---
title: "Post-Mortem: Hunting for a Hack During M&A"
description: Making cybersecurity review part of M&A. Detecting a hack during mergers and acquisitions.
---

[SecureWorld News ](https://www.secureworld.io/industry-news)

# [Post-Mortem: Hunting for a Hack During M&A](https://www.secureworld.io/industry-news/post-mortem-hunting-for-a-hack-during-ma)

 Written by [SecureWorld News Team](https://www.secureworld.io/industry-news/author/secureworld-news-team) | Mon | Apr 23, 2018 | 5:37 PM Z

We reported last summer on the CCleaner cyber hack. CCleaner is a consumer product, but the entire point was to [hack the enterprise](https://www.wired.com/story/inside-the-unnerving-supply-chain-attack-that-corrupted-ccleaner).

Now we have the complete post-mortem on this attack, thanks to a session at RSA last week.

Also raised during the session, according to a good read in [WIRED](https://www.wired.com/story/inside-the-unnerving-supply-chain-attack-that-corrupted-ccleaner), is something that applies to every organization going through M&A. 

CCleaner was acquired by Avast just before the hack was detected. Avast's Chief Technology Officer, Ondrej Vlcek, said:

"A big lesson for us was about due diligence. When companies do mergers and acquisitions, most of the due diligence is around financials, maybe legal risks, or intellectual property. But I don’t see companies focusing too much on cybersecurity in terms of digging deeper into whether the company has a breach. This certainly changed our process. If we had focused on it during due diligence I’m sure we would have been able to find at least some indication."

[View full post](https://www.secureworld.io/industry-news/post-mortem-hunting-for-a-hack-during-ma)

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