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18/08/2026 2:34 pm
TL;DR: M&A activity rose sharply in 2025, with deal value up 40% and volume up 7%, while 40% of acquirers found major cybersecurity issues during post-acquisition integration and fewer than 10% of deals included cyber due diligence, according to Ground Labs and IMAA. Data discovery has become a control for valuation, liability, and integration risk, not just a compliance exercise.
NHIMG editorial — based on content published by Ground Labs: Ensuring data security in mergers and acquisitions
By the numbers:
- 2025 saw merger and acquisition deal value rise by 40% and deal volume rise by 7%.
- 40% of acquirers discovered major cybersecurity issues during post-acquisition integration.
- 10% of deals incorporated cyber due diligence during, nce during the M&A process.
Questions worth separating out
Q: How should security teams handle data risk during M&A integration?
A: They should treat data discovery as part of the deal process, not just the integration phase.
Q: Why do M&A deals expose hidden cyber and identity risk so often?
A: Because buyers often inherit systems, data stores, and access pathways that were never designed for shared governance.
Q: What breaks when data discovery is missing in acquisition planning?
A: Deal teams lose the ability to price risk accurately.
Practitioner guidance
- Map sensitive data before diligence closes Build an inventory of personal, financial, and operationally sensitive data across target cloud and on-premises environments before final terms are set.
- Tie discovery outputs to access review Pair every high-risk dataset with an access list that includes human users, service accounts, integration tokens, and third-party connections.
- Remove ROT before systems are merged Prioritise redundant, obsolete, and trivial data for deletion or isolation before platform consolidation begins.
What's in the full article
Ground Labs' full blog post covers the operational detail this post intentionally leaves for the source:
- How Enterprise Recon maps sensitive data across on-premises and cloud environments at scan scale
- How on-demand remediation supports issue closure, investigation, and post-acquisition triage
- How buyers can use evidence of data location and control coverage in diligence and integration planning
- How sellers can present data hygiene evidence to reduce holdback and liability pressure
👉 Read Ground Labs' analysis of data security in mergers and acquisitions →
M&A data discovery: what it means for security teams and buyers?
Explore further
18/08/2026 3:20 pm
Data discovery is now a valuation control, not just a security task. M&A teams often treat discovery as a technical inventory exercise, but this article shows that visibility into sensitive data directly affects price, liability, and integration planning. When unknown data locations remain in play, due diligence is incomplete and remediation costs are pushed into the combined organisation. Practitioners should treat discovery evidence as part of transaction governance, not a back-end security report.
A question worth separating out:
Q: Who is accountable when inherited data exposure is found after close?
A: Accountability usually sits with both transaction leadership and the security teams that accepted the due diligence scope. If representations, warranties, or remediation obligations were not defined clearly, the buyer often inherits the cost while the seller may still face contractual or regulatory consequences. Clear ownership and evidence are essential before the deal closes.
👉 Read our full editorial: Data discovery is now a deal-risk control in M&A integration
