit, align with NIST SP 800-171 for government contracting, or satisfy SOC 2 requirements for enterprise clients, our compliance gap analysis shows you exactly which controls are satisfied, which are partially implemented, and which are missing entirely. Each gap comes with a remediation recommendation, estimated implementation timeline, and resource requirements so your team can build a realistic compliance roadmap.

The final deliverable is a comprehensive report that speaks to both technical and executive audiences. The executive summary provides a risk posture score, key findings, and strategic recommendations in business terms. The technical detail section includes evidence, reproduction steps, and specific remediation guidance for each finding. PTG then conducts a live findings review with your leadership and technical teams to walk through the results, answer questions, and collaboratively develop a remediation timeline that aligns with your budget and operational constraints.

Core Capabilities

Six Pillars of IT Security Risk Assessment Excellence

Each capability is delivered by senior security professionals with deep expertise in both the technical and regulatory dimensions of risk, backed by PTG's 22-year track record of zero breaches among managed clients.

Vulnerability Discovery & Validation

Enterprise-grade scanning across your entire attack surface: external perimeters, internal networks, wireless segments, web applications, APIs, cloud configurations, and endpoint postures. Every finding is manually validated by senior assessors to eliminate false positives. We cross-reference results against the National Vulnerability Database, vendor advisories, and active threat intelligence feeds to ensure your risk register reflects real-world exploitability rather than theoretical weaknesses. The output is a clean, actionable vulnerability inventory you can trust.

Quantitative Risk Scoring

Not all vulnerabilities carry equal weight. PTG applies a multidimensional scoring methodology that evaluates each finding by exploitation likelihood, technical severity (CVSS), business impact, data sensitivity, regulatory implications, and remediation cost. The result is a ranked risk register and visual heat map that tells leadership exactly where the greatest exposures lie and where each dollar of remediation investment will deliver the highest return on risk reduction. Your security budget stops being guesswork and becomes strategy.

Compliance Gap Analysis

PTG maps every assessment finding to the specific controls required by your applicable frameworks: NIST CSF, NIST SP 800-53, NIST SP 800-171, HIPAA Security Rule, PCI DSS, SOC 2, CMMC, ISO 27001, and more. Our control-by-control scoring reveals which requirements are fully satisfied, partially implemented, or entirely missing. For organizations subject to multiple frameworks, we consolidate overlapping controls to prevent duplicate effort. The deliverable is a compliance roadmap with prioritized remediation steps, estimated timelines, and resource requirements.

Security Posture Evaluation

Technology alone does not determine your risk exposure. PTG evaluates your organizational security maturity across every dimension: security policies and procedures, access control practices, network segmentation, data classification, encryption standards, backup and disaster recovery readiness, incident response plans, vendor risk management, and employee security awareness. We produce a maturity score benchmarked against industry peers, so you understand not just where you stand today but how far you need to go to reach your target state.

Threat Modeling & Attack Path Analysis

PTG identifies the threat actors most likely to target your organization based on your industry, data assets, and geographic profile. We map realistic attack paths that chain individual vulnerabilities into multi-step compromise scenarios, revealing how an attacker could escalate from initial access to full data exfiltration. This approach exposes risks that isolated vulnerability scanning misses: the combination of a weak password policy, an unpatched internal server, and overly permissive file shares that together create a clear path to your most sensitive data.

Prioritized Remediation Roadmap

Every PTG risk assessment culminates in a detailed remediation roadmap that transforms findings into action. Each recommendation is ranked by risk severity, compliance impact, and implementation effort. We provide specific technical guidance, estimated timelines, resource requirements, and cost projections so your team can build a realistic remediation plan that fits your budget. Quick wins that dramatically reduce risk with minimal effort are highlighted separately to generate immediate security improvements while longer-term initiatives progress through your change management process.

Proven Track Record

Numbers That Speak Louder Than Promises

For more than two decades, Petronella Technology Group has been the security partner that businesses across the Research Triangle and North Carolina trust when accuracy, compliance, and zero tolerance for risk are non-negotiable.

