Digital Main Street, Mastercard to Help SMBs Fight Cybercrime

Digital Main Street and Mastercard will expand their partnership with an eye toward giving more resources to help Canadian businesses fight cybercrime, which has been increasing since the beginning of the pandemic, according to a Mastercard press release Monday (May 16).

The expansion will bring educational programs and boost cybersecurity awareness for small- and midsize businesses (SMBs). It will also offer new tools to help SMBs examine their cyber readiness and provide recommendations to tighten risk mitigation.

“We are thrilled to be expanding our partnership with Mastercard,” said John Kiru, executive director of the Toronto Association of Business Improvement Areas (TABIA) and founder of Digital Main Street. “Since the inception of Digital Main Street, this collaboration has been critical in ensuring that we are bringing industry leading resources and opportunities to businesses across the country. In a time where small businesses are being increasingly targeted with cyberattacks, phishing scams and more, this will provide invaluable resources and support to ensure they are protected.”

The release notes that Canadian cybercriminals have evolved at the same pace as regular Canadians looking to shop, bank and work.

The press release says small business owners will now be able to access tools to fight back against the cybercrime with the partnership expansion with Mastercard.

See also: Mastercard Says to Boost Cash Flow, ‘Peace of Mind,’ B2B Payments Must Be Invisible

Chad Wallace, Mastercard’s executive vice president of business solutions, has said the company is observing several ways business payments can be improved.

For instance, middle market firms can move away from old paper checks and ACH payments through partnerships.

“We at Mastercard are focusing in 2022 and beyond on a couple of things — namely, the experience of the end corporate, where we create a solution for them that is distributed through one of our banking partners or one of our issuers. It’s a B2B2B model,” he said.