RiskRecon, a Mastercard company, is offering free cybersecurity tools to help small Canadian businesses with up to 100 employees through December 31, 2020 to help them protect their IT infrastructure during the ongoing pandemic.
As part of these cybersecurity tools, the qualifying businesses will have free access to RiskRecon’s My Cyber Risk service and portal which gives them access to continuous cyberhealth assessments along with actionable recommendations for how to strengthen their cybersecurity posture.
“Small businesses are the lifeblood of our economy and now, more than ever, it’s vital that they be protected,” said Sue Hutchison, senior vice-president of product, digital and new payments for Mastercard in Canada, in a recent press release. “Mastercard has a proud history of supporting small businesses in Canada and we’re building on that by providing free access to the resources small businesses need to safeguard their systems now, and for the future.”
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RiskRecon uses passive techniques to help enterprise organizations better understand and act on their enterprise cybersecurity health by continuously discovering their digital footprint and non-invasively assessing their security risk posture across 40 security criteria spanning thousands of security checks.
Mastercard is also making its presence felt through a separate announcement made by Toronto Mayor John Tory. On Monday, Tory announced the ShopHERE initiative led by Digital Main Street. ShopHERE is aimed at helping Toronto independent businesses and artists open a free online store to minimize the economic impact of COVID-19, said the City of Toronto in the announcement.Â
Nearly 50,000 Toronto businesses, around 7,400 of them restaurants, bars or cafes, are eligible for the ShopHERE program. The initial program is available now through the end of August and the City’s goal is to develop 3,000 online stores for Toronto independent businesses and artists.
In addition to Mastercard, ShopHERE is supported by several community and corporate partners, including the Toronto Association of Business Improvement Areas, Shopify, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, eBay, Ritual, Trufan, eShipper, Snapchat, Magnet and Schulich School of Business – York University.
This announcement follows similar initiatives by Mastercard to support Canadian businesses and consumers amid COVID-19. Last month, Mastercard enabled higher contactless limits across Canada as part of its global effort to ensure consumers, merchants and small businesses have the resources to safely pay, receive payment, and maintain operations during the ongoing crisis.
In addition, other organizations such as the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) are working toward strengthening the safety and security for businesses and individuals in Canada.
CIRA officially launched late last month a free domain name system (DNS) firewall service to improve privacy and security for individuals using computers, smartphones and tablets, as they continue to access important services from home. The service aims to provide consumers with the kind of protection from DNS attacks that the public and private sector get from commercial products.