PTG's zero-breach (for managed security clients) record among managed clients is not a marketing tagline. It is the operational outcome of a security practice built on systematic risk assessment, continuous monitoring, rapid incident response, and an unwavering commitment to doing the work that most organizations skip. Every engagement starts with a thorough assessment because you cannot defend what you have not measured. Our assessors have evaluated environments ranging from ten-person law firms to multi-site healthcare networks with thousands of endpoints, and the methodology is always the same: rigorous, framework-aligned, and exhaustively documented.

Our clients consistently report that PTG's risk assessments have directly contributed to successful compliance audits, reduced cyber insurance premiums, improved board-level confidence in security investments, and, most importantly, the absence of security incidents that would have cost orders of magnitude more than the assessment itself. When auditors arrive, our clients hand them a current risk register, a compliance mapping document, and a remediation timeline that demonstrates ongoing due diligence. That documentation transforms audits from stressful events into routine validations.

The Research Triangle's diverse business ecosystem demands a security partner who understands the specific regulatory and threat environments that different industries face. Healthcare organizations in the Triangle need HIPAA-aligned assessments that satisfy OCR audit requirements. Defense contractors in RTP need NIST SP 800-171 and CMMC-ready evaluations. Financial services firms in Raleigh and Durham need PCI DSS gap analyses and SOC 2 preparation. Technology startups need to demonstrate security maturity to enterprise prospects before closing their next contract. PTG serves all of these communities with the same depth of expertise and the same zero-compromise standard.

What sets PTG apart from national consultancies that fly analysts in for a week and disappear is our permanence and accountability. We are rooted in this community. Our senior assessors live and work in the Triangle. When you have a question about a finding six months after the assessment, we are a phone call away. When a new vulnerability is disclosed that affects your environment, we proactively notify you. When your next audit cycle arrives, we already know your environment and can update the assessment efficiently rather than starting from scratch. That continuity creates compounding value that transient consultancies simply cannot match.

Industry Applications

Risk Assessments Tailored to Your Industry

Every industry carries a unique risk profile shaped by its data types, regulatory requirements, threat actors, and operational dependencies. PTG adapts its assessment methodology to deliver maximum relevance for your sector.

Healthcare & HIPAA

HIPAA Security Rule risk assessments are not optional; they are a regulatory requirement. PTG evaluates your administrative, physical, and technical safeguards against every Security Rule standard, identifies ePHI exposure points, and produces the documentation that satisfies OCR auditors and prevents penalties that can exceed $1.5 million per violation category. We serve medical practices, dental offices, hospitals, health IT vendors, and business associates throughout Raleigh, Durham, and the Triangle.

Financial Services & PCI DSS

Organizations that process, store, or transmit cardholder data face PCI DSS compliance mandates with real financial consequences for non-compliance. PTG conducts PCI-aligned risk assessments that identify gaps in your cardholder data environment, evaluate segmentation controls, assess access management and encryption practices, and deliver the documentation required for your SAQ or ROC. We also prepare organizations for SOC 2 audits demanded by enterprise clients.

Government Contractors & CMMC

Defense contractors and government subcontractors in the Research Triangle must meet NIST SP 800-171 controls and prepare for CMMC certification. PTG assesses your environment against all 110 NIST SP 800-171 security requirements, identifies CUI handling gaps, scores your SPRS submission, and builds a Plan of Actions and Milestones (POA&M) that demonstrates progress toward full compliance. Losing a government contract due to a failed assessment costs far more than the assessment itself.

Legal & Professional Services

Law firms and professional services organizations hold some of the most sensitive client data in existence. State bar associations and enterprise clients increasingly require documented security risk assessments before entrusting firms with confidential matters. PTG evaluates your data handling practices, communication security, client file protections, and remote work controls to ensure your firm meets both ethical obligations and client security requirements.

Technology & SaaS

Technology companies and SaaS providers in the Triangle need to demonstrate security maturity to enterprise prospects, investors, and partners. PTG conducts risk assessments that align with SOC 2, ISO 27001, and customer security questionnaire requirements, giving your sales team the documentation needed to close deals with security-conscious buyers. We evaluate your application security, cloud infrastructure, DevOps pipeline, and data isolation practices.

