Cybercriminals know no borders; their modes and methods are ever-evolving – and global. Therefore, collaboration across industries and borders must be a priority. We recently hosted the inaugural Mastercard Cyber and Security Summit in Australia, held in both Melbourne and Sydney. We invited industry professionals across ecommerce, financial services, fintech, and digital payments to come together and discuss just how we can protect trust and expand cybersecurity throughout an evolving ecosystem.
1. DIGITAL ASSETS: HOW ORGANISATIONS CAN GAIN GREATER VISIBILITY INTO CRYPTOCURRENCY
Joining us at this roundtable was Jonathan Anastasia, Executive VP of Mastercard’s Crypto and Security Innovation Division, alongside Aaron Boyd, VP of Global Product, Multi-Rail Trust, and Security, Cyber and Intelligence (also a newly minted division of Mastercard), and Will Clark. Together, they highlighted the arrival of crypto.
As Anasatasia announced, “It’s here. We must get our heads out of the sand.”
Panelists discussed the need to establish agreed-upon guardrails. As Boyd explained:
“With visibility comes the ability to build a plan safely. If security underpins what we do, people will eventually want to interact.”
Joined by the usual fintech, financial services, and digital payments executives, as well as law enforcement, the key takeaway from the discussion was the critical enablement of a safe and secure crypto ecosystem.
One payments executive lamented the multitude of negative “Crypto is Evil” headlines and fraud narratives that are persistent in the media, emphasizing that there are a relatively small number of bad actors in this space. Still, ASIC data doesn’t lie; an increase in reports of consumers losing money in crypto-asset scams was up 20% the first year of COVID. As crypto becomes more mainstream, the threat of crypto crime will also surge. Mastercard’s recent launch of Crypto Secure, a first-of-its-kind technology solution, is designed to combat the rise of fraud by bringing additional security and trust to the digital ecosystem. Crypto Secure helps banks identify crypto that has traversed their payment rails to better understand their crypto risk exposure and “follow the money” when it is turning into crypto. Crypto Secure will also enable banks to guide their customers to the less risky crypto business, which makes the entire ecosystem safer.
“Together, we have to better understand the stabilities and the vulnerabilities,” explained Clark.
“It’s our job to make digital assets make sense. It’s going to take time to build this globally. People will invest when they know it makes their life easier and better.”
2. HOW TO MANAGE THIRD-PARTY RISK IN TODAY’S DIGITAL WORLD
The process of analyzing and minimizing risks associated with outsourcing to third-party vendors and service providers is a discipline, explains roundtable moderator Jonathan Ehret, Executive VP of Strategy and Risk at RiskRecon, a Mastercard company.
“Play detective, play salesperson, play security guard. That’s vendor risk management.”
It is this need for discipline–spending time early in vendor engagement to determine how rigorous an assessment should be–that was the key topic discussed during this animated session.
There are so many types of digital risks within the third-party risk category, including financial, environmental, reputational, and security risks. Ehret also emphasized the need for ongoing assessment due to the evolution of these digital risks within the third-party risk category.
“Risk develops. You need a check engine light. Many [third-party vendors] are good during initial assessment and during onboarding, but things change.”
Finally, because third-party management is such an essential component of all cybersecurity programs, it helps to have company buy-in from the get-go.
“Build towards a risk culture,” recommends Ehret.
Read the recap from other sessions of our inaugural Mastercard Cyber and Security Summit
1) Mastercard’s Inaugural Cyber & Security Summit Peaks
2) Surviving and Thriving the Digital Economy: Panel Wrap-Up – Mastercard Cyber Security Summit
3) Mastercard Cyber & Security Summit 2022: Roundtable Round-Ups, Digital Identity and Post-Purchase Digital Experience
