After the Deal Closes: Classes Realized in M&A Cybersecurity

Jason Button leads the Cisco Safety and Belief Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) group. He was previously the director of IT at Duo Safety, an organization Cisco acquired in 2018, making him uniquely positioned to lend his experience to the M&A course of. This weblog is the continuation of a sequence targeted on M&A cybersecurity listed on the finish of this publish.

This newest weblog publish will revisit the subject of Shifting Left to Proper: Cybersecurity Practices and Outcomes in M&A Due Diligence and classes realized from implementing Cisco’s M&A Cybersecurity Framework final 12 months.

Measurement Issues

On this 12 months alone, Cisco has made ten acquisition bulletins, starting from small, agile start-ups to well-established, publicly traded firms. The various measurement and complexity of the businesses we’re trying to purchase entail that we establish, assess, and alter for threat in a different way.

Our M&A Cybersecurity Framework has allowed us to scale and streamline our discovery and threat evaluation processes to raised align with the extent of safety threat a deal poses. Utilizing commonplace safety guardrails, tooling, programs data, and different automated processes to display screen and assess non-integrated dangers, we will draft a Discovery Danger Evaluation earlier, thereby releasing up groups to deal with assessing extra complicated acquisitions and probably higher safety dangers.

Accelerating Integration

Proper-sizing your threat evaluation strategy has extra advantages, together with the flexibility to establish areas of integration threat to speed up integration after the deal closes. An instance is the Valtix acquisition earlier this 12 months, the place we performed an aggressive and thorough discovery investigation to shut the deal earlier than the tip of April. The driving issue was the chance to debut a necessary product integration demonstration in early June at Cisco Dwell, our flagship buyer occasion.

To satisfy this timeline, we would have liked to make sure that the safety threat was manageable and that we had stakeholder buy-in. We labored carefully with cross-functional groups to establish and prioritize threat mitigation in order that we may meet our dedication. By having a sturdy framework in place, we have been in a position to speed up the combination course of whereas enabling the Valtix crew to be simpler and productive in a brief period of time.

One other lesson we’ve realized is prioritizing visibility into the acquired infrastructure earlier within the course of. Deploying instruments like Wiz.io and JuniperOne helps educate us about new environments and permits us to establish dangers sooner. That is vital when triaging and prioritizing efforts between the corporate being acquired and the enterprise it is going to be absorbed into. For the Armorblox and SamKnows acquisitions, we have been in a position to deal with high-priority dangers and spend much less time spreading efforts throughout a number of work streams. Having a framework that helps us prioritize dangers is what’s most essential and in the end makes for higher, safer merchandise.

Wanting Again to Energy Ahead

One other essential lesson realized this 12 months was easy methods to apply the M&A framework to re-visit earlier acquisitions to evaluate and perceive threat. Going by way of this course of with out time constraints or diligence pressures allowed us to hone our investigative strategies and refine our practices. For instance, we labored with the Meraki crew, a mature group that was acquired over ten years in the past and a big contributor to Cisco’s portfolio. We combed by way of a decade’s price of knowledge to tell how we may simplify and streamline key areas of our integration framework and enhance our general safety stance.

Securely Enabling Enterprise Development

One of many driving components for Cisco to accumulate firms is to establish and spend money on new improvements that can enhance the safety and efficiency of our answer portfolio. The M&A Cybersecurity crew works carefully with Cisco’s Company Growth Integration crew to evaluate and handle threat all through the invention, diligence, and integration course of.

The M&A Cybersecurity Framework has been a worthwhile device to make sure that enterprise, engineering, and operations leaders align and deal with integration effectively earlier than the deal closes. Operational alignment with IT, Safety, and different features has helped floor essential points, similar to addressing workflows and person and buyer identities earlier than the combination course of. We’ve additionally discovered that by elevating safety early within the M&A course of, we’re serving to the enterprise take away obstacles that might get in the best way of enterprise targets and obtain its worth drivers quicker, which ends up in accelerated enterprise progress.

Incomes and Sustaining Belief

Management professional Simon Sinek has steadily acknowledged, “A crew shouldn’t be a bunch of people that work collectively.  A crew is a bunch of people that belief one another.”

Our M&A Cybersecurity Framework is a worthwhile device to assist securely allow the mergers and acquisition course of. Nonetheless, you may’t underestimate the non-public components wanted to make it a hit. Constructing belief throughout a crew takes time and requires specializing in growing relationships, being empathetic, and demonstrating respect for a corporation’s tradition.

The press launch saying Cisco’s intention to accumulate Splunk cited one of many key worth propositions: “Unites two “Nice Locations to Work” with related values, robust cultures, and gifted groups.” The M&A course of is way more than the mental property and know-how being acquired; the human capital and cultural strengths are sometimes essentially the most worthwhile belongings.

Wanting again this 12 months, my colleague Mo Iqbal summed it up finest, “We will’t perceive the applied sciences till we perceive the folks and tradition that enabled them to be so profitable.”

If you’re eager about studying extra, please learn Greater than an Asset: The Individuals Aspect of Mergers & Acquisitions.