Center of Excellence Security - Merger & Acquisition Application Security Consulting

Secure Your Application Assets Through Every Transition!

Protect, integrate, and optimize your application landscape during mergers and acquisitions with our specialized security consulting services.

Merger & Acquisition Application Security Consulting at COE Security

At COE Security, our Merger & Acquisition Application Security Consulting service helps organizations effectively manage the application security challenges that arise during mergers, acquisitions, or business integrations. During an M&A, the integration of diverse applications, systems, and software platforms presents unique security risks. These risks need to be thoroughly assessed and mitigated to ensure the protection of sensitive data, compliance with regulatory requirements, and the seamless functioning of business operations post-merger.

Our M&A Application Security Consulting ensures application-layer security throughout the M&A lifecycle by assessing vulnerabilities, ensuring compliance, and enabling secure integration. We help prevent breaches, reduce integration risks, and streamline the transition of security responsibilities.

With COE Security’s M&A Application Security Consulting, you gain peace of mind knowing that your application security is thoroughly vetted, compliant, and integrated securely as part of your M&A strategy.

Our Approach

Define M&A Application Security Scope: Establish the scope of application security assessments during the M&A process, including which applications, platforms, and environments will be analyzed for vulnerabilities and risks.
Perform Due Diligence on Application Security: Conduct a comprehensive review of the application security posture of both organizations involved, focusing on current application security policies, practices, and vulnerabilities.
Assess Application Development Life Cycle (SDLC): Review each company’s software development lifecycle to identify security gaps in design, development, testing, and deployment processes that could impact the integration.
Evaluate Third-Party Application Risks: Identify and assess the security of any third-party applications or software integrations used by both companies, focusing on potential vulnerabilities or supply chain risks.
Analyze Data Security and Privacy Controls: Review how both organizations protect sensitive data within their applications, ensuring compliance with data privacy regulations such as GDPR, HIPAA, and industry standards.

Identify Application-Specific Vulnerabilities: Perform security testing, including Static Application Security Testing (SAST), Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST), and Software Composition Analysis (SCA), to identify vulnerabilities within applications.
Design Secure Integration Strategy: Develop a security strategy for merging the applications and systems of both organizations, including secure code integration, data transfer protocols, and risk mitigation measures.
Implement Secure Authentication and Access Controls: Ensure robust authentication mechanisms, role-based access controls, and multi-factor authentication (MFA) for accessing critical applications during and after the M&A process.
Prepare Post-M&A Application Security Monitoring: Establish a framework for continuous application security monitoring post-merger, focusing on identifying emerging threats, vulnerabilities, and deviations from security standards.
Audit and Remediate Post-Initiation Vulnerabilities: After the integration, conduct ongoing audits of merged applications to identify any new vulnerabilities or security issues introduced during the merger and address them promptly.

Application Vulnerability Assessment

Security Due Diligence

Integration & Standardization

Compliance & Regulatory Assurance

M&A Application Security Consulting Process

Our established penetration testing methodology delivers comprehensive testing and actionable recommendations.

Assess

Analyze

Strategize

Implement

Monitor & Optimize

Why Choose COE Security’s Merger & Acquisition Application Security Consulting?

End-to-End Application Security: We cover all aspects of application security during M&A, ensuring both pre-integration assessments and post-merger evaluations to protect your software and systems.
Expertise in M&A-Specific Risks: COE Security specializes in understanding the unique application security challenges that arise during mergers and acquisitions, helping you navigate potential risks effectively.
Comprehensive Due Diligence: Our thorough due diligence process ensures that application security risks, such as vulnerabilities, non-compliance, and gaps in security posture, are identified and addressed before integration.
Proven Frameworks for Secure Integration: We provide a robust, security-first approach to integrating applications and systems from both organizations, ensuring a seamless and secure transition.
Custom-Tailored Security Strategy: Our consulting services are customized to meet the specific needs of your organization, taking into account the complexity of your applications and the M&A environment.

