Cyber risk, priced before close. Not discovered after.
A deal team needs a real answer on cyber exposure before close, not after. A portfolio company needs a hundred-day plan it can execute, not a binder. The firm needs one way to compare risk across companies that are nowhere near the same level of maturity.
Bring us the trigger. We will help determine whether you need ongoing leadership, a defined assessment, or a tighter path to evidence.
A red flag is only useful if you know what it means to the deal.
Technical findings are not yet transaction insight.
The investment team needs to know which issues can affect valuation, timing, integration, insurance, customer commitments, or post-close investment.
Diligence findings are about to lose momentum.
Without ownership and sequencing, the report becomes a closing artifact instead of the beginning of a risk-reduction plan.
Every company reports security differently.
The firm needs a consistent way to understand material exposure while allowing controls and maturity targets to fit each company's business.
The next buyer will ask the same questions.
Customer assurance, compliance, governance, privacy, and evidence can affect exit diligence just as they affected entry diligence.
The deal team, the management team, and the LP are reading the same finding for different reasons.
A cyber finding inside a deal reaches people with different clocks and different incentives. The same gap is a closing-timeline risk to the deal team, a to-do list to portfolio management, a value-creation lever to operating partners, and a portfolio-wide question to the investment committee.
Close on schedule.
Partners and associates need a clear answer on whether a finding changes valuation, terms, or timing, not an exhaustive technical appendix.
Inherit a plan, not just a report.
The CEO and CFO who inherit the findings need sequenced priorities and real owners, not a list of everything that could theoretically be fixed.
Turn findings into value creation.
The hundred-day plan is where diligence either becomes progress or quietly disappears into the next fire drill.
Compare risk across the portfolio.
The firm needs a consistent way to describe exposure across companies at very different levels of security maturity.
The diligence report rarely mentions any of this.
Deal timelines, LP scrutiny, and the next buyer's own diligence all create pressure at different points in the hold. The underlying expectation is that the firm knew what it bought, fixed what mattered, and can describe the portfolio's risk consistently.
The data room has nothing that answers the cyber question by the time the investment committee needs one.
A signed LOI does not pause the clock, and a gap in diligence coverage becomes a gap in the decision.
The target's SOC 2 report says everything is fine, and nobody has time to read what it does not cover.
A clean report is a real signal. It is not the same as understanding the actual exposure.
The hundred-day plan has no line for the finding diligence flagged three months ago.
A finding that does not survive the handoff to portfolio management was, in practical terms, never really found.
An LP asks how cyber risk is managed across the portfolio, and the honest answer is that it depends which company.
Inconsistent visibility across holdings is itself the finding, whether or not anyone has said so out loud.
“We got the cyber report. Diligence is done.”
The report is a decision input, not the finish line. The value comes from understanding which findings matter to the transaction and what should happen after ownership changes.
Good cyber diligence connects deal risk to a post-close operating plan so the investment team and management team know what needs attention, when, and why.
One deal. One portfolio. Different engagements.
Diligence on a specific deal and ongoing leadership inside a portfolio company solve different problems on different clocks. Start with the one in front of you.
You need transaction-specific cyber diligence.
A target needs to be evaluated for material security, privacy, compliance, cloud, vendor, and operational risks before or around close.
Explore M&A Cyber Due DiligenceYou need portfolio-company security leadership.
A company needs ongoing senior security ownership after close without immediately hiring a full-time CISO.
Explore Fractional CISO ServicesThe work changes depending on where the pressure is coming from.
These are existing Neon Clarity services, not industry-specific packages. The industry context changes how we apply them, what gets prioritized, and what evidence matters first.
M&A Cyber Due Diligence
Identify material cyber, privacy, compliance, architecture, and operational risks that can affect transaction decisions and post-close priorities.
02Enterprise Risk Assessment
Establish a defensible baseline of material cyber risk for a portfolio company and convert findings into prioritized action.
03Fractional CISO
Provide ongoing senior security leadership to portfolio companies that need program ownership without immediately hiring a full-time CISO.
04Cyber Risk Quantification
Translate defined cyber scenarios into financial terms to support investment decisions, remediation priorities, and risk acceptance.
05Third-Party Risk Management
Evaluate critical external dependencies and governance around vendors that can create material operational or data risk.