Manufacturing & Critical Infrastructure

Manufacturers and critical infrastructure operators face growing cyber threats to both IT and OT environments. PTG assesses the convergence points where operational technology meets information technology, identifies vulnerabilities in industrial control systems and SCADA networks, and evaluates the segmentation controls that prevent a network intrusion from crossing into physical operations. Our assessments address NIST CSF requirements and industry-specific guidance for protecting operational continuity.

Why Choose PTG

What Sets Petronella Technology Group Apart for Security Risk Assessments

Choosing a security risk assessment partner is a decision that affects your compliance status, your insurance posture, your board's confidence, and ultimately whether an attacker succeeds or fails. PTG brings a combination of depth, transparency, and local accountability that national fly-in consultancies and automated scan vendors cannot replicate. Here is why more than 2,500 organizations across North Carolina have trusted PTG with their security.

Our senior assessors are not recent graduates reading from a playbook. They are seasoned security professionals with deep expertise across NIST, HIPAA, PCI DSS, CMMC, SOC 2, and ISO 27001 frameworks. They have evaluated environments ranging from single-location medical practices to distributed enterprise networks, and they bring that accumulated experience to every engagement. When an unusual configuration or an edge-case compliance question arises, our team has the knowledge to handle it without escalation or delay.

  • ✓ 22+ Years of Proven Expertise: More than two decades of protecting organizations across Raleigh, Durham, RTP, and the Triangle with a strong security track record for clients on our managed program among managed clients.
  • ✓ Framework-Aligned Methodology: Assessments are mapped to NIST CSF, HIPAA, PCI DSS, CMMC, SOC 2, and ISO 27001, ensuring every finding has direct compliance relevance.
  • ✓ Human-Validated Findings: Every vulnerability is manually verified by senior assessors, eliminating the false positives that erode trust in automated-only reports.
  • ✓ Transparent Pricing: Detailed scoping consultations and upfront quotes mean no surprise invoices. You know the cost before work begins.
  • ✓ Actionable Deliverables: Our reports include executive summaries, technical detail, risk heat maps, compliance gap matrices, and prioritized remediation roadmaps with effort estimates.
  • ✓ Local Accountability: PTG is rooted in the Triangle community. Our assessors are available for follow-up questions, remediation guidance, and re-assessments long after the initial report is delivered.
  • ✓ Minimal Business Disruption: Scanning is performed during off-peak hours. Interviews are scheduled around your team's availability. In 22+ years, we have maintained a zero-downtime record for assessment activities.
Frequently Asked Questions

IT Security Risk Assessment FAQs

Get clear, direct answers to the most common questions about IT security risk assessments, compliance frameworks, timelines, costs, and what to expect when you partner with PTG.

