The Painful Cost of Skipping Regular Security Testing
In June 2025, regulators concluded their investigation into the 2023 23andMe data breach, which exposed sensitive genetic and personal information of millions of users. Beyond the headlines, one finding stood out: the company lacked “an appropriate process for regularly testing, assessing, and evaluating the effectiveness of its security controls.”
That single phrase should make every business leader pause.
What Went Wrong
The attack itself wasn’t especially sophisticated—it exploited reused credentials from other breaches (a “credential stuffing” campaign). What turned a manageable incident into a major data compromise was the absence of a rigorous, recurring technical testing program. Without scheduled penetration tests or continuous vulnerability scanning, there was no early warning that authentication, session management, or anomaly-detection controls were underperforming.
As the regulator’s report shows, even tech-savvy organizations can fall victim when their security testing becomes reactive instead of routine.
The Cost of Complacency
The consequences for 23andMe included months of negative press, regulatory penalties, class-action lawsuits, and erosion of customer trust. But the underlying issue wasn’t unique to them. Many organizations rely on annual compliance checkboxes or one-off audits—believing these are “good enough.” In practice, attackers move faster than compliance cycles.
Security controls that aren’t validated through continuous testing tend to drift. Password policies grow stale, MFA exceptions pile up, and forgotten web applications remain exposed.
How Mile High Cyber Helps
At Mile High Cyber, we build cyber assurance programs that close this gap. Our approach combines:
Frequent vulnerability scanning to identify weaknesses as soon as they appear—before attackers can exploit them.
Regular penetration testing that simulates real-world attack paths and validates whether defenses actually work.
Managed detection and response (MDR) that detects suspicious activity quickly so that attacks can be shutdown before they become serious data breaches.
Actionable reporting and remediation tracking so IT and leadership teams see not just what’s wrong, but how to fix it.
Together, these services form a proactive shield—turning “we think we’re secure” into “we know we’re resilient.”
Don’t Wait for a Breach to Learn the Lesson
The 23andMe case underscores that cybersecurity isn’t a set-and-forget discipline. Testing must be continuous, technical, and human-led. A few missed scans or postponed pen tests can turn into multi-million-dollar consequences.
If your organization hasn’t had a technical assessment in the last 6–12 months, now is the time to act.
Schedule a consultation with Mile High Cyber to build a testing cadence that keeps you ahead of the next headline. Contact us today!