As we near the halfway point of the year, organizations are under tremendous pressure to grow businesses across all industries. It’s no secret: bottom lines must rise and 2024 has been earmarked as a pivotal year to revert to growth mode. Many organizations will find an uphill battle here; the previous few years have taken a significant toll. From supply chain issues, layoffs, delayed pipelines, and stalled progress due to pulled focus, we are due for a burst of innovation.

Of course, there are a multitude of paths businesses can take to achieve this, all afforded by an increased focus on generative AI and leveraging all the technology has to offer. We’ll see some building in-house, implementing from third parties, or fostering new partnerships. Another viable option is acquiring the technology.

IPOs, mergers, and acquisitions are beginning to rebound heavily. We’ll see this line of decision making across all industries – from those combining efforts for the sake of time to go to market, joining forces to attain better market share against competitors, or to simply keep better pace with the direction technology is taking us. While this is the much-needed progress the economy is craving, it’s not without its potential pitfalls: we can agree security must be at the forefront of all these conversations.

Prepare now, thank yourself later

While these mergers and acquisitions can be a positive catalyst for progress, the urge to rapidly close deals and return to business operations can outweigh ensuring proper security measures are in place – and so companies aren’t adopting one another’s poor security posture or hygiene. And this happens more often than you may think, and more often than our future may be prepared to accommodate.

A 2020 IBM Institute of Business Value study showed more than one in three executives have experienced data breaches that can be attributed to M&A activity during integration. So, what’s to be done? As cybersecurity professionals, we take a page from Ben Franklin – we know the only certainties in life are death, taxes… and breaches. While Mr. Franklin may have only faced the former two, we have long reconciled with the continual work to be done regarding security and protecting our industries and the societies we serve.

It is time to apply the best practices we’ve garnered through our years of experience and apply them through the lens of increased M&A activity. We know it’s no secret that many businesses are still navigating their journey to or in the cloud, so if M&A activity were to enter the equation as well, complications would likely arise. This heightened risk underscores the need for extremely thorough cybersecurity assessments and proactive measures to mitigate potential threats associated with the cloud and the multitude of applications and workloads containing restricted data it hosts. Just as it’s advisable to conduct an inspection before purchasing and closing on a home, cybersecurity professionals and C-suite executives must do the same. It would be a shame to move in and find a faulty water heater or cracked foundation as an unexpected challenge, cost, and hindrance.

All-encompassing visibility is critical in mergers or acquisitions and cloud-native application protection platforms (CNAPP) are ideal to provide this capability. It’s how cybersecurity professionals can find the cracks in the foundation, identifying and then remediating unknown or unmanaged risks to safeguard sensitive information and ensure no roadblocks or stop gates are present to compromise deals. Ultimately, in the face of increasing M&A activity, cybersecurity teams must prioritize thorough reviews, adopt comprehensive security platforms, and implement robust mitigation strategies to effectively manage cloud security and minimize the risk of data breaches.

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