How PE-Backed Cybersecurity Programs Reduce Risk Across Portfolio Companies: Key Lessons from a Leading Outpatient Rehabilitation Provider

As private equity-backed healthcare organizations expand across clinics and locations, it can be difficult to maintain consistent cybersecurity practices.

A physical therapy and multispecialty organization with approximately 90 clinics faced this challenge as it worked to strengthen its systems against the threat of cyber attacks. Through Alliant Cyber’s Portfolio Protect program, our cyber specialists helped the client assess its cyber maturity, establish a prioritized remediation roadmap and gain greater visibility into the investments needed to improve resilience.

Read the article to learn how Alliant Cyber advises private equity-backed organizations in building a coordinated cybersecurity program that addresses portfolio-wide vulnerabilities.

Assessing Cybersecurity Gaps Across 90+ Clinics

The client, a leading regional outpatient rehabilitation provider, operates across the Mid-Atlantic and has grown into a distributed healthcare organization with numerous locations. The organization grew primarily by opening new practices while also adding smaller acquisitions, creating a need to coordinate technology and security practices across different environments. The client sought to preserve the independence of its local practices while establishing consistent standards for security and compliance.

An assessment through Alliant’s Portfolio Protect program found several critical cybersecurity gaps. For example, the organization lacked a standardized technology infrastructure. In some cases, new clinics used individually purchased laptops and consumer-grade internet routers rather than centrally managed devices and business-grade firewalls. The organization also maintained two legacy file servers across the enterprise, increasing concerns about how a compromised device could expose shared files to ransomware.

By evaluating the organization’s cyber risk and establishing priorities for remediation, Alliant Cyber helped the organization gain a clearer understanding of where resources were needed, build support for proactive investments — including a network directory, perimeter security appliances and multifactor authentication — and determine how those investments could strengthen the organization’s risk profile.

Creating a Practical Cybersecurity Roadmap for Remediation

Alliant Cyber developed practical recommendations focused on addressing the organization’s most pressing risks, allowing the client to effectively modernize its technology environment. Key changes included:

• Moving from Google to Microsoft

• Migrating two legacy file servers into SharePoint

  Eliminating physical server infrastructure within its clinics

• Strengthening network security and enforcing multifactor authentication

Ongoing Cybersecurity Risk Management Across the Portfolio

As a strategic advisor, Alliant provides ongoing performance oversight and reporting across the healthcare organization’s portfolio, ensuring remediation efforts stay on track. Alliant’s regular meetings with the client and its private equity sponsor provide continued visibility into budgets, remediation progress and upcoming priorities. This connection between assessment, investment and ongoing oversight has helped align the client’s leadership and sponsors around a more mature and sustainable cybersecurity program.

By treating cybersecurity as an ongoing business priority rather than a one-time assessment, the organization is better positioned to manage ransomware, phishing and other evolving threats as it continues to grow.

Case Study Takeaways: Five Private Equity Cybersecurity Strategies That Reduce Portfolio Risk

The lessons from this case study extend beyond a single organization. As private equity-backed organizations expand their portfolio, it is critical that they have a sound cybersecurity framework in place to preserve investment value. Leverage these five strategies to identify cyber vulnerabilities and close coverage gaps.

1. Establish a Clear View of Portfolio Company Risk

A cybersecurity assessment gives private equity sponsors and portfolio company leaders a clear view of risk across the organization, helping to reveal gaps, benchmark cyber maturity and allow organizations to compare priorities. This insight supports more informed decisions about where resources are needed most.

2. Align Private Equity Firms, Boards and Company Leadership

Cybersecurity recommendations must have support from the people responsible for approving and funding change. As demonstrated by the private equity-backed healthcare organization in this case study, sponsor involvement helped move technical findings into business decisions and remediation efforts. Clear governance also gave company leadership the support needed to make proactive cybersecurity investments.

3. Standardize Critical Cybersecurity and Risk Management Controls

Portfolio companies may maintain their own brands and operating practices while following consistent cybersecurity expectations. Establishing baseline controls helps reduce gaps between locations and business units, while creating greater consistency in areas such as access security, network protection and compliance.

4. Modernize Infrastructure to Reduce Cybersecurity Exposure

Technology improvements should address specific risks identified through the assessment. Moving legacy file servers to SharePoint, as evidenced in this case study, helped eliminate physical server infrastructure and improved access to backup and recovery features. Cloud services can reduce certain exposures, but they should be complemented by measures like email security, access controls and employee awareness.

5. Track Portfolio Company Remediation and Cybersecurity Maturity

Cybersecurity improvements require continued attention after the initial assessment. With progress reporting, investors can track inherent risk, performance against maturity targets, and key control strengths and weaknesses. Ongoing oversight keeps remediation moving forward and helps ensure future investments remain aligned with the organization’s most important risks.

Alliant Cyber: Your Partner in Building a Sustainable Private Equity Cybersecurity Program

At Alliant Cyber, our specialists bring decades of experience helping private equity sponsors preserve investment value and prioritize ongoing cybersecurity risk management. Our Portfolio Protect program is designed to provide sponsors with ongoing visibility into cybersecurity risk across individual portfolio companies and the broader portfolio, combining:

• Cyber control maturity assessment

• External threat posture analysis

• Dark web review

• Cyber insurance policy analysis

• Ongoing status monitoring and reporting

Contact Alliant Cyber to learn how to effectively manage cyber risks that can impact investment value.