A yearly software security review goes stale because the software changes and so does the list of known flaws. A component that was clean in March can have a published flaw by April. Continuous checking re-runs the match as either side changes, so the answer stays current.
Two things move at once
Your software changes with every release. The public record of known flaws grows constantly, and a scoring body such as FIRST publishes ratings for new entries all the time. A review compares one fixed state of your software with one fixed state of that record. A week later, neither is the same.
Snapshot against stream
| Annual review | Continuous checking | |
|---|---|---|
| What it shows | State on one day | State now |
| New flaw announced next week | Not seen until next year | Flagged when it matches |
| New release | Not covered until next review | Checked at release |
| Evidence for customers | One dated report | A running record |
| Effort pattern | Big push once a year | Small steady steps |
What a snapshot is still good for
Annual reviews are useful for looking at the whole program: Who owns what? Are the policies current? Did we meet our own targets? They are less good at answering "are we affected today?" Use both, with different jobs.
What to ask for
- A current inventory with a visible refresh date
- An automatic match against new flaw announcements
- A short list of items known to be exploited, drawing on a source such as the CISA catalog, which CISA recommends as an input to prioritization
- A record of decisions and fixes with dates
Cost and effort
Continuous does not mean constant human attention. It means the matching runs automatically and people look only when something needs a decision. The effort moves from a big yearly scramble to a short weekly review.
Where Safeguard fits
Safeguard supports continuous monitoring of dependencies and SBOMs, and evidence automation to keep a dated record. You can run a free scan to see a first inventory.
Try it yourself
Watch how a new finding appears over time and compare it with what a once a year snapshot would have shown.
Click through it at your own pace, or open it full screen.
Quick check
Do we still need an annual audit?
Many programs keep one for governance. It complements continuous checking rather than replacing it.
How often should an SBOM refresh?
At least at every release, and ideally on every build, so it matches what ships.
Sources
Last reviewed: 19 October 2026.
