Visa Canada has announced a new alliance with Plug and Play, one of the world’s largest accelerators and venture capital firms. As a founding sponsor, Visa will support Plug and Play’s entrance into the Canadian fintech market and together, establish a platform to enable fintechs to flourish.
The Canadian fintech industry is experiencing tremendous growth with an expected compound annual growth rate of 25% through 2029. Through this collaboration, fintechs will access the power, scale, trust, and security of Visa’s global network. They will also be invited to exclusive, interactive events where they can learn, collaborate, network, and connect with new partners to grow their business.
This relationship builds on Visa’s successful collaboration with Plug and Play in the U.S. which launched an Inclusive Fintech Accelerator program to help foster diversity and inclusivity in the sector by addressing some of the unique challenges faced by diverse founders in the tech industry. Founders selected to be a part of the program receive access to Visa products, APIs, and insights.
Visa’s Fintech Fast Track Program
Visa’s commitment to enhancing the payment ecosystem includes working shoulder to shoulder with fintechs through a number of programs created to support the industry, like Visa’s Fintech Fast Track Program. This initiative is designed to help fintech and crypto companies bring new payments solutions to market with speed, harnessing the reach, capabilities, and security of VisaNet, Visa’s global payment network. Through the program, approved fintech startups can strengthen global payout service offerings, expand capabilities, and gain access to Visa’s growing partner network of 4.1 billion cards and 80 million merchant locations worldwide in over 200 countries and territories.
Learn more about Visa’s Fintech Fast Track program here.
CISA, FBI, EPA Releases A Water And Wastewater Cyber Incident Response Guide
Posted in Commentary with tags CISA, FBI on January 22, 2024 by itnerdIn a joint effort, CISA, the FBI, and the EPA have introduced an incident response guide designed to aid owners and operators in the Water and Wastewater Systems (WWS) Sector.
The agencies partnered with over 25 industry, non-profit and government organizations within the WWS Sector to create the response guide which outlines four pivotal stages of the incident response lifecycle:
“The Water and Wastewater Systems Sector is a vital part of our critical infrastructure, and the FBI will continue to combat cyber actors who threaten it. A key part of our cyber strategy is building strong partnerships and sharing threat information with the owners and operators of critical infrastructure before they are hit with an attack,” said Assistant Director Bryan Vorndran of the FBI’s Cyber Division.
Mark B. Cooper, President & Founder, PKI Solutions had this to say:
“Just as we have seen the creation and focus of Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) controls for the energy industry, vital infrastructure services such as water, waste treatment, and gas should have similar regulatory and industrial standards for cybersecurity controls. Through enforcing strong CIP standards for all vital services, these critical services can be better prepared for a world that has ever evolving cybersecurity threats and deliberate actors seeking to disrupt services.”
Incident response guides like these are valuable as they save a company or a sector from the trouble of trying to figure out what the best practices are to responding to an incident. Frankly, we need to see more of these out there ASAP.
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