Mergers and acquisitions can be an incredible way to grow a business, but they can also be a fast track to inheriting someone else’s mess. The cyber posture of an acquired company is often a mystery until the ink is dry. That is why we built an approach that is practical, fast and cost-effective for cyber security in mergers and acquisitions.
Too many organisations waste time and money on over-engineered consultancy exercises that leave stakeholders confused and systems unchanged. What actually matters is knowing what you bought, understanding the risks, and bringing that company into your house rules quickly. That is exactly what this method delivers.
Cyber Security in Mergers and Acquisitions: Start with a Cyber MOT
We kick things off with a cyber MOT. Simple idea: check under the bonnet before you start driving. If more than half of the checks come back poor, we don’t sugar-coat it. We run a compromise assessment, against the newly acquired company, mapped against your threat profile. That way we know if the new business is going to drag risk straight into your environment like glitter on a carpet. Impossible to get rid of.
No fluff. No 200-slide decks. Just clarity.
Visibility is King
- No visibility? We run a visibility and monitoring assessment, nail down the most important assets, and get the data flowing.
- Some visibility? Great. We pull it into our monitoring plan.
- Already got a SIEM? Fine, but we are not running two. We offboard the old supplier and bring everything into our platform or assist your current provider in ensuring your most likely threats are covered.
Here is where we differ from the big consultancies. They will spend months “strategising” and running workshops before anyone even logs in. We just get the kit talking so we know what is really going on. Data over theory. Every time.
One of the worst practices in the MSSP world is charging extra every time a customer wants to onboard a new log source. It sounds harmless, but it pushes organisations into making ridiculous trade-offs.
Get the People on Side
Tech is easy. People are harder. That is why we align every new acquisition with your culture, standards and policies straight away. Everyone gets trained, everyone gets awareness, and it’s all customised to fit what you need as a business.
That way there is no “them and us.” Just one company, one rule of law.
We Don’t Charge for Onboarding
One of the worst practices in the MSSP world is charging extra every time a customer wants to onboard a new log source. It sounds harmless, but it pushes organisations into making ridiculous trade-offs. Do you monitor the endpoint estate properly, or do you cover the cloud workloads? It is like being forced to choose whether to run a train over a puppy or a granny. Neither option is acceptable.
If it costs you to expand your security monitoring, then the perverse incentive is to not expand it. Which is exactly how bad business practices lead to poor security outcomes.
Our approach is different. We do not penalise growth. If you want to ingest more logs, you can. Yes, storage costs might rise as visibility expands, but our service includes continuous engineering support and cost optimisation. That means the SIEM is tuned to trigger only on relevant, useful alerts. The result is that we can onboard anything without increasing service charges and without forcing dangerous compromises.
Why This Works
This is not about shiny frameworks or long-winded programmes. This is about making acquisitions secure, compliant and productive fast. The sooner an acquired company is under control, the sooner it can start adding value. That is the whole point of M&A.
Moving Forward
The old way of doing cyber security in mergers and acquisitions is broken. It is bloated, slow and confusing. The future is agile, realistic and cost effective. Switch on visibility. Align people and policies. Make it secure. Then get back to doing business.
That is how you grow safely. That is how you turn acquisitions into assets, not liabilities.
Don’t wait until cyber risks catch up with you. Our team specialises in compromise assessments for acquisitions, SIEM consolidation for acquired companies, and comprehensive monitoring and threat detection for mergers. Get in touch today to learn about our approach to cyber security in mergers and acquisitions to protect your new assets and ensure a smooth, secure integration.
Call us on +44 20 8133 0660 or fill out our contact form and we’ll help you get it sorted.
