Page 12 - Cyber Warnings

Employees must build absolute awareness about these ill-intended tactics and remain vigilant in
their day-to-day usage of computers, devices, email, files and the internet.

When you’ve implemented the three critical steps in the pre-announcement stage, you’ve set
the table quite nicely for the other two.

During the announcement and post-announcement period, you can identify all “cybersecurity
gaps” within your program evaluation and invest into the policies and tech tools which will close
them.

As the consolidation progresses, the combined IT teams can work together to come up with a
unified set of tech solutions and practices to defend the enterprise.

You also monitor user activity post-announcement. This activity will change in response to the
M&A. It’s human nature. People are concerned about their department’s future and, obviously,
their jobs.

With the right network monitoring products in place, however, you can distinguish what’s
“different but allowable” and what may invite the risk of a threat (thus, different and
unallowable).

When you “bake in” data defense from the very start of an M&A, you spare yourself of a
tremendous amount of “buyer’s remorse” down the road.
Think about it: Throughout every phase, you’re scheduling lengthy meetings to review how to
best combine merging units such as HR, finance, marketing/sales, research and development,
etc.

Why should cybersecurity be any different? It’s best to assure the protection of the “jewels,”
after all, before bringing them together.

About The Author

David Barton is the Chief Information Security Officer for Forcepoint,
responsible for securing the company and sharing our key learnings with
customers.

Barton brings to his role more than 20 years of experience in security
leadership across a variety of sectors including telecommunications,
healthcare, software development, finance and government.

12 Cyber Warnings E-Magazine December 2016 Edition
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