Fighting Digital Attacks, MasterCard Style

MasterCard Thursday (Oct. 2) announced the launch of SafetyNet, which it said was a preemptive security system “to identify potential attacks before they start and in some cases before the bank or processor is even aware.”

The card brand said SafetyNet “is complementary to the issuing bank’s own tools but adds a new level of protection into the payment system. It monitors different channels and geographies, and provides the most appropriate level of support for each market and partner business, by using sophisticated algorithms.”

MasterCard, though, released no information on what SafetyNet specifically does that is different than what major card brands have done for years, which is to analyze all card activity in realtime and look for patterns suggesting likely fraudulent activity.

“Today’s announcement reinforces our leading position on safety and security around the world, which is also underlined by our recent trials for biometric authentication in voice and facial recognition,” said Ajay Bhalla, MasterCard’s President of Enterprise Security Solutions.