Automated security testing is a cybersecurity practice that uses specialized software tools to systematically identify vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and security policy violations across applications, networks, and infrastructure. This approach integrates security checks directly into continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines and throughout the software development lifecycle (SDLC), enabling organizations to detect and remediate security flaws proactively through a 'shift-left' methodology.

By programmatically executing various security assessments—including static application security testing (SAST), dynamic application security testing (DAST), and software composition analysis (SCA)—automated security testing dramatically reduces manual overhead while accelerating vulnerability identification. This ensures security becomes an intrinsic, continuous consideration that scales across complex environments, strengthening an organization's defensive capabilities against evolving cyber threats.