www.AmericanSecurityToday.com July 2020 - Edition 46
• ings are a vital part of ensuring
the honesty and reliability of due
diligence evaluations.
• However, even if meeting partic-
ipants are currently in the same
city, restrictions on gatherings
and social distancing prevent
these meetings from happening.
Risk of abuse and error
• COVID-19 has completely upended
the operations of many organi-
zations and many employees are
not as well equipped to perform
tasks from home.
• This means errors are more likely
to happen in due diligence, in-
cluding oversights and review of
inaccurate materials.
• It also means there is a greater
opportunity for untrustworthy
actors to withhold information or
present false information.
• For these actors, the chaos caused
by COVID also presents plausible
deniability if their fraud is discov-
ered.
How to Manage Tech Due Dil-
igence From a Social Distance
While some organizations may be
able to delay due diligence evaluations
until the current crisis has set-
tled, this isn’t practical for others.
It is currently unknown how long op-
erations will be disrupted and many
organizations were in the middle of
investment and acquisition process-
es when restrictions were placed.
Others are seeking investment in
newly developed products or to ex-
pand into newly created markets.
If you are one of the organizations
that can’t wait, adapting your strate-
gy to meet current limitations is key.
Below are a few steps you can take
when implementing these adapta-
tions.
Set expectations early
40