Ajay Bhalla, President, Cyber and Intelligence Solutions, Mastercard (NYSE:MC), confirms that the payments giant is using artificial intelligence (AI) as “the first line of defense” to help the service provider detect cyberattacks, hacks and other types of security breaches.
Last year, Mastercard reportedly saved its stakeholders $20 billion of “fraud” via its AI-powered cyber systems.
Bhalia notes:
“With Cyber Secure, it forms a key part of our multi-layered cybersecurity strategy to secure the ecosystem, protect cyber environments, define industry standards and collaborate across industries.”
Cyber Secure (launched on October 30, 2020) is a “first-of-its-kind,” AI-enabled suite of software tools that allow banking institutions to assess or evaluate potential cybersecurity risks across their ecosystem and it also helps them prevent potential security breaches.
The Mastercard team states:
“With these capabilities, banks can identify and prioritize threats and vulnerabilities throughout their cyber environment. Additionally, acquiring banks can help merchants understand their own cyber risk, preventing hundreds of millions of dollars in potential fraud.”
Mastercard notes that as the digital economy continues to grow in size and overall complexity, so too do its “points of vulnerability that may be subject to attack.” For instance, the rapidly evolving Internet of Things (IoT) is leading to 2.5 quintillion bytes of data being generated by individuals and their devices each day, with 90% of this data having been generated in just the past 2 years.
Mastercard points out that research studies have estimated that at least “one business will fall victim to a ransomware attack every 11 seconds” by 2021.
Bhalla added:
“The world today faces a $5.2 trillion cyber breach problem. This is one of the biggest threats to consumer trust. [Mastercard] aims 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.”
Mastercard claims that Cyber Secure is a major step forward in “the continuous quantifying and prioritizing of cyber vulnerabilities.” The payments company also mentions that it will be giving banks the ability to actively monitor and keep track of their “cyber posture.” Mastercard believes that this should help the banking and Fintech industry with adopting a “more proactive state in managing and preventing data compromise, protecting the integrity of the payment ecosystem and consumer data.”
Mastercard plans to help businesses prevent financial losses typically associated with cyberattacks. The company also aims to provide a “comprehensive view of cyber risk through one application” to its clients.