Global financial services company, Mastercard, has launched a solution which helps banks assess cyber risks and prevent breaches across digital ecosystems. Called ‘Cyber Secure’, the AI-powered solution which comprises a set of tools enables banks to identify and prioritise threats and vulnerabilities.
Banks could also help merchants assess and understand their own cyber risks and protect them from potential fraudsters.
Cyberattacks and cyber fraud is quickly becoming the bane of digital activities around the world. As businesses continue to adopt and expand their online presence and digitise operations, fraudsters are also becoming ever more present in the digital space, growing in both the scope and sophistication of their activities.
According to estimations, by next year at least one business will fall victim to a ransomware attack every 11 seconds.
As the digital economy expands, both in size and complexity, so too do its points of vulnerability that may be subject to attack. One example of this is the rapidly advancing Internet of Things – 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are generated by people and their devices every day, with 90% of this generated in the last two years alone.
This sheer size of data potentially at risk makes it necessary for banks and other digitally-inclined organisations to invest a lot in cybersecurity.
“The world today faces a $5.2 trillion cyber breach problem,” Mastercard’s President of Cyber & Intelligence, Ajay Bhalla said. “This is one of the biggest threats to consumer trust. At Mastercard, we aim to stay ahead of fraudsters and to continually evolve and enhance our protection of cyber environments for our bank and merchant customers.
“With Cyber Secure, we have a suite of AI-powered cyber capabilities that allows us to do just that, ensuring trust across every experience, for businesses and consumers,” he concluded.
How Cyber Secure Works
Mastercard’s Cyber Secure is expected to leverage RiskRecon, a software company which provides third-party cybersecurity services to organisations. The software company gives real-time cyber risk assessment using an automated risk-assessment system tailored for specific organisations. The company was acquired by Mastercard in 2020.
According to Mastercard, the risk assessment is performed using advanced Artificial Intelligence that combines multiple public and proprietary data sources. The AI evaluates the data against 40 security and infrastructure criteria, with the impact and importance of each vulnerability analyzed to produce a cyber risk rating and issue priority navigator.
“Cyber Secure forms a key part of Mastercard’s multi-layered cyber security strategy to secure the ecosystem, protect cyber environments, define industry standards and collaborate across industries.”
Empowering the Financial Sector
With its new solution, Mastercard hopes to empower banks with the ability to continuously monitor and track their cyber posture. It also aims to “moves our industry to a more proactive state in managing and preventing data compromise, protecting the integrity of the payment ecosystem and consumer data.”
“In addition, it helps to reduce financial losses associated with attacks, saves time and resources, and provides a comprehensive view of cyber risk through one application.”
Mastercard
Mastercard reportedly saved stakeholders $20bn of fraud through its AI-enabled cyber systems in 2019.
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