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 collection centered on M&A cybersecurity listed on the finish of this submit.

This newest weblog submit will revisit the subject of Transferring 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.

Dimension 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 dimension and complexity of the businesses we’re seeking to purchase entail that we establish, assess, and regulate for danger otherwise.

Our M&A Cybersecurity Framework has allowed us to scale and streamline our discovery and danger evaluation processes to raised align with the extent of safety danger a deal poses. Utilizing normal safety guardrails, tooling, techniques info, and different automated processes to display screen and assess non-integrated dangers, we will draft a Discovery Danger Evaluation earlier, thereby liberating up groups to concentrate on assessing extra complicated acquisitions and doubtlessly better safety dangers.

Accelerating Integration

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

To fulfill this timeline, we would have liked to make sure that the safety danger was manageable and that we had stakeholder buy-in. We labored intently with cross-functional groups to establish and prioritize danger mitigation in order that we may meet our dedication. By having a sturdy framework in place, we had been capable of speed up the mixing 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 important when triaging and prioritizing efforts between the corporate being acquired and the enterprise it will likely be absorbed into. For the Armorblox and SamKnows acquisitions, we had been capable of concentrate on 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 necessary and in the end makes for higher, safer merchandise.

Wanting Again to Energy Ahead

One other necessary lesson realized this 12 months was the best way to apply the M&A framework to re-visit earlier acquisitions to evaluate and perceive danger. Going by 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 a decade’s value of information to tell how we may simplify and streamline key areas of our integration framework and enhance our total safety stance.

Securely Enabling Enterprise Progress

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

The M&A Cybersecurity Framework has been a priceless instrument to make sure that enterprise, engineering, and operations leaders align and concentrate on integration effectively earlier than the deal closes. Operational alignment with IT, Safety, and different capabilities has helped floor necessary points, similar to addressing workflows and consumer and buyer identities earlier than the mixing 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 way in which of enterprise objectives and obtain its worth drivers sooner, which results in accelerated enterprise progress.

Incomes and Sustaining Belief

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

Our M&A Cybersecurity Framework is a priceless instrument to assist securely allow the mergers and acquisition course of. Nevertheless, you’ll be able to’t underestimate the non-public elements wanted to make it successful. Constructing belief throughout a crew takes time and requires specializing in growing relationships, being empathetic, and demonstrating respect for an organization’s tradition.

The press launch asserting Cisco’s intention to amass Splunk cited one of many key worth propositions: “Unites two “Nice Locations to Work” with comparable values, sturdy cultures, and gifted groups.” The M&A course of is rather more than the mental property and expertise being acquired; the human capital and cultural strengths are sometimes essentially the most priceless belongings.

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

If you’re involved in studying extra, please learn Greater than an Asset: The Folks Aspect of Mergers & Acquisitions.