As per the latest findings, many organizations have experienced a big surge in ransomware attacks in recent years. Upon comparing the data with the past reports, we see a 437% increment in ransomware attacks, with many of those breaches occurring after a merger or acquisition announcement. In corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions are transactions in which the ownership of companies, other business firms, or their operating units are transferred or consolidated with other bodies. 

Cyber Criminals are targeting these organizations to rob banks. If you sold a business to a large private firm, then the firm has the ability to pay the Ransome demands compared to the smaller stand-alone organization which does not possess a stronghold. M&A also creates a period of transition, where new entities and management teams come into or out of their roles. This transitional process gives a perfect opportunity for cybercriminals to breach. 

Advance ransomware attacks cost millions of dollars for a larger organization due to ransom demands, legal fees, loss of revenue, incident response costs, hardware/software replacement, and increased cyber insurance premiums. Alongside, company owners and their members are also now being held personally liable for a lack of security checks. 

With reference to the past incidents, malicious actors use various methods to get into the system, and conducting a phishing attack via email is a common and effective approach of the attackers. Once the attackers get access to the systems, they can control the networks and applications to determine where the most sensitive data is stored. 

The larger question that arises is 'how a company can prevent such attacks from happening?' Researchers said that the companies should evaluate cyber-risk as part of their due diligence process, create an incident response plan, and should not present the acquisition as a soft target.