diff --git a/bin/ssa-end-to-end-testing/modules/github_service.py b/bin/ssa-end-to-end-testing/modules/github_service.py
index bec2b63469..a7cafc5fef 100644
--- a/bin/ssa-end-to-end-testing/modules/github_service.py
+++ b/bin/ssa-end-to-end-testing/modules/github_service.py
@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@ class GithubService:
         branch2 = 'develop'
         g = git.Git('security_content')
         changed_ssa_test_files = []
+        ci_changes = False
 
         if branch1 != 'develop':
             differ = g.diff('--name-only', branch1, branch2)
@@ -55,6 +56,10 @@ class GithubService:
                         if file_path_new not in changed_ssa_test_files:
                             changed_ssa_test_files.append(file_path_new)
 
+                # changed CI code
+                if file_path == '.gitlab-ci.yml' or file_path.startswith('bin/ssa-end-to-end-testing'):
+                    ci_changes = True
+
         # all SSA test files for nightly build
         else:
             changed_files = sorted(glob.glob('security_content/tests/*/*.yml'))
@@ -64,7 +69,11 @@ class GithubService:
                 if os.path.basename(file_path).startswith('ssa'):
                     changed_ssa_test_files.append(file_path)
 
-        return changed_ssa_test_files
+                # changed CI code
+                if file_path == '.gitlab-ci.yml' or file_path.startswith('bin/ssa-end-to-end-testing'):
+                    ci_changes = True
+
+        return changed_ssa_test_files, ci_changes
 
 
 
diff --git a/bin/ssa-end-to-end-testing/run_ssa_smoketest.py b/bin/ssa-end-to-end-testing/run_ssa_smoketest.py
index 0a04350170..396b4d8ea6 100644
--- a/bin/ssa-end-to-end-testing/run_ssa_smoketest.py
+++ b/bin/ssa-end-to-end-testing/run_ssa_smoketest.py
@@ -39,22 +39,30 @@ def main(args):
 
     # Retrieve Security Content
     github_service = GithubService(branch)
+    ci_changes = False
     if test_file:
         if not os.path.isfile('security_content/tests/' + test_file):
             LOGGER.error('Can not find specified test file')
             sys.exit(1)
         test_files_ssa = [str("tests/" + test_file)]
     else:
-        test_files_ssa = github_service.get_changed_test_files_ssa()
+        test_files_ssa, ci_changes = github_service.get_changed_test_files_ssa()
     
     LOGGER.info('changed/added GitHub files:')
     for test_file in test_files_ssa:
         LOGGER.info(test_file)
 
-    if len(test_files_ssa) == 0:
+    if ci_changes:
+        LOGGER.info('CI code has changed')
+
+    if len(test_files_ssa) == 0 and not ci_changes:
         LOGGER.info('Nothing to test for SSA smoke test.')
         sys.exit(0)
 
+    if len(test_files_ssa) == 0 and ci_changes and fast:
+        LOGGER.error('Cannot test CI changes since no detections/tests have changed and running in fast mode.')
+        sys.exit(-1)
+
     # test DSP and SSA pipeline
     ssa_detection_testing = SSADetectionTesting(env, tenant, token)
     if not fast: