Be Wary! Mergers and Acquisitions Are Times to be Extra Careful!

by Kerry Leblanc, IT Security Engineer

Why? Because email is the primary communication channel for M&A communications, and throughout the event, dozens of stakeholders will send thousands of emails containing personnel information, board documents, private equity, and other top secret merger and acquisition intelligence.

If just one email lands in the wrong hands, or if one employee goes rogue, the entire transaction could be disrupted, compliance standards could be violated, and our organization could lose customer trust and more! According to research from Digital Shadows, a company’s security infrastructure is more vulnerable during the Mergers and Acquisition process and cyber-criminals appear to view the M&A period as an ideal time to attack a company, doubling down their efforts to capitalize on this window of opportunity.

“There is demonstrable evidence to suggest that companies going through the M&A process have been targeted by malicious actors”.

“Failure to secure sensitive information during an M&A process opens the door to threat actors looking to profit by exploiting financial markets and proprietary intellectual property and it’s imperative that organizations are aware of this threat.”

So what can you do? Be extra wary on emails that are coming from unknown senders and even more careful on emails that purport to be from known senders! If you were not expecting the email then do not trust it. Of course, this will be a time for emails from new sources so the other protective step is to verify with the sender through another method of communication.

Be careful when sending emails! Double-check those addresses in the email header. Make sure you are only sending to who you intended. Don’t be in the habit of just clicking “Reply all”.

Be certain that attachments do not contain information that is not supposed to be sent outside of Bioventus! Remember the HIPPA and GDPR and the other regulations that protect our patients and Bioventus!

And remember to always…

STOP, LOOK and THINK for a second or two before you click on any link in an email or open an attachment!