Cybersecurity liability is invisible on a balance sheet until after the deal closes. A pre-acquisition security assessment surfaces the attack surface exposure, cloud misconfigurations, compliance gaps, and patch debt before they become your problem.
Fixed-scope engagement, flat-fee pricing ($15,000–$25,000), and a deal-memo-formatted report your PE partners and M&A counsel can actually read — delivered in 2 weeks standard or 5 business days expedited.
Standard Timeline
2 Weeks
5-day expedited available
Flat Fee
$15,000–$25,000
No hourly billing
Report Format
Deal-Memo Ready
PE partners and CIOs
Each assessment area addresses a distinct category of security liability that affects deal valuation, post-close integration complexity, or ongoing regulatory exposure.
Internet-facing asset enumeration, open port analysis, exposed services, subdomain inventory, and certificate transparency review. We document the target's digital footprint as an attacker would see it — before you acquire it.
AWS, Azure, and GCP environment review covering S3/Blob/GCS bucket exposure, IAM policy misconfigurations, public-facing compute instances, security group permissiveness, and logging gaps. A single exposed storage bucket or over-permissive IAM role in a target environment becomes the acquirer's breach liability the day the deal closes.
Review of identity and access management practices: privileged account controls, MFA enforcement, service account hygiene, and separation of duties. When credentials leak — and in any acquisition, some have — IAM controls are what stand between one compromised account and the rest of the environment.
Assessment of the target's vulnerability management program: time-to-patch metrics, known exploited vulnerabilities (CISA KEV) present in the environment, and end-of-life system inventory. Patch debt is the most quantifiable security liability in an acquisition.
Gap analysis against applicable frameworks — NYDFS 23 NYCRR 500, HIPAA, and PCI DSS where relevant. We identify compliance deficiencies that represent legal liability, potential fines, or mandatory remediation costs that should affect deal structure.
Review of the target's incident response plan, detection capabilities, and breach history. An organization without a documented IR plan — or with an undisclosed prior breach — represents material liability that due diligence should surface before closing.
Security due diligence reports from technical consultants are often unreadable by the people who need to act on them. Our report is structured for a mixed audience: an executive layer written for deal principals, and a technical layer for IT leadership. Every finding maps to a business impact and a remediation cost estimate.
M&A cybersecurity due diligence serves a range of deal participants — each with different information needs and different stakes in the outcome.
Portfolio company acquisition security assessment and post-close integration planning.
Technical security findings packaged for legal privilege and deal documentation.
Strategic acquisition targets evaluated for cyber risk before LOI or closing.
Seller-side assessments that surface and remediate issues before buyer scrutiny.
Security liability quantified in financial terms for deal modeling and integration budgeting.
Technical depth required for post-close integration planning and risk prioritization.
Cybersecurity liability discovered post-close is rarely covered by reps and warranties insurance — and remediation costs can far exceed the findings from a $15,000 assessment. Get the full picture before you sign.
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