Business

Cybersecurity and Legal Due Diligence Considerations in M&A Transactions

By: Joshua Mooney, Lori Smith and Jeremy Miller

When prospective buyers conduct legal due diligence in merger and acquisition transactions the main focus is typically on the traditional items, such as financials, debt instruments, major contracts and other key metrics customarily analyzed. These items, among others, remain critical to evaluating a business. However, with technology continuing to advance at an exponential rate and hackers successfully breaching company information systems more frequently, as seen with Target, Equifax and many others, it is critical that prospective buyers thoroughly consider the risks associated with the target’s cybersecurity practices or lack thereof. …

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Security of Critical Infrastructure Relies on Businesses to Build Resilience

By: Linda Perkins

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently made “strengthening risk management and prioritization of cyber and physical threats and hazards” a national priority. Similarly, this week’s theme for National Cyber Security Awareness Month is “Safeguarding the Nation’s Critical Infrastructure” and, looking ahead, the DHS has designated November as Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience Month. By doing so, the DHS hopes to engage and educate public and private sector partners and raise awareness about the pressing need to secure the range of systems and resources that underpin everyday life in the U.S. Businesses can address many of these recommendations on their own, but others may be better informed after consultation with counsel to make sure certain risks are properly assessed and responsibly mitigated based upon the individual business environment. …

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Data Breach Report Reveals Cost Saving Measures for Companies

By: Josh Mooney and Michael Jervis

The Ponemon Institute has released a recent report concluding, among other things, that the cost to a company suffering a data breach in the U.S. has risen eight percent year-on-year from 2017. The total cost of the average breach has reached a staggering $8 million. Perhaps more important, however, is the report’s conclusion that organizations which took proactive measures drastically reduced the cost of a breach. Not surprisingly, costs of a breach were the highest in the U.S. compared to other jurisdictions. Also not surprising is that organizations in the healthcare industry generally suffer higher costs than other organizations—three times higher than the average cost. Information used to compile the report came from interviews with over 2,000 IT and data protection professionals. …

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Facebook’s Transparency Report Reveals Increase in Data Requests from U.S. Government

By: Gwenn Barney

Facebook released its semi-annual Transparency Report on December 18 providing a snapshot of information requests that the government makes to the tech giant. Among the telling statistics in the report was an increase in the percentage of data requests that the government made on a confidential basis. …

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