Regulatory Compliance Assurance: We ensure that your application security meets all necessary compliance standards, including GDPR, HIPAA, PCI DSS, and industry-specific requirements during the M&A process.
Risk Mitigation through Secure Development Practices: We promote secure software development practices throughout the M&A process, helping both parties adopt best practices to minimize vulnerabilities in their applications.
Advanced Security Testing Methods: Our team uses advanced testing methodologies like SAST, DAST, and SCA to identify security flaws in applications, ensuring that both organizations’ systems are secure before integration.
Post-M&A Continuous Monitoring: We provide ongoing monitoring and auditing of applications after the merger to ensure that vulnerabilities are quickly detected and remediated, preventing new risks from emerging.
Proven Success in M&A Security: COE Security has a track record of successfully helping organizations secure their applications during mergers and acquisitions, providing peace of mind throughout the transition.

Five areas of Merger & Acquisition Application Security Consulting

Compliance as a Service

During mergers and acquisitions, ensuring that both organizations align on compliance standards is critical. Our Compliance as a Service offering helps assess and integrate the compliance posture of both the acquiring and target companies. We ensure that data protection, privacy laws, and regulatory standards are adhered to throughout the transition. Whether it’s GDPR, HIPAA, or industry-specific regulations, we review the security and compliance frameworks of both organizations, identifying any gaps that could lead to compliance violations post-merger. This service minimizes legal risks, ensuring that the acquisition complies with all relevant standards, making the transition smoother and reducing the potential for costly penalties.

Supply Chain Security Review

A merger or acquisition often involves integrating new supply chains, which can expose your organization to significant cybersecurity risks. Our Supply Chain Security Review evaluates the security posture of the acquired company’s third-party vendors and suppliers. We assess the risk management policies, security controls, and data protection practices of all third parties involved in the transaction. By identifying vulnerabilities in the supply chain, we help mitigate risks that could compromise your security, integrity, and operational continuity. This thorough evaluation ensures that your newly combined organization’s supply chain is secure, resilient, and free from external threats that could disrupt business post-acquisition.

Security Program Development

Following a merger or acquisition, it’s essential to unify and strengthen security practices across both organizations. Our Security Program Development service helps integrate the security programs of both companies into a cohesive, company-wide strategy. We work with you to standardize policies, procedures, and security protocols that align with the goals of the newly merged entity. This includes revisiting risk management, access control, incident response, and employee training to ensure a smooth transition. By implementing a robust and unified security program, we help safeguard your new, expanded organization from evolving threats and ensure that security remains a priority throughout the integration process.

Enterprise Security Strategy Consulting

Mergers and acquisitions present the perfect opportunity to evaluate and strengthen your organization’s enterprise security strategy. Our Enterprise Security Strategy Consulting focuses on aligning the security objectives of the newly merged companies. We work closely with your leadership teams to assess the existing security infrastructures, identify gaps, and develop a unified, future-proof strategy. From risk assessments to incident response planning, we ensure that your organization has a comprehensive strategy to address internal and external threats. By enhancing your security framework, we help ensure that your newly merged entity is resilient against cyberattacks, data breaches, and operational risks.

Cyber Insurance Audit

A merger or acquisition often triggers a reassessment of your organization’s cybersecurity posture, including your insurance coverage. Our Cyber Insurance Audit evaluates your existing cyber insurance policies, helping to ensure they adequately cover the new, expanded organization’s risk profile. We perform a thorough review of the acquiring company’s and target company’s insurance coverage, ensuring that both organizations are aligned on risk management and that gaps are identified and addressed. By ensuring your organization has comprehensive, appropriate cyber insurance coverage, we help protect against potential financial losses resulting from cyber incidents, business interruptions, or legal liabilities post-merger.

Advanced Offensive Security Solutions

COE Security empowers your organization with on-demand expertise to uncover vulnerabilities, remediate risks, and strengthen your security posture. Our scalable approach enhances agility, enabling you to address current challenges and adapt to future demands without expanding your workforce.