Cybersecurity

M&A Industry Insight – Cybersecurity

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The Ryuk Ransomware operators continue to target hospitals even as these organizations are overwhelmed during the Coronavirus pandemic.

On April 23, 2020, GoDaddy identified SSH usernames and passwords had been compromised through an altered SSH file in their hosting environment. 

Hotel chain Marriott International announced in March 2020 that it was hit by a second data breach exposing the personal details of “up to approximately 5.2 million guests

These are just a few headlines among many others. More online transactions mean more opportunities to hack financial information including bank account credentials and credit card data, and people working remotely has opened up new ways for criminals to target both individuals and organizations – including healthcare companies battling to contain the virus and save lives.

Increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks, coupled with the widespread adoption of cloud computing and internet of things (IoT) technology, has fueled demand for effective cybersecurity solutions. These attacks fall into two categories: excessive usage from an anomalous location and “suspicious superhuman.” The first type begins with login attempts from a location not previously detected and anomalous to the user’s organization. The hacker then “initiates high-volume data access and or privileged access activity.”

Cloud based attacks rose 630% between January and April 2020

McAfee report 

The growth of large-scale breaches represents a growing trend of security violations both in numbers and their severity. Data breaches expose sensitive information that often leaves users at risk for identity theft, ruin companies’ reputations and leave the company liable for compliance violations.

We tried to cover some cybersecurity industry trends in the M&A space.

  • Cybersecurity market has performed well relative to the S&P 500 coming out of the COVID-19 selloff
  • Five significant cybersecurity deals YTD (2020) with Enterprise Values of $1 billion+
  • Six sizable financial sponsor led deals YTD (2020); Three leading cybersecurity (Accenture, F5 Networks, Raytheon) firms engaging in strategic M&A

Access the full “Cybersecurity M&A Insight August 2020” below

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About the Author

Debjeet Gupta

Debjeet is the Managing Partner at Columbia Pacific Capital Partners Inc. (CPCP). Along with the Private Equity group, he also leads the Investment Banking M&A division. To get in touch please email debjeet@cpcpc.ca

This section of the website sets out a variety of materials relating to the investment banking and private equity to be used for educational and non-commercial purposes only; the author(s) of the blog do not intend the blog to be a source of legal advice. Please retain and seek the advice of a professional and use your own good judgement before choosing to act on any information included in the blog. If you choose to rely on the materials, you do so entirely at your own risk. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any division of Columbia Pacific Capital Partners Inc. (CPCP)

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