Managing Cyber Threat Exposure in M&A: Reducing Blind Spots and Integration Risks

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) have been on the rise over the last few years for various reasons. While they already involve many factors that contribute to their risks and affect decision-making, cybersecurity can play a critical role in making or breaking a deal.

According to Forescout’s 2022 Cybersecurity in M&A study, 62% of M&A deals face delays due to cybersecurity issues, and 53% of buyers discover unknown issues once the deal is closed. These blind spots arise as attack surfaces expand with the integration of new assets, shadow IT, asset sprawl, and third-party exposures, potentially leading to breaches that erode the deal’s value. The ransomware attack that occurred after UnitedHealth Group’s Optum division acquired Change Healthcare is an example, where underlying security issues were ignored before and immediately after the acquisition, leading to massive financial and reputation losses.

Traditional due diligence presents its own set of challenges. For example, a single hidden vulnerability in an acquired company can turn a billion-dollar merger into a compliance nightmare.

This is where CyberMindr, a SaaS-based Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) platform, can help organizations. Traditional due diligence ends with the deal, while CyberMindr ensures visibility continues beyond it.

In this article, we delve into the challenges cybersecurity may pose during M&A deals, the problems with traditional due diligence, and how CyberMindr's platform stands out, ensuring smoother integrations and proactive risk mitigation.

Challenges of Managing Cyber Threat Exposures During M&A

M&A activities naturally increase an organization’s exposure to cyber threats. One major security challenge is the rapid scaling of digital footprints, where the merging organizations inherit shadow IT, legacy systems and infrastructure, and complex supply chains. This reduces visibility and control across the environment.

Further, integration often diverts resources from ongoing security, allowing threats like ransomware or state-sponsored attacks to exploit vulnerabilities. Without continuous threat monitoring, these expanded surfaces can undermine deal value.

The Australian Clinical Labs (ACL) case, with its 2025 ruling, is an example. ACL had to pay a penalty of AUD 5.8 million after a 2022 cyber incident occurred at its recently acquired subsidiary, Medlab Pathology. The incident was attributed to vulnerabilities in Medlab's IT systems that ACL failed to identify during due diligence. This highlights the financial and legal implications of insufficient cybersecurity inspection in M&A.

Traditional cyber due diligence in M&A is often inadequate and comes with its own challenges. A few of them include:

• Reliance on manual, point-in-time assessments that fail to uncover hidden risks like undisclosed breaches or ongoing compromises
• The static nature that provides only snapshots that miss dynamic threats, such as evolving supply chain vulnerabilities or past data leaks, leading to underestimated risks that impact valuations and negotiations
• Slow, error-prone, and resource-intensive workflow, overwhelming teams during high-volume deals
• Generation of false positives that waste time and resources
• Limited precision that erodes confidence in the due diligence process
• Evolving threat landscape that demands speed, accuracy, and scalability

How CyberMindr Helps Track Changes and Reduce Blind Spots

Recognized by Gartner for threat exposure management, CyberMindr offers real-time asset discovery, automated adversary simulation, and real-time dark web surveillance across more than 300 hacker forums. With over 16,000 attack templates, it delivers near-zero false positives through active validation and covers exposures like Git leaks, developer secrets, and botnet infections.

The platform offers several features, including compliance tracking in cloud environments (e.g., IAM gaps and misconfigured storage buckets), a scalable framework to handle multiple deals simultaneously with ease, risk scoring to provide granular insights into vulnerabilities and weaknesses, automation, and reporting. These features make the platform ideal for M&A scenarios where speed and scalability are crucial.

Pre M&A - Specifically, before the merger/acquisition, CyberMindr assists in due diligence by analyzing the organization’s external security posture, evaluating third-party risk, identifying poor cyber hygiene like outdated infrastructure and credential leaks, and monitoring the dark web. It also enables organizations to track compliance. The platform offers a free one-time assessment to uncover vulnerabilities, enabling informed negotiations and risk profiling without requiring network access or internal permissions.

During M&A - During the merger/acquisition process, CyberMindr’s platform tracks changes in the attack surface by automating scans, providing security leaders with real-time visibility into evolving risks and threats. This reduces manual effort by focusing on verified vulnerabilities. Automation further accelerates deal execution, helping maintain momentum during tight deadlines.

Post M&A - Once the merger or acquisition is complete, continuous monitoring helps identify integration blind spots, such as new third-party exposures or compliance drifts. The platform also offers optional continuous monitoring that provides post-acquisition insights.

Additional benefits of the platform include automated scans for tight timelines, cost-efficiency, and actionable guidance for remediation.

By offering ongoing visibility and validated insights, CyberMindr helps organizations navigate the cyber risks that emerge before, during, and after an acquisition. Continuous monitoring ensures that integration decisions are informed by real-world exposure data rather than assumptions.

To learn more about how CyberMindr supports M&A cyber due diligence and integration efforts, feel free to reach out to our team. Book a demo.