The 30 days surrounding deal announcement are the highest IP-exfiltration risk window many organizations ever experience. Senior personnel know change is coming. Some plan to leave. Some have already lined up next employers. Some are considering whether to leverage transaction-period knowledge in competing entities.
What we monitor in this window:
Anomalous file-access patterns. Executives accessing files outside their normal role, downloading material at unusual hours, or systematically pulling intellectual property they had no prior reason to engage with.
External-account communications. Forwarding to personal email, sharing to personal cloud accounts, communications with recruiters or competing entities.
USB and removable-media activity. Spikes in USB device connections, particularly to devices not previously seen on the network.
Mobile-device activity. Increased iCloud or Google Drive uploads from corporate mobile devices. Backup activity to personal cloud accounts.
Repository activity. For engineering and product personnel, repository clone and fork activity to personal accounts.
Deletion patterns. Pre-departure file deletion, browser history clearing, drive-wiping tool usage.
The forensic evidence created in this window is time-sensitive. Standard IT retention policies will overwrite much of it within weeks.
For acquirers and deal counsel: pre-close monitoring — conducted under privilege, with the right protocols — is operationally feasible and routinely justified. Post-close discovery that material was taken is far harder to remedy.