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The 2016 revelation that Yahoo suffered a breach affecting 500 user million accounts was a wake up call for merger and acquisitions (M&A) professionals everywhere. The company, after all, disclosed the incident just as a deal was pending for its acquisition by Verizon.

While the acquisition ultimately went through, the breach still led to resignation of Yahoo's then-general counsel Ron Bell. In October 2017, Verizon disclosed that as many as three billion Yahoo accounts were also affected by an August 2013 incident as well.

For M&A professionals, the risks of not thoroughly investigating a target company's cybersecurity health are clear. And, according to a recent survey, most practitioners are paying heed to the warnings.