SAFEGUARD SCANNING & EVIDENCING are critical
How cybersecurity impacts company valuation in M&A transactions
The most common deal-breakers in a sale or acquisition are lack of investment philosophy alignment and firm culture fit but it’s often undisclosed or breach information that can change deal valuations.
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For Buyers & Sellers
Cybersecurity can be overlooked in due diligence, but it’s a business risk and readily impacts the financial performance of a deal.
Are you buying firms?
reduce future liabilities
Examine and assess organizational exposure to cyber risk before the acquisition to ensure lower cybersecurity risk and liabilities
Are you selling your firm?
increase your valuation
Don't wait for security issues to be uncovered during due diligence - take a proactive approach with an assessment to cyber risk before selling
Testimonial
“FCI reduces our liability risk with a thorough Security Assessment of the Firms we acquire.”
Liz Tluchowski
Chief Information and Security Officer Principal
World Insurance Associates LLC
FCI expertise at its best
M&A Security Assessment
Often CISOs learn about or are asked to engage in acquisitions late in the deal lifecycle. This can expose organizations to significant risk. More than one in three executives surveyed said they have experienced data breaches that can be attributed to M&A activity during integration.
Scope & Deliverables
- Information Security Policies & Procedures Questionnaire
- Technical Controls Security Assessment
- Compliance Evidencing
- Remediation Plan & Actions
- Report & Recommendations
Ransomware Attackers Begin to Eye Midmarket Acquisition Targets
March 1, 2022
It just cost a Private Equity firm $1.2 million to have its systems released
HOW DO WE DIFFERENTIATE
Why chose FCI?
It is our job to go deeper. We ask for, validate, and document evidence of everything we audit. We also produce an initial report with recommendations, give you the opportunity to fix (remediate) what you can, and then re-assess what was changed. This process will give you an optimized final report!
FCI's Unique Way to Assess
- Trust but verify
- Ask and document evidence/proof
- Deliver first report with recommendations
- Allow for remediation
- Reassess and deliver final report
IBM’s Institute for Business Value
2019 Benchmark Study
Often CISOs learn about or are asked to engage in acquisitions late in the deal lifecycle. This can expose organizations to significant risk. More than one in three executives surveyed said they have experienced data breaches that can be attributed to M&A activity during integration.
industry trend
A Record Year for M&A Activity
2021 was another record in the number of deals and total client assets exchanged in the Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) industry which is likely to continue in 2022.
Echelon Partners’ RIA M&A Deal Report 2021 Annual Report and 2022 Outlook stated states that a total of $576 billion in client assets changed hands in 2021, an increase of almost 81% over 2020.
2021 M&A activity was hyperactive, with seller segments of all sizes surging. A seasoned and expanding
buyer pool was somewhat stretched to serve the 240+
sellers.
60% of the reported transactions occurred among firms with less than $50MM in AUM, which reflects the ongoing focus on partnering with larger, more mature firms to pursue continued growth and solve for succession
Safeguard Scanning & Evidencing
For Domains, CLOUDS, Networks & Endpoints
Technical Controls Security Assessment
- External & Internal Vulnerabilities
- Automated Vulnerability Scan
- Network Penetration Testing
- Dark Web Credential Scan
- Unrestricted Web Content
- Local Security Policy Consistency
- Identification of Unfollowed Technical Governance Procedures
Compliance Evidencing
- Screenshots & Pictures
- Summary & Detailed Reports
- Risk Score
Remediation Plan of Actions
- Remediation Recommendation
Pricing based on
- Number of domains, networks, servers, and endpoints
- Number of assessment teams for multiple domains or networks
