Mastercard Introduces European Cybersecurity Center

Mastercard is developing a cutting-edge European cybersecurity center for public and private stakeholders to work on advancing regional fortitude, Mastercard announced on Tuesday (Feb. 18) in a blog post.

The European Cyber Resilience Centre is a contemporary security unit based at Mastercard’s European headquarters in Waterloo, Belgium. It is intended to support affiliation between public, private and regulatory sectors to support enterprise resilience.

The facility, which will serve as a single cybersecurity hub for the region, is the first such center for Mastercard outside of North America. It spotlights Mastercard’s efforts to address cyber threats faced by European financial institutions (FIs) and FinTechs.

To establish the center, Mastercard collaborated with national cyber intelligence centers, industry groups, law enforcement agencies and central banks across Europe – ECRB, ECCFI, Europol, FS-ISAC, INTERPOL, NBB and the U.K.’s NCA and NCSC. The center will tap cyber and physical security experts to advance solutions to fight international cybercrime and other security threats.

“Financial services will always be at the top of the target list for attackers due to the vast pool of customer data and credentials under our responsibility,” said Javier Perez, president of Mastercard Europe. “Our European Cyber Resilience Centre improves collaboration amongst key organizations, helping to ensure businesses and individuals feel secure when sharing information online.”

The Cyber Resilience Centre aims to foster communication among internal Mastercard teams, customers, partners, stakeholders and law enforcement. In the event of a security incident, the goal is to form a joint response in less time and with the assurance of legal compliance. The Waterloo-based facility will adhere to best-practice sharing solutions with Europe’s top law enforcement agencies and policymakers.

“The security and privacy of our customers’ data are paramount. Fraudsters and hackers know no borders or nationalities, so threats can strike from every corner of the world. Only a joint effort that involves all parties will be able to place Europe on the frontline of enterprise resilience,” said Perez. “This new center will synchronize our global resources and partners to constantly seek and adopt the best practices for us and our customer network.”

Mastercard will roll out an interim center in the spring. The official facility is anticipated to open in 2021.

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