Case Study: Desert Research Institute achieves affordable, autonomous pentesting and improved network visibility with Horizon3.ai’s NodeZero

Higher Education Institution Finds a Real Look at Vulnerabilities and Exploits with NodeZero

The Desert Research Institute needed an affordable, easy-to-run way to perform penetration testing and vulnerability scanning across a highly segmented environment (about 100 subnets and ~5,000 IPs). Seeking to avoid costly, recurring red-team engagements and aggressive scanners that disrupted systems, Desert Research Institute adopted NodeZero from Horizon3.ai for an autonomous, budget-friendly pentest program.

Horizon3.ai’s NodeZero — a containerized, AI-driven autonomous pentest — was deployed to run internal and external scans, enable one-click verification of remediations, and let a small, junior team operate tests without disrupting users. As a result, Desert Research Institute now runs 40+ tests monthly (scanning ~100 network segments quarterly), has improved visibility across its networks, remediated exploitable vulnerabilities more quickly, and reduced reliance on expensive external pentesting.

Desert Research Institute

Ryan Coots

Information Security Officer