It's time to move from compliance to risk assessment.
By Kristin Winford - Managing Director of Transformation and Growth, BDO
As the recent WannaCry and Petya cyber-attacks have demonstrated, cyber risk continues to pose a significant threat to organizations across the globe. Cybersecurity is a critical business function, yet, paradoxically, cyber risk is often insufficiently examined – or even overlooked – during the merger and acquisition (M&A) due diligence process. This often results in the acquiring company unwittingly assuming risk and placing assets in jeopardy.
The Cyber Risk Landscape and M&A
According to TIME Magazine, businesses stand to lose as much as $400 billion USD from cybercrime globally. Further, the cyber defense, cyber forensics and cyber insurance industries are projected to be worth nearly $200 billion USD annually by the close of 2020. Despite this economic outlay, however, cyber-attacks continue to grow in scale and sophistication, and occur at a rate of almost 4,000 per day.
To learn more about issues that impact due diligence, including cybersecurity and social media, please join us for The Art of M&A Due Diligence. In this unique workshop environment, you'll learn from M&A experts with diverse experiences and insights. Learn more.