Forensic Technical Advisory

Opening the Technology
Black Box. Forensically.

We surface and deliver the unfiltered truth about what is broken, what is at risk, and what is not what it appears to be, giving you the transparency required to make informed business decisions.

Whether you develop technology or depend on it to operate, the risks inside the Technical Black Box are compounding, across privacy and security, business continuity, IP ownership, and financial exposure. They are rarely surfaced internally- whether by accident or intention.

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Problem

Every Technology System Has Black Boxes.
It Is a Structural Liability.

What is inside is rarely what it appears to be, and the gap between appearance and reality carries real financial, operational, and legal consequences. This gap widens over time and compounds silently, and will not surface internally.

Investors

When acquiring or investing in a technology business, the Technical Black Box sits at the centre of every valuation assumption. Technical risk that goes unexamined before close becomes a liability after it. Standard technical due diligence was not built to find it. Forensic examination is.

Common Triggers
  • Pre-LOI: the technology story is coming from the people selling it and you have no independent read
  • At valuation: the price is set but the technical assumptions it is sitting on have not been verified
Businesses

Every business that runs on or sells technology is exposed.
Technical Black Boxes accumulate silently across systems, vendors, teams, and decisions. The longer they go unexamined, the more they cost.

Whether you develop technology or depend on it to operate, the exposure is the same.

Common Triggers
  • Technology spending keeps rising without visible return
  • Vendor dependency has become a constraint or blocker
  • A CTO or technical lead has departed and nobody has looked inside since
  • The board or a new investor is asking questions the business cannot answer
  • Something inside the technology feels wrong but the internal diagnosis keeps changing
Solutions

• All engagements are conflict-free. Businesses engaged under any Lahav Advisory services, are excluded from the firm's investor due diligence practice for the duration of the engagement.

Investors
Assessment | Audit

The Redline Sniff Assessment

◈Pre-LOI Early-Stage Screening

You're at pre-LOI. You don't have a data room. What you have is a target telling you the technology is an asset. The Redline Sniff Assessment gives you an independent read on whether that's true, before you commit.
Fast, collaborative, and built for early-stage deal timelines.

What It Surfaces

Early signals across the areas that most commonly affect deal viability: key person concentration, technical debt load, code security, infrastructure maturity, and architectural risk.

The Deliverable

An independent assessment of what is inside the Black Box. What was found, what it means, and whether it warrants going deeper.

◈

The fastest way to find out what's really inside a target's
Technical Black Box

The Deep-Dive Audit

◈Active Due Diligence – Final Valuation

At final valuation, the Technical Black Box has to be opened fully, forensically, and without compromise. The Deep-Dive Audit delivers the Ground Truth report: Every technical liability quantified, every finding evidenced, nothing softened.

What It Surfaces
  • What The Technology Is Actually Worth — Every liability quantified and structured for price negotiation, escrow, or earn-out design.
  • The Technical Assumptions The Valuation Is Sitting On — Remediation timelines, architectural risk, and what the price is actually resting on.
  • The People The Technology Actually Depends On — Who it can't run without, what lives only in their heads, and what that concentration is worth in dollar terms.
  • A Verified Chain Of Title On The IP — Forensic confirmation that what the acquirer is paying for is actually owned, cleanly, by the entity selling it.
  • AI/ML Governance and Cybersecurity Risk — Model provenance, training data exposure, and regulatory surface area assessed as core components of the deal.
  • Technical Debt Overhang — The accumulated shortcuts, deferred work, and architectural compromises that will land on the acquirer's balance sheet post-close.
  • Security Liability — Known vulnerabilities, unpatched exposure, and the security posture of the asset being acquired.
  • Infrastructure Readiness — Whether the infrastructure underpinning the product can deliver on the operational assumptions built into the deal.
◈

The Lahav Advisory next generation IRL includes dedicated sections for AI/ML governance and Cybersecurity reflecting the risk surface of every modern technology acquisition, not just the codebase.

Illustrative Findings
F-04 Architecture
Critical +
Architecture Fails at 25% Above Current Client Onboarding Rate

Independent load testing demonstrates the product fails at approximately 25% above the current client onboarding rate. The product has never been load tested by the target. Scaling mechanisms do not exist. The CTO confirmed the finding in a structured interview.

Exposure|Six Figures

Any growth assumption built into the acquisition price cannot be delivered without material re-engineering investment. The product will fail under demand that is already within the near-term business plan.

F-03 People
High +
Key Person Risk- Founding Engineer Dependency

One engineer holds all production access and solely owns the deployment process. No documentation or succession plan exists.

