Mastercard Partners with UTM for Cyber Innovation Hub

Mastercard and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) have joined hands to establish a Cyber Innovation Hub in the country. This partnership aims to ensure that the nation will be resilient to digital transformation, as well as to combat challenges related to cybersecurity.

The Cyber Innovation Hub will serve as a centre for training and research studies that focus on cybersecurity, with a specific emphasis on protecting financial data. Through this partnership, both Mastercard and UTM will tackle analytics and data to boost innovation and work on new technologies to combat cyber threats.

Dr. Ahmad Fauzi bin Ismail, the Vice-Chancellor of UTM, said the partnership with Mastercard would be beneficial to both students and the country as a whole. UTM is Malaysia’s leading university focused on technology, and this collaboration will strengthen its expertise in cybersecurity.

All courses and training sessions will be held at the UTM-Mastercard Cyber Innovation Hub, and participants will be awarded a cybersecurity certificate upon completion. This initiative aims to help bridge the skills gap in the cybersecurity industry and promote digital transformation in Malaysia.

According to Paul Trueman, the Executive VP of Mastercard’s Product Optimization and Customer Advancement, Cyber and Intelligence, cybercriminals are becoming more sophisticated as new technologies emerge, making digital threats and attacks harder to approach. Therefore, the partnership will help elevate the digital economy in Malaysia by creating a skilled workforce to combat cybersecurity threats.

Safdar Khan, the Southeast Asia President of Mastercard, emphasized that the collaboration between public and private sectors would expedite digital transformation in Malaysia. It would also help with the current skills shortage in the industry, which is critical to the growth and success of the country.