How Mastercard & Cloudflare's Deal Helps Close Security Gaps

In the age of AI driven cyber threats, effective defence requires strategic partnerships. 

Formed with an established aim to develop tools that can defend against these advanced cyber attacks, a new partnership between leading connectivity cloud company Cloudflare and finance giant Mastercard is a welcome news to many.

The two companies will be combining their security offerings to help those that most need it – small businesses, governments and critical infrastructure – from threats that emerge in cyberspace, without having to slow down innovation. 

“For small businesses, critical infrastructure and governments, a cyberattack is more than a technical hurdle – it is an existential threat,” says Stephanie Cohen, Chief Strategy Officer at Cloudflare.

“Often considered ‘target rich but resource poor,’ these organisations are strategic targets and are often attacked at a greater rate than global enterprise or Fortune 500 organisations.

“This partnership brings together the best in cyber defence so that these underserved organisations don’t fall victim to the growing number of cyberattacks.”

A joined security effort 

Public sector organisations usually have legacy systems that expose them to cyber attacks due to their outdated defences. 

Small businesses also face risks through third party vendors that pose supply chain risks, and shadow IT among employees adds to the problem. 

It is easy for these to be overlooked without comprehensive visibility and monitoring tools such as proposed by the Mastercard Cloudflare deal.    

“Improving critical infrastructure cybersecurity and reducing cyber risk is an ongoing, challenging mission,” says Dan Cimpean, Director of the Romanian National Cyber Security Directorate.

“As society and global economies increasingly rely on digital networks, we must combine our efforts across the public and private sectors, across nations and international organisations, to build resilience and prevent cyber incidents. 

“The protection of critical infrastructure is and must be a joint effort."

Mastercard Cloudflare deal

Mastercard’s Recorded Future and RiskRecon have incredible attack surface monitoring capabilities.

This, combined with Cloudflare’s extensive application security portfolio, will aid these deserving organisations to brick up their cyber defence wall. 

Cloudflare and Mastercard intend to help protect small businesses, critical infrastructure and governments by:

1. Eliminating blind spots: Recorded Future will be able to identify unprotected internet facing assets and Cloudflare’s application security can immediately secure any such shadow assets
2. Providing real-time view of cyber posture: Organisations will have access to a comprehensive view of their cyber posture through Recorded Future, with an A-F graded security rating – which can be visualised through Cloudflare’s Security Insights dashboard, where threats are prioritised based on their severity
3. Translating risks to active protection: Organisations can mitigate risks through web application firewall, encryption or automated defences via the Cloudflare dashboard

This combined, unified solution will bring to those public and private sector organisations, the ability to map, prioritise and automate the process of risk remediation – spotting and clearing those hidden threats from their digital ecosystems.  

“With small businesses accounting for about half of the world’s GDP, closing the resilience gap is critical to securing the foundation of our global economy,” says Johan Gerber, Global Head of Security Solutions at Mastercard. 

“Our collaboration with Cloudflare propels our mission to secure the digital ecosystem in partnership with governments and other key players, empowering businesses to focus on what matters most: their productivity and growth.”