An IT security risk assessment is a systematic process that identifies, analyzes, and evaluates security risks across your entire technology environment. It examines your networks, servers, endpoints, cloud services, applications, data storage, and human processes to discover vulnerabilities and quantify the likelihood and potential impact of security incidents. The result is a prioritized risk register and remediation roadmap that tells your team exactly where to invest for maximum protection. PTG's assessments follow NIST, HIPAA, and PCI DSS frameworks to ensure compliance alignment alongside practical security improvement.
At minimum, organizations should conduct a comprehensive security risk assessment annually. However, several events should trigger an interim assessment: major infrastructure changes such as cloud migrations or new office locations, mergers and acquisitions, deployment of new applications or services, significant changes in regulatory requirements, after a security incident or near-miss, and when onboarding new vendors with access to sensitive data. HIPAA-regulated entities are required to perform risk assessments regularly, and PCI DSS mandates quarterly vulnerability scanning at minimum. PTG recommends a continuous assessment posture for organizations with elevated threat profiles.
PTG conducts risk assessments aligned with all major compliance frameworks including NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF), NIST SP 800-53, NIST SP 800-171, HIPAA Security Rule, PCI DSS, SOC 2 Type I and Type II, CMMC (Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification), ISO 27001, GDPR, and state-specific privacy regulations. Our assessors map findings to the specific controls required by your applicable frameworks, produce compliance gap reports with control-by-control scoring, and deliver remediation plans that address the highest-risk gaps first. For organizations subject to multiple frameworks, we consolidate overlapping controls to avoid duplicate remediation effort.
A risk assessment is a broad evaluation that identifies vulnerabilities, evaluates threats, quantifies business impact, and prioritizes risks across your entire IT environment. It examines policies, processes, technical controls, and human factors. A penetration test is a focused, hands-on exercise where ethical hackers actively attempt to exploit specific vulnerabilities to prove they are real and measure how far an attacker could progress. Think of the risk assessment as the strategic blueprint and the penetration test as the tactical validation. PTG recommends combining both services for complete coverage. Explore our penetration testing services to learn more.
The timeline depends on the size and complexity of your environment. A small business with a single location and straightforward infrastructure typically requires two to three weeks from kickoff to final report delivery. Mid-size organizations with multiple locations, cloud environments, and compliance requirements generally need four to six weeks. Large enterprises with complex hybrid architectures and multiple regulatory obligations may require eight to twelve weeks for a thorough assessment. PTG provides a detailed project timeline during the scoping phase so your team can plan accordingly. We schedule scanning and interviews to minimize disruption to daily operations.
PTG's assessment follows a structured six-phase methodology. Phase one is scoping and discovery, where we catalog your assets, map data flows, and identify applicable compliance requirements. Phase two is vulnerability scanning, using enterprise-grade tools to discover technical weaknesses across networks, endpoints, and applications. Phase three involves threat analysis, where we evaluate threat actors, attack vectors, and likelihood ratings specific to your industry. Phase four is risk scoring, applying quantitative methods to rank every finding by exploitability, business impact, and affected asset criticality. Phase five is compliance mapping, aligning findings to your required frameworks and identifying control gaps. Phase six delivers a comprehensive report with executive summary, detailed technical findings, risk heat maps, and a prioritized remediation roadmap with estimated effort and cost.
Cost varies based on the scope of the engagement, the number of assets and locations, the compliance frameworks involved, and the depth of assessment required. PTG provides transparent pricing after an initial scoping consultation, so there are never surprise charges. For context, the average data breach costs $4.45 million nationally, HIPAA violation penalties can exceed $1.5 million, and PCI non-compliance fines reach $100,000 per month. A proactive risk assessment is a fraction of those costs. Contact PTG at 919-348-4912 for a free consultation and customized quote tailored to your environment.
PTG designs every assessment engagement to minimize operational disruption. Vulnerability scanning is typically performed during off-peak hours or maintenance windows. Employee interviews and policy reviews are scheduled around your team's availability. Passive network monitoring and configuration analysis do not impact system performance. We coordinate closely with your IT staff throughout the process and provide advance notice before any active testing. In more than 22 years and over 2,500 client engagements, PTG has maintained a zero-downtime record for assessment activities.
After the assessment, PTG delivers a comprehensive report that includes an executive summary for leadership, detailed technical findings with evidence, a risk register scored by severity and likelihood, a compliance gap analysis with control-by-control mapping, and a prioritized remediation roadmap with estimated timelines and resource requirements. We then conduct a findings review meeting where our assessors walk your technical and executive teams through the results, answer questions, and help you plan remediation. PTG can also provide ongoing remediation support, re-assessment services to validate that fixes are effective, and continuous monitoring to maintain your improved security posture over time.
PTG combines the technical depth of a national security consultancy with the responsiveness and accountability of a local partner rooted in the Raleigh-Durham and Research Triangle community. With 22-plus years of experience protecting more than 2,500 organizations, we bring unmatched regional expertise and a strong security track record for clients on our managed program among managed clients. National firms often assign junior analysts and cycle through account managers. At PTG, senior assessors handle your engagement from start to finish and remain available for questions long after the report is delivered. Our proximity means faster on-site response when physical assessments or urgent consultations are needed. We understand the regulatory landscape, threat environment, and business culture of North Carolina organizations at a level that remote consultancies cannot match.
Take the First Step

Stop Guessing. Start Knowing.
Schedule Your Risk Assessment Today.

Every day without a documented security risk assessment is a day your organization operates with unknown vulnerabilities, unquantified exposure, and compliance gaps that auditors and attackers will eventually find. PTG's assessment gives you the clarity to invest wisely, the documentation to satisfy regulators and insurers, and the confidence that comes from knowing exactly where you stand. Call us today or schedule a free consultation to get started.

Schedule a Free Consultation Call 919-348-4912

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