M&A presents a unique set of challenges and opportunities. When two companies merge or one acquires another, their IT systems, security postures, and data assets converge. If not managed carefully, this process can create vulnerabilities and expose both organizations to increased cyber risk.  

Here's how M&A creates cybersecurity concerns:

• Expanded attack surface: The combined entity has a larger digital footprint, including more systems, applications, and data, increasing potential entry points for attackers.

• Integration complexities: Merging disparate IT systems and security protocols can create gaps and inconsistencies in security controls.  

• Inherited vulnerabilities: The acquired company may have unknown vulnerabilities or security weaknesses that could be exploited.

• Data security and privacy: Integrating sensitive data from both organizations requires careful planning to ensure compliance with regulations and prevent data breaches.  

• Third-party risks: The acquired company may have relationships with third-party vendors that introduce new risks to the combined entity.  

ThreatNG significantly enhances M&A cybersecurity by providing a rapid, objective, and continuously updated external "cyber health check" of the target company. It offers an attacker a precise view of their digital footprint, revealing hidden liabilities and integration challenges before the merger or acquisition is finalized.

1. External Discovery: ThreatNG performs purely external, unauthenticated discovery using no connectors. This is crucial for M&A, as it rapidly identifies the target's external-facing digital assets, including shadow IT or forgotten systems that might not be in their internal inventories, mirroring an adversary's reconnaissance.

• Example: ThreatNG can discover outdated, publicly exposed servers or unknown subdomains belonging to the target company that are not documented internally. These could be potential entry points for attackers post-acquisition or hold sensitive data, impacting the deal's risk profile.

2. External Assessment: ThreatNG quantifies the target's external cyber risk posture through various assessment ratings, providing verifiable data for M&A due diligence:

• Cyber Risk Exposure: Provides an overall risk score. ThreatNG assesses the target's "overall cyber risk exposure" based on externally visible parameters like certificates, subdomain headers, vulnerabilities, and sensitive ports. These are crucial for understanding the potential security debt being acquired.

• Breach & Ransomware Susceptibility: This indicator identifies the likelihood of a major incident. ThreatNG determines the target's "Breach & Ransomware Susceptibility" by analyzing their external attack surface, compromised credentials found on the dark web, and ransomware events/gang activity. This alerts to high-risk acquisitions.

• Data Leak Susceptibility: Assesses the risk of sensitive data exposure. ThreatNG identifies the target's "Data Leak Susceptibility" by uncovering exposed credentials or sensitive files in public cloud storage or inadvertently committed code secrets.

• Supply Chain & Third-Party Exposure: This is crucial for assessing the target's own vendors. ThreatNG evaluates the target's "Supply Chain & Third-Party Exposure," highlighting risks from their critical vendors that would become Nth parties post-acquisition.

• Brand Damage Susceptibility: ThreatNG assesses the target's "Brand Damage Susceptibility" by monitoring for existing brand impersonations, negative news, or relevant ESG violations. This indicates potential reputational liabilities that could impact the merged entity's value.

3. Reporting: ThreatNG provides clear, actionable reports essential for M&A teams and decision-makers to inform deal terms and integration plans:

• Prioritized Report: This report highlights critical external vulnerabilities or hidden assets of the target company as high-priority risks, allowing dealmakers to factor these into valuation or post-acquisition integration plans.

• Security Ratings Report: This report provides an objective, high-level security score for the target, giving a quick, independent assessment of their posture. ThreatNG also provides a U.S. SEC Filings report (via DarCache 8K) for publicly traded targets, offering additional financial risk context.

4. Continuous Monitoring: ThreatNG monitors external attack surface, digital risk, and security ratings. This extends M&A due diligence beyond a static snapshot, providing ongoing risk validation.

• Example: ThreatNG can continuously monitor the target's external posture up to the closing date and beyond, ensuring no new critical vulnerabilities emerge or existing ones worsen, which could derail the deal or become an immediate post-acquisition issue.

5. Investigation Modules: ThreatNG's investigation modules allow deep dives into specific external risk areas of the target:

• Sensitive Code Exposure: This type of vulnerability pinpoints hardcoded credentials, API keys, or proprietary code exposed in the target's public repositories, which represents significant intellectual property or access risks.

• Cloud and SaaS Exposure: Identifies the target's sanctioned and unsanctioned cloud services and SaaS applications, assessing for misconfigurations (e.g., open cloud buckets) or insecure API endpoints. This is vital for understanding their cloud footprint and potential data liabilities.

• Dark Web Presence: Monitors for mentions of the target company, associated ransomware events, or compromised credentials on the dark web, indicating existing or imminent breaches that could impact the acquisition.

6. Intelligence Repositories (DarCache): ThreatNG's DarCache provides comprehensive external context and threat intelligence to inform M&A risk assessment:

• DarCache Vulnerability (NVD, EPSS, KEV, PoC Exploits): Informs on the real-world exploitability and likelihood of vulnerabilities found on the target's external assets. If ThreatNG identifies a KEV on a target's system, it flags a known, actively exploited weakness that needs immediate attention.

• DarCache 8K: For publicly traded targets, provides context from their SEC Form 8-Ks, revealing publicly declared cybersecurity incidents or other material events influencing their risk profile.

• DarCache ESG: Discovers "environmental, social, and governance (ESG) violations" that can impact the target's reputation and lead to regulatory fines. This is relevant for overall M&A risk assessment.

Complementary Solutions: ThreatNG's external insights create powerful synergies with M&A platforms, GRC tools, and cyber insurance processes:

• M&A Due Diligence Platforms: ThreatNG's objective is to provide external cybersecurity assessment data that can be directly integrated into specialized M&A due diligence platforms, providing a critical cybersecurity risk component to the overall deal assessment.

• GRC (Governance, Risk, and Compliance) Platforms: ThreatNG's findings on the target's external compliance gaps (e.g., exposed PII in misconfigured cloud storage, lack of proper email authentication) can be fed into GRC systems to inform post-acquisition compliance remediation plans.

• Cyber Insurance Underwriters: ThreatNG's detailed security ratings and vulnerability insights for a target company can be leveraged by cyber insurance providers to assess risk more accurately and potentially adjust policy terms before or after an acquisition, leading to better-informed underwriting decisions.