As e-commerce continues to accelerate owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, Mastercard is leading the way in fostering cybersecurity and combating fraud. With online shopping playing an integral role in the region’s economic recovery, ensuring transaction approval rates remain robust while countering fraud attempts has taken a completely new focus. Mastercard’s technology plays an integral role in reducing online fraud, protecting retailers from data breaches while ensuring that consumers still enjoy a convenient and hassle-free payment experience. The solution will also enable regional governments to accept secure digital payments for utility and government related services, thereby accelerating the shift to digitized government transactions. As part of Mastercard’s commitment to support the financial data and security of consumers and merchants alike, it recently introduced MDES for Merchants (M4M) offering across the region. The new service uses Tokenization technology to speed up and simplify the purchase process online and in-app, as well as for subscription-based and recurring payments like streaming music, video services and utility bills. The new tokenization technology is also designed to protect security of consumers and merchants as shopping goes increasingly digital. Must Read: BankIslami Launched Tree Plantation Drive ‘Plantation for Nation’ to Promote Prime Minister’s Green Pakistan Vision Magdy Hassan, Country Manager, Egypt & Pakistan, Mastercard said: “As online shopping gains a stronger foothold in the region, it is integral that businesses ensure the trust of consumers and protect their financial data. At Mastercard, we continue to work with merchants across MENA to introduce new solutions that ensures frictionless shopping experience with no compromise on security by enabling technologies like tokenization and leveraging our payment gateway capabilities with MPGS to bring them into market. E-commerce continues to be a driving force in economic recovery, and we are working closely with our partners to foster innovation and trust in this sector.” Currently, Mastercard has partnered with Checkout.com, a leading global payment service provider and FOO, a technology company focusing on fintech solutions, to roll out this technology in the region. “Checkout.com has been working with Mastercard to introduce innovative features and products that enable our merchants to seamlessly accept payments and unlock more value from every transaction”, said Sebastian Reis, EVP Global e-commerce at Checkout.com. “We’ve seen an acceleration in the shift from offline to online commerce in MENA driven by the pandemic. As such, the ecosystem requires constant innovation such as tokenization, to ensure that consumers and merchants are protected in an increasingly digital world.” Ghady Rayess, Managing Partner, FOO said: “During the pandemic period, we have noticed an exponential growth in demand for online payments. Striving to always deliver the best solution for our customers, M4M provided the perfect fit when it came to security and user experience. Together with Mastercard, we are looking forward to rolling out M4M to all our clients in the region and keep pushing towards a better payment ecosystem.” Tokenization encrypts consumer data by replacing card numbers with digital tokens. Every time a transaction is made online or with a mobile wallet, a unique token is created to make the payment and ensures that a consumer’s 16-digit card number is not stored anywhere. This prevents improper usage at any other location and provides additional security and peace of mind for consumers and merchants alike, resulting in higher approval rates while minimizing online fraud.
North Korean hackers create a menace to global banks according to cybersecurity experts
Global Banks are getting ready to protect themselves against North Korea possibly intensifying a years-long hacking spree by wanting to cripple financial sites as Pyongyang weighs in at the risk of US military services action over its nuclear program, cyber security experts said. North Korean hackers have taken vast sums of us dollars from banks in the past 3 years, including a heist in 2016 at Bangladesh Loan company that yielded $81 million, regarding to Dmitri Alperovitch, key technology official at cybersecurity company CrowdStrike. Alperovitch advised the Reuters Cyber Security Summit on Wednesday that bankers were worried Pyongyang’s hackers could become more destructive utilizing the same kind of “wiper” infections they deployed across South Korea with Sony Corp’s Hollywood studio room. The North Korean federal has repeatedly rejected accusations by security analysts and the government it has completed cyberattacks. North Korean hackers could leverage understanding of financial networks accumulated during cyber heists to disrupt loan company operations, corresponding to Alperovitch, who said his company has conducted “war game” exercises for a number of banks. “The difference between fraud and destruction is usually a few keystrokes,” Alperovitch said. Security clubs at major US finance institutions have shared home elevators the North Korean cyberthreat lately, said another cybersecurity expert acquainted with those talks. “We realize they attacked Southern Korean banking institutions,” said the foundation, who added that anxieties have become that banks in america will be targeted next. Tensions between Washington and Pyongyang have been building after some nuclear and missile studies by North Korea and bellicose verbal exchanges between US Leader Donald Trump and North Korean head Kim Jong Un. John Carlin, a past US assistant legal professional general, informed the Reuters summit that other organizations, among them protection contractors, sellers and social multimedia companies, were also worried. “They are planning ‘Are we heading to see an increase in disorders from North Korea?’” said Carlin, couch of Morrison & Foerster international legislation firm’s global risk and turmoil management team. Jim Lewis, a cyberexpert with Washington’s Middle for Strategic and International Studies, said it is improbable that North Korea would establish destructive episodes on American banking companies because of concerns about US retaliation. Representatives of the united states National Reserve and any office of the Comptroller of the Money, the most notable US bank regulators, dropped to comment. Both have ramped up cybersecurity oversight lately. Reuters
