Portco Cyber Defense

Increase security posture transparency and reporting for portfolio companies.

As private equity firms acquire new portfolio companies, they inherit those companies’ cybersecurity postures–good and bad. The risks of cyberattacks, including phishing, ransomware, and data breaches, increase from the moment an acquisition is announced. These attacks can be costly for the portcos and the private equity firm.

Verifying that multiple portcos, with disparate cybersecurity tools, software, practices, and teams are secure, can be challenging for many private equity firms. Portcos may have less mature cybersecurity practices, be subject to different regulations based on their line of business, and there’s rarely a comprehensive and centralized view of how the entire portfolio measures against best practices.

beiNVENTiV’s PortCo Cyber Defense solution provides centralized transparency by auditing each of your portcos and delivering a scorecard you can use to prioritize security efforts. We accomplish this without installing invasive monitoring tools by partnering with your portcos’ IT teams.

Portco Process

Establish Baseline KIs

We work with PE firms to understand each portco’s business and help them set the baseline key indicators for each portco.

Portco Cybersecurity Audit

Collaborate and coordinate a cybersecurity audit with each portco’s IT department.

Set Unique KIs for Each Portco

Based on the current environment and business factors, set and report KIs for each portco.

Review Results

Review the results with both the PE firm and the Portco.

Continuous Improvement

Work with portco IT teams to understand the changes being made in the IT environment. On a quarterly basis, reassess portco progress.

Initial Assessment

Before we begin, we meet with the PE firm to understand the goals for each portco and establish target values for 20 key security indicators. Our key indicators are based on a common Zero-Trust Framework, yet each portco will have a unique sliding scale that takes into account business objectives, mitigating factors, and compensating controls. No two portcos are identical and their ideal cybersecurity posture will balance optimal practices with practical constraints, acceptable risks, and budgets.

We then collect data from the portco IT teams through stakeholder interviews and measure the current environment against that benchmark to determine the initial state of the organization. This analysis provides each portco’s IT team with the knowledge needed to make informed decisions about where and how to implement changes to mitigate risks effectively.

We then collect data from the portco IT teams through stakeholder interviews and measure the current environment against that benchmark to determine the initial state of the organization. This analysis provides each portco’s IT team with the knowledge needed to make informed decisions about where and how to implement changes to mitigate risks effectively.

Portco Cybersecurity Audit

We then collect data from the portco IT teams through stakeholder interviews and measure the current environment against that benchmark to determine the initial state of the organization. This analysis provides each portco’s IT team with the knowledge needed to make informed decisions about where and how to implement changes to mitigate risks effectively.

Review Results and Continuous Improvement

Periodic verification of planned and unplanned security initiatives and shifts in cybersecurity threats is required to ensure continued portco protection.

Each quarter, we work with the portcos to reassess the organization on the same indicators, taking into account any changes that are made – whether positive or negative – and provide an updated scorecard that can track the organization’s progress toward better cybersecurity. The portco’s IT can then use this scorecard to confirm progress and make informed decisions about where to focus their resources in the coming quarter to make impactful changes.

Let’s Discuss

Protecting your portfolio begins with increased visibility into existing processes, tools, and any inherited vulnerabilities. We tailor the PortCo Cyber Defense solution to your business’s complexity and price it competitively to maximize every dollar you invest.

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