Cybersecurity Practices for PE Sponsors and Their Portfolio Companies: Due Diligence and Post‑Acquisition Efforts (Part Two of Two)

The relative importance of a prospective portfolio company’s cybersecurity practices evolves over the course of the deal process. At the outset, with limited time and knowledge, the quality of a company’s cybersecurity program is largely a binary issue for PE sponsors: is it adequate enough to move forward, or is it a deal breaker? That changes markedly post-acquisition, however, as sponsors learn more about the company and consider ways to not only future-proof its cyber practices, but also to create more value in advance of an eventual exit. SS&C Intralinks (SS&C) sponsored a panel on cyber and data protection considerations in the PE industry that was moderated by SS&C principal solutions consultant Paul Loefstedt. It featured Thomas Baasnes, a cybersecurity director at Verdane; Julia Dudenko, the chief information security officer (CISO) at Haniel; Nigel Diesveld, the CFO and chief risk officer at HPE Growth; and Paul Harragan, the global cybersecurity lead (portfolio CISO) at KKR. This second article in a two-part series distilling insights from the program offers suggestions for addressing cybersecurity during the deal process and post-acquisition, as well as tips on changing perspectives and insurance. The first article identified key cybersecurity measures and incident response efforts that can help firms secure fund data and stay ahead of emerging cyber threats. For coverage of another SS&C panel, see “Amount of Value Outsourced Fund Administrators Confer to PE Sponsors and Criteria for Selecting Them” (Jan. 25, 2022).

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