Enterprise Network Security It & Computer Science Research Paper (Research Paper Sample)

Good news, the media, and entertainment company you work for have decided to acquire a media streaming company to complement the business. That means there's a need to assess the financial strength and operational capabilities of the target company, including cybersecurity. The acquisition team needs to take a look at everything, operating systems, network infrastructure, data protection mechanisms, applications, patch levels, and all technology components to assess systems integration between the two companies. You are the cybersecurity engineering architect who will develop a strategy to mitigate risk, protect systems, and prevent threats to data. Your scope includes the enterprise network, data, architecture, and technology capabilities, operating systems, applications, and security processes of the streaming company. Although the streaming company's technology leader did not provide information on any system or trusted environments, you suspected that the company may be using older unsupported versions of Microsoft Windows and Adobe Acrobat. Another challenge, you know that your media and entertainment company doesn't have the staff, with the technical know-how, to assess the security of a technology-oriented streaming company. You will have to be detail-oriented and specific with staff members, to ensure the most important aspects of the integration of the two companies will be covered. You will develop cybersecurity for a successful acquisition report that details the cybersecurity posture of the target company, trusted mechanisms to incorporate, and remedies to implement, to prevent threats and exploits. The report will be part of the larger assessment report the leaders of the acquisition will present to executives of both companies.
Businesses involved in mergers and acquisitions must exercise due diligence in ensuring that the technology environment of the future organization is robust and adequately protects their information assets and intellectual property. Such an effort requires time and open sharing to understand the physical locations, computing environment, and any gaps to address. Lack of information sharing can lead to problematic systems integration and hamper the building of a cohesive enterprise security posture for the merged organization.
Often the urgency of companies undergoing a merger and acquisition (M&A) impedes comprehensive due diligence, especially in cybersecurity. This creates greater challenges for the cybersecurity engineering architect, who typically leads the cybersecurity assessment effort and creates the roadmap for the new enterprise security solution for the future organization. However, the business interest and urgency in completing the merger can also represent an opportunity for CISOs to leverage additional resources and executive attention on strategic security matters.