Exposure|Six Figures

Loss or departure of this individual post-close leaves the acquirer unable to deploy, maintain, or recover production systems. The business cannot operate without this person. The risk is not reflected in the acquisition price.

F-05 Cybersecurity / Operations
High +
Vendor-Developed Bots Operating with Excessive User Permissions

Vendor-developed bots have been granted broad read and write access to internal document repositories and systems storing customer PII. No access review has been performed. Historical data access by vendor bots cannot be recovered or deleted.

Exposure|Five–Six Figures

Confidential business data and customer PII has been accessible to third-party vendor systems without governance or audit. Historical access cannot be reversed. Regulatory exposure exists where customer PII was accessed without adequate data processing agreements.

The Deliverable
  • A Signed Ground Truth Report. Every finding evidenced, graded, and investment-committee ready. Deal blockers flagged. Findings structured. Nothing softened.
◈

The Ground Truth on what you're buying, before you sign.

Request the illustrative findings set →
Businesses
Structured | Directed | Standing

The Structured Assessment

A structured independent forensic review of what is actually inside your developed or operational technology. Findings evidenced and ranked by financial, operational, and regulatory exposure.

Technology you develop

A forensic review of the technology itself. What is actually there, what it costs you, and what it exposes you to.

Covers
  • Codebase quality, technical debt, and architectural risk
  • Infrastructure maturity and scalability
  • IP ownership and licensing exposure
  • Key person dependency and knowledge concentration risk
  • AI/ML governance and model provenance
  • Security posture and vulnerability exposure
  • Software delivery and engineering practices
Technology you depend on

A forensic review of the platforms, vendors, and systems the business runs on — and the risks embedded in each.

Covers
  • Cybersecurity posture and resilience
  • Vendor dependency and third-party risk
  • CRMs, ERPs, and operating platforms
  • Business continuity and resilience
  • Regulatory and compliance exposure
  • Data privacy and handling practices

The Directed Assessment

An independent forensic investigation into a specific technology concern. Where something does not add up: technology spending that keeps rising without visible return, a team that is not delivering, a vendor that requires scrutiny, a system that is underperforming.

Covers
  • The specific concern and its immediate context
  • Systems, vendors, teams, or processes connected to the concern
  • Findings evidenced and qualified by potential risk, regulatory exposure, reputational damage, financial consequence, or operational impact

The Standing Assessment

Leadership Teams | Boards
CEO, Founder, Leadership Team

Independent forensic technology oversight for CEOs, founders, and leadership teams operating without a CTO or seeking an unfiltered view of their technology risk.
Provides ongoing visibility into what the technology is delivering and what it is not. Surfaces vendor risk, operational gaps, and business continuity exposure before they compound.

Covers
  • Vendor assessment and vendor risk reduction
  • Operational excellence and business continuity
  • Ongoing visibility into technology risk
  • Independent perspective on internal tech reporting
Boards

Independent forensic technology oversight for boards operating without a CTO or seeking independent technical advice.
Supports director duty of care under the Corporations Act. Independent forensic technology advice a board can rely on. Surfaces technology risk before it becomes a governance, privacy, or business continuity failure.

Covers
  • Vendor assessment and vendor risk reduction
  • Privacy Act exposure and data leakage risk
  • Operational excellence and business continuity
  • AI and Cybersecurity Resilience
  • Independent technical advice at board level
Request the Forensic Brief →
About
Ken Lahav - Founder, Lahav Advisory
Ken Lahav Founder, Lahav Advisory

Ken Lahav

Founder, Lahav Advisory

Ken has spent 25 years inside technology- building it, breaking it, inheriting it, and rescuing it. Across early-stage startups, global enterprises, financial services firms, banks, and governments, in the US, Europe, Israel, and Australia.

He has founded a technology business and a consulting firm of his own, and served as Mentor in Residence at the Sydney Startup Hub, advising founders on the technology risks that define early-stage outcomes.

Lahav Advisory was founded to open Technical Black Boxes. They are not an anomaly- they are structural, whether you develop technology or depend on it to operate. They widen over time and carry costs and risks that only grow the longer they go unexamined.

Closing that gap requires forensic rigour, deep operational experience, and someone who will give you the unfiltered truth about what he finds.

What We Examine
Technology
Technical Debt & Architecture
IP Ownership & Licensing
AI/ML Governance & Model Provenance
Cybersecurity Resilience
Data Privacy & Exposure
Infrastructure & Scalability
Operations
Key Person & Process Risk
Operational Excellence & Maturity
Business Continuity & Resilience
Regulatory & Compliance
Vendor & Third-Party Risk
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