Mastercard Unveils AI-Powered Banking Cybersecurity Tools

Need to Know

• Cyber Secure is a new suite of tools from Mastercard that allows banks to assess security risks across their networks.
• The tools are powered by AI that combines public and proprietary data sources, then evaluates that data against 40 security and infrastructure criteria.
• Cyber Secure was developed in partnership with RiskRecon, with Mastercard acquired in 2020.

Analysis

Mastercard has announced a new suite of tools, Cyber Secure, that allow banks to identify and prioritize threats to their cyber networks.

Using Cyber Secure, banks can prevent hundreds of millions of dollars in potential fraud to themselves and partner merchants. The tools will enable banks to continuously monitor and track their cyber activity, empowering them to be more proactive in managing and preventing breaches. Because the tool uses AI, it is highly efficient, helping to save time and, therefore, money, when managing data compromises and attacks.

“The world today faces a $5.2 trillion cyber breach problem,” said Ajay Bhalla, president of cyber and intelligence for Mastercard. “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.”

Cyber Secure was developed in partnership with RiskRecon, with Mastercard acquired in 2020. The tools perform risk assessment using AI that combines multiple public and proprietary data sources; the AI then evaluates this data against 40 security criteria. After this, Cyber Secure produces a cyber risk rating and issue-priority navigator.

RiskRecon is a leading provider of AI and data analytics solutions—specifically, pioneering scanning and evaluation technologies—that directly support companies’ efforts to reinforce their cyber systems’ security infrastructure. In May, Mastercard announced that it would be leveraging RiskRecon to provide small businesses with risk-assessment services for free until the end of 2020.

Mastercard has leveraged a number of partnerships this year to expand its product and service offerings. In September, the company announced it would be teaming upon with Ethoca on new transparency tools that will allow consumers to more easily identify merchants within their transaction history. Most recently Mastercard partnered with Stride to provide health benefits to gig workers, offering coverage plans to Mastercard holders in the U.S. and marking the first time differentiated medical benefits will be offered by a payments network.