MasterCard receives $49 million from federal government for Vancouver centre

MasterCard has received $49 million from the federal government in an effort to have the company place a cybersecurity centre in Vancouver.

The net income for MasterCard was almost $4 billion in 2017.

Navdeep Bains, the Minister of Innovation, Science, and Industry announced the Cyber Centre with MasterCard. The announcement was made in Davos, Switzerland at the World Economic Forum last week.

True North reported that Bains said, “The centre will focus on creating technologies and standards to ensure that Canadians and others around the world can safely use any device that could be connected to the Internet—phone, tablet, computer, vehicle—without concern that their personal and financial information could be stolen.”

It is estimated that 380 people will be employed by the centre which Bains says will turn Canada into a “world leader in cybersecurity.” He also noted that the cost of cybercrime in Canada is about $3 billion annually.

MasterCard Canada’s president, Sasha Krstic noted that MasterCard customers from all around the world will benefit from the technology that arises out of the new centre.

According to Krstic the research coming from the centre “will help meet the growing demand for technology solutions to reduce the cost of cyberattacks, enable today’s connected devices to become tomorrow’s secure payment devices, and address the growing vulnerabilities associated with the Internet of Things.”

The Strategic Innovation Fund will fund the $49 million. The program has supplied more than $2 billion to mostly large corporations.

Other corporations that have received large sums from the federal government include Canadian Tire and Loblaws. Canadian Tire received $2.7 million in January for electric vehicle charging stations. Loblaws received $12 million for low emission refrigerator units to replace their current models.