Case Study: United States Regional Bank achieves rapid identity assessment and safer M&A with Proofpoint Identity Threat Defense

Bank Assesses Identity Risk With Proofpoint to Complete M&A Safely

A U.S. regional bank holding company with about $200 billion in assets, 25,000 employees and more than 1,000 branches faced a tight four‑month window to assess the IT security posture of a bank it was acquiring. With frequent M&A activity and no existing way to identify identity risks, the organization needed a fast, reliable evaluation to determine whether the target’s environment could be trusted.

Using Proofpoint Identity Threat Defense (Spotlight), the bank completed a full identity assessment in under 30 days, uncovering thousands of critical identity risks—including 3,000 domain admins on workstations—that were previously unknown. The concrete, quantitative findings convinced executives to delay IT integration until issues were remediated and established a repeatable playbook for future acquisitions and ongoing identity scanning.