Mitigating M&A Cyber Risk: Pre- & Post-Acquisition Due Diligence
Why M&A cybersecurity due diligence?
Robust cybersecurity due diligence on a potential target is imperative in the face of escalating cyber threats and regulatory expectations. Comprehensive pre- and post-acquisition due diligence help safeguard the buyer’s investment by identifying and mitigating information security risks associated with the transaction. This includes defining and implementing minimum standards for an acquisition not immediately integrated.
Why M&A cybersecurity due diligence?
- Serves as a crucial risk mitigation tool to uncover undisclosed breaches and better assess the time and cost required to bring target up to defined information security standards.
- Provides leverage in negotiations for purchase price adjustments and additional representations/ warranties by the seller.
- Identifies ways to reduce insider threats, stemming from potential job security concerns of target’s employees.
- Positions the buyer to capitalize on the Self-Disclosure Compliance Safe Harbor Policy from the US Department of Justice.
- Reduces regulatory and third-party litigation exposure to the buyer, as well as whistleblower risk.
Representative cyber due diligence work streams pre-acquisition
Representative cyber due diligence activities post-acquisition
We invite you to reach out to continue the conversation around ways to reduce information security risk associated with a transaction, and/or other forensic areas of interest, such as fraud, theft of trade secrets, cybercrime, accounting irregularities, export controls and sanctions compliance, bribery and corruption, and anti-money laundering.
About CRA
CRA’s award-winning Forensic Services Practice leverages the experience derived from conducting thousands of cyber incident response investigations to help clients proactively reduce business and compliance risk, including cyber risk. Recent accolades include being named CrowdStrike’s Americas Engagement Licensing Program Partner of the Year and Tanium’s Information Security Innovation Partner of the Year. Numerous colleagues have been recognized by Who’s Who Legal and included in The Consulting Report’s list of “Top Cybersecurity Consultants.”
Contact
Kristofer Swanson, CPA/CFF, CFE, CAMS
Vice President and Practice Leader, Forensic Services
+1-312-619-3313 | [email protected]
Aniket Bhardwaj, GREM, GCIA, GNFA, GCFA
Vice President, Forensic Services
+1-416-323-5574 | [email protected]
CRA’s Forensic Services Practice – including our digital forensics, eDiscovery, and cyber incident response lab – is certified under ISO 27001 standards. The Practice has been recognized by National Law Journal, Global Investigations Review, and ranked by Chambers. CRA’s clients over the past two years included 97% of the Am Law 100 law firms, and 82% of the Fortune 100 companies.
