Aniket Bhardwaj
speaker
57 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Apr 2025
last heard Apr 2025
Aniket Bhardwaj’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Absolutely. Thank you, Scott. So at Charles Weber Associates, I lead the incident response and cybersecurity services practice, along with other vice presidents in our team. It's a critically important function where we help clients respond to and recover from some of the most high-impact cyber events, such as ransomware, data breaches, business email compromise, you name it.
We also work closely with external breach coaches, in-house counsel, boards, and cyber insurers, underwriters, claims to really help organizations navigate through chaos with clarity in the event of an incident, for instance. Most recently, we were dealing with a cyber incident involving a nation state threat actor targeting a critical infrastructure organization.
The attack wasn't just about systems being down. It was more on the lines of potential geopolitical implications, regulatory notification obligations, and really securing evidence for law enforcement in particular. So in situations like that, you're not just really solving a technical problem. You are really helping the leadership teams manage risk at the highest level under immense pressure.
On a personal note, aside from my family, which is obviously the most important part of my life, I'm someone who genuinely enjoys the intersection of problem solving and people. I really make it a point to prioritize my health and wellness because being present and ready both mentally and physically is key to showing up for clients when they need you the most.
In the end, I'm there for my clients and my loved ones when they really need it the most. So yeah, thank you.
Sure, yeah. I mean, it is really central to the whole cyber discussion in particular. I mean, not just part of the future, but really the battleground that's increasingly defining it really from a nation state perspective. Think about it like, you know, everything we value from financial systems, healthcare infrastructure,
energy grids to intellectual property, elections, or even personal identity now lives in or depends on the digital domain. And as that dependency grows, so does the attack surface. Cybersecurity, again, is no longer just about protecting data, for instance, it's really about protecting the trust and continuity, and in many cases, national stability, for instance.
There you go, you know, bringing back the business in particular and ensuring that your business operations are running absolutely, you know, without being impacted, for instance. But again, at the same time, I also want to highlight like really, you know, on the global stage, we are already seeing cyber warfare reshape the overall geopolitics.
You know, we are seeing nation states using cyber operations to influence economies or disrupt critical infrastructure. We have had many cases of wall typhoon, salt typhoon, which is pretty much, you know, in the same spectrum. But again, the overall objective is to gain strategic advantage, all without crossing a physical barrier. So it's really like the low cost, high impact and often denial.
And that really makes it incredibly attractive and incredibly dangerous. So whether you are talking about the future of business or diplomacy or warfare or even social trust, cybersecurity is right at the center of it. So from my perspective, the future isn't just digital, it's really contested and those who can secure it are going to shape it.
So one of the biggest trends we are seeing is that cyber security is no longer an afterthought in M&A. It's becoming a deal driver. So PE or private equity firms are getting more sophisticated about modifying cyber risk before the deal closes. They want to know, is there a breach history? Are there legacy systems or shadow IT that could create downstream exposure?
And most importantly, how much will it cost and how long will it take to bring the target company up to the acquirer's security standards? Another trend is around post acquisition readiness. So for instance, PE firms are starting to ask for playbooks, such as how do we onboard a new portfolio company securely? How do we prepare for ransomware incidents or regulatory scrutiny?
Especially if the target is in a highly regulated space, again, like healthcare or FinTech or biotech. We are also seeing more interest in attack surface management as part of the overall due diligence. Really, firms want to understand, for example, what's publicly exposed before they even inherit the risk. Now, when it comes to cyber risk, it's now firmly a business risk.
And then in the context of M&A or M&A ecosystem, it's really affecting valuations, warranties, and integration timelines. The smartest firms are using it as leverage, really both to negotiate and to protect their investment post-close. But again, really, at the end of the day, cyber diligence has become a competitive advantage, not just another compliance checkbox.
That's a key element to understand. Now, the firms that get it right don't just avoid the downside. They really move faster, pay smarter, and sleep better at night.
So with the respect of cyber insurance, it's becoming increasingly important. We are hearing more and more organizations really ensuring that insurance needs to be in place. Now, with respect to insurance in general, it's definitely about transferring risk is what we have historically heard. But again, no matter how strong your defenses are, no organization is immune to cyber threats either.
So whether, again, it's ransomware or data theft or any regulatory fallout, I mean, insurance or cyber insurance really steps in to help organizations recover financially and operationally when those threats become the reality. How it typically works, I mean, there are various elements to keep in mind. You know, there's the coverage element.
You know, does a cyber insurance policy cover things like incident response costs, forensic investigations, you know, costs of engaging a legal counsel, again, ensuring that regulatory fines, you know, there are too many coverage elements that we need to really keep in mind, then they really help in the element of response coordination.
So most insurance policies, they really give you access to a panel of experts, for instance, like forensic firms that they have on panel, breach coaches, PR specialists. So again, you're not alone in the whole crisis situation. In fact, it's often the insurer who activates and coordinates the whole response, which is the whole duty of it. Then you also have risk incentives.
Like in my opinion, many insurers are now like tying premiums and coverage to the strength of your cyber posture. So better controls, better coverage, better hygiene, you know, obviously you'll pay more if none of that is effective. And then obviously at some point may even become uninsurable if the ultimate hygiene of your IT environment is not looking good.
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