New research from ISC² finds that acquiring companies pay close attention to cybersecurity readiness and breach history. In the Cybersecurity Assessments in Mergers and Acquisitions report, 96 percent of respondents indicated that cybersecurity readiness factors into the calculation when they are assessing the overall monetary value of a potential acquisition target.
Major findings include:
- 77 percent of M&A experts have recommended one acquisition target over another based on the strength of a cybersecurity program.
- 57 percent of survey respondents said an acquiring company they work with has been surprised to learn of an unreported data breach during the audit process; 49 percent had seen a deal fall through as a result.
- 52 percent of respondents indicated that the share value of publicly-traded clients has been negatively affected by an acquired company’s post-acquisition data breach.