Strengthening Cyber Security in Private Equity 

Client Overview 

This UK-based private equity firm plays a critical role in helping mid-sized businesses secure funding for mergers and acquisitions. With around 100 employees and a high volume of financial transactions, maintaining trust and data integrity is vital to their success. 

The Challenge 

The business experienced dwell time attack (this is when there is a period of time between the breach of a system and the actual attack), that happened when the Finance Directors personal Gmail account was compromised on his company device. This was triggered when one of his children used the device to make a purchase online. 

After gaining access to the account the hacker was able to identify the presence of an authenticator app linked to corporate accounts and monitored this for several weeks. The attacker eventually tried to use this access to break into the business network and target sensitive financial systems. 

Xperience’s support team identified unusual login activity just outside of business hours and immediately raised the alarm. Thanks to this early detection, the threat was contained before any damage was done. 

The Collaborative Approach 

This was a great example of fast, coordinated action. Xperience’s Security Operations Centre (SOC) worked with internal IT and service support teams to find the affected device and begin investigating. 

Collaboration was key to securing the breach – the team quickly assessed the nature and scope of the breach, ensuring containment while reassuring the client that no data or funds had been compromised. 

The Solution – Strengthening Cyber Security with SOC

While no data was lost and no financial impact occurred, the incident served as a warning. The client chose to move forward with Xperience’s full SOC deployment across all endpoints and servers. 

This included: 

• Continuous monitoring and real-time alerting for suspicious activity 

• Improved visibility of digital activity across the network 

• Enhanced threat detection capabilities to evaluate the source, impact, and severity of incidents