Yahoo Finance Mastercard (MA) Platform to Extend Improved Cybersecurity Prowess
Mastercard Incorporated MA recently introduced the attack simulation and assessment platform, Cyber Front, in a bid to bolster the cybersecurity capabilities of businesses and governments. To roll out this platform, MA had undertaken a strategic minority investment in Picus Security, a leading platform for Breach and Attack Simulation (“BAS”).
Shares of Mastercard gained 1.2% on May 25.
Cyber Front utilizes a continually updated library containing more than 3,500 instances of real-world threats. Subsequently, it discloses security gaps and extends real-time mitigation insights for enabling organizations to gauge the effectiveness of their current systems, detect areas of exposure and take better decisions on cybersecurity investments. Prudent cybersecurity decisions enhance cybersecurity control of organizations for monitoring and countering threats, which, in turn, is likely to offer protection to their digital ecosystems over the immediate and long term.
The recently launched platform forms part of the expanding Cybersecurity & Risk consulting practice of Mastercard. Additionally, management expects the Cyber Front platform to benefit Mastercard by bolstering its comprehensive and actionable data-driven services, which include authorization and fraud diagnostics, consumer and portfolio insights as well as consulting and marketing services. These services are likely to help those organizations (MA’s customers) tide over enterprise-wide risks and boost business growth.
Markedly, Mastercard was prudent in choosing Picus for backing the Cyber Front platform. The reason behind selecting Picus can be attributed to its innovative technology in BAS (acknowledged by experts, one of which is the renowned research firm Frost & Sullivan) that assures to offer continuous protection from the current cyber threats.
Initiatives similar to the latest one reinforce Mastercard’s sincere efforts to ease the continual identification of risks by organizations, helping them ace the digital transformation journey. Undoubtedly, digitization brought numerous benefits to organizations and consumers, but the trend prompted fraudsters to indulge in sophisticated and complex methods of cybercrimes.
To address the growing incidence of cybercrimes, Mastercard boasts a strong cybersecurity suite developed through partnerships or significant investments in emerging cybersecurity technologies. The latest investment to roll out the Cyber Front platform, therefore, seems aptly timed. In December 2021, MA collaborated with Europol (also known as the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation) to boost cyber resilience throughout Europe. Another remarkable move of Mastercard during last year, in an attempt to bolster its identity verification capabilities, was acquiring the leading provider of digital identity verification solutions Ekata and paving the way for safe and secured digital transactions for merchants as well as customers.
An upgraded cybersecurity portfolio enables MA to extend enhanced fraud detection solutions, which, in turn, leads to an expanded global presence for the technology company in the global payments industry. These solutions are also a blessing in disguise for organizations that otherwise grapple with exorbitant costs in case of security breaches in the digital ecosystem of their businesses.
Shares of Mastercard have gained 6.7% in the past six months against the industry’s 9.7% decline. MA currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
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Similar to Mastercard, other companies like Visa Inc. V, PayPal Holdings, Inc. PYPL, and American Express Company AXP are continuously rolling out a diverse range of fraud detection solutions to protect merchants and consumers amid a growing digital economy.
Visa launched the Advanced Identity Score in 2020 to minimize digital identity frauds and operational costs associated with identity-related forgeries. V steadily invests in technology to limit the impact of fraud and safeguard consumer and merchant-oriented information. The CyberSource solution by V boasts a diversified portfolio of payment and fraud management tools.
PayPal continues to undertake significant investments to leverage the blockchain technology to boost digital identity capabilities. PYPL’s risk management and tokenization assure the legitimacy of transactions and prevent any illegal or fraudulent dealings.
American Express remains steadfast in upgrading its digital arm for assisting merchants and Card Members across the globe. To complement the same, AXP also strives hard to come up with solutions that tend to offer protection to digital payment processes. In May 2022, American Express teamed up with Google to offer an enhanced checkout experience for AXP’s Card Members. While using Autofill on Chrome and Android, Card Members will be able to convert to and save virtual card numbers (VCN) that will take the place of the 15-digit physical card number, add an extra layer of safety from frauds and pave the way for seamless and secured shopping online and in Android apps.
Shares of Visa and American Express have gained 3.8% and 1.7%, respectively, in the past six months. Meanwhile, PayPal stock has lost 57.2% in the same time frame.
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