06Global Privacy Compliance
Assess privacy exposure and governance where data practices, jurisdictions, customer commitments, or transaction structure create obligations.
Decision-useful risk, not security theater. That is the standard.
Cyber risk may affect transaction timing, valuation, integration, customer commitments, insurance, or post-close investment.
Companies vary in size and maturity, so the firm needs consistent risk visibility without forcing identical control environments.
Investment and operating partners need clear findings while management teams need practical remediation they can execute.
New deal, add-on, first-100-day plan, board concern, portfolio review, material incident, or exit preparation.
A finding is only useful once it changes a decision.
Good diligence and advisory work leaves behind a clear read on deal risk, a 100-day plan with real owners, and portfolio reporting the firm can actually compare across holdings.
Diligence findings become deal context.
The investment team can distinguish material transaction risk from technical debt that belongs in an ordinary roadmap.
The first 100 days start with priorities.
Management gets sequenced actions, ownership, dependencies, and a clearer view of where security investment changes risk.
Portfolio reporting becomes more comparable.
The firm gets a consistent way to discuss material exposure while allowing each company an appropriately sized program.
Management teams get practical support.
Portfolio companies can move from findings into assessment, remediation planning, or fractional leadership without restarting context.
Exit diligence becomes less disruptive.
Governance, evidence, customer assurance, privacy, and security practices are easier to demonstrate when operated deliberately.
The person advising you is the person doing the work.
No account-manager relay. We work with the systems and people you already have, then make the program clearer, more defensible, and easier to operate.
Start with the business trigger
What changed, who is asking, what is at risk, and what deadline is real? We start with the pressure creating the need, not a canned checklist.
Find out what is actually true
We review the relevant people, process, technology, evidence, commitments, dependencies, and obligations so decisions are based on reality.
Separate requirements from theater
Work is sequenced around material risk, business impact, effort, deadlines, and the operating reality of your team.
Leave with a program your team can run
The goal is more than a report. Your team should understand the decisions, ownership, evidence, and next actions well enough to keep moving.
Advisory should make your team more capable, not more dependent.
You are hiring judgment, structure, and experienced execution, not an indefinite layer between your team and its own security program.
Your advisor is your deliverer. The person shaping the recommendation stays close enough to the work to own whether it is practical.
Recommendations are driven by the problem in front of you, not a product quota or a need to justify a larger managed-services footprint.
Security has to survive contact with business operations, technical constraints, deadlines, customer commitments, and finite capacity.
A defined project can stay a defined project. If ongoing leadership or compliance support later makes sense, the work can evolve without resetting context.
Before you call.
Can you perform cyber diligence before close?
Yes. M&A Cyber Due Diligence identifies material cyber, privacy, compliance, architecture, and operational issues that can inform transaction decisions.
Do you score every portfolio company against the same maturity model?
Not by default. Risk and appropriate controls depend on the company's business, data, customers, technology, obligations, and stage.
Can you help after the transaction closes?
Yes. Findings can transition into risk assessment, readiness work, remediation planning, Fractional CISO support, or other advisory services.
Can you quantify cyber findings financially?
Yes. Cyber Risk Quantification can translate defined scenarios into financial terms where that supports investment or acceptance decisions.
Do you become the portfolio's managed security provider?
No. Neon Clarity is an advisory firm. Internal teams and chosen providers retain operational ownership.
Can you turn around diligence inside a two-week window?
Yes. Engagements are scoped to the deal timeline from the start, prioritizing findings that actually affect valuation and integration risk over exhaustive theoretical coverage.
What if the target has no security program at all?
That is itself a finding, and usually a manageable one. Diligence work quantifies what building a baseline program would cost and how that affects deal economics, rather than treating the absence of a program as disqualifying by default.
Do you support the 100-day post-close plan?
Yes. M&A due diligence engagements typically include an integration security roadmap, and Fractional CISO support can carry that plan forward inside the portfolio company.
Can you help prepare a portfolio company for exit?
Yes. Exit-readiness work anticipates the buyer's own diligence questions and helps build the evidence to answer them before the process starts, rather than scrambling once it does.
A cyber finding should change a decision, not just add a page to the data room.
Bring us the target, portfolio concern, board question, or exit-readiness issue. We will help determine what is material and what should happen next.
Bring us the trigger. We will help determine whether the right next step is a focused assessment, ongoing advisory leadership, or something smaller.
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