The Importance of Security Scans During Mergers and Acquisitions

In today's digital age, mergers and acquisitions have become increasingly common. While these business deals can be beneficial to all parties involved, they can also present significant risks if not executed properly. One area of concern that must never be overlooked is cybersecurity.

In order to ensure the safety and security of both companies during a merger or acquisition, security scans are an essential tool. A security scan is essentially a process of testing a company's existing security measures to identify vulnerabilities that might otherwise go unnoticed. During a merger or acquisition, it's important to have a comprehensive understanding of each company's security posture. This can be achieved through a series of scans that aim to identify potential risks and vulnerabilities in the IT infrastructure. Once identified, these risks can be remedied through a variety of security measures – from simple software updates to more complex network reconfigurations.

A security scan can be tailored to the unique needs of each company, taking into account the specific software, hardware and network configurations in use. However, it is important to note that a company should never rely solely on security scans. While they are an important tool in the fight against cyber-attacks, they are not a panacea. Companies must continually update and improve their cybersecurity measures to stay one step ahead of evolving threats. In conclusion, security scans are an essential tool for companies going through a merger or acquisition. They provide a comprehensive overview of each company's security posture, allowing for the identification of potential risks and vulnerabilities that might otherwise go unnoticed.

But just scanning for vulnerabilities is not enough, you have to fix each vulnerability to improve the security posture. So you need careful planning of activities and capacity for scanning and fixing the issues.

In acquisitions, security scans are often carried out on request of the acquiring company. If the time between sign and close of a deal is not sufficient to fix the issues, what do you do? Do you disconnect the target from the internet? Certainly not. You have to find a way to harden the security of the target while you are fixing the issues. I will share how to do that in one of my following blog entries.