Mastercard and Les Digiteurs, the digital platform of the Paris Ile-de-France Chamber of Commerce and Industry, join forces to increase cybersecurity awareness for SMEs and micro-businesses in France

Paris, 31 January – Mastercard has today announced a partnership with Les Digiteurs – the digital platform of the Paris Ile-de-France Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) – to develop a cybersecurity awareness training programme for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and micro-businesses. The programme comprises of a series of webinars and access to a cyber risk self-diagnostic tool.

The programme is launched as a means to raise awareness around cybersecurity risks among the small business community in France. In 2020, half of the country’s SMEs were targeted by cyberattacks, which led to 60% of victim businesses filing for bankruptcy within six months.

Often less protected than large companies that invest heavily in cybersecurity measures, SMEs and micro-business continue to be the main targets for cybercriminals. Yet, despite this continued risk, SME cybersecurity investment figures suggest that small business leaders are not aware of the risk they face, or simply don’t know how to protect against it.

In response, Mastercard and Les Digiteurs have joined forced to combine their cybersecurity expertise and deliver the following free-to-access programme to SMEs and microbusinesses:            

• A webinar series, co-hosted by an expert from Mastercard and CCI, aimed at raising awareness among SMEs and microbusinesses around the principle cyber risks they face and the most effective security measures to defend against them. The first webinar was held on 13^th January 2022. More webinars will be available at: https://www.lesdigiteurs.fr/agenda/offre-speciale-pme-cybersecurite
• Access to the Mastercard CyberQuant self-diagnosis platform – developed by Mastercard's Cyber Security experts. While usually addressed exclusively to large companies, this version of the platform will be adapted to suit the needs of SMEs and micro-businesses. Mastercard CyberQuant will enable SME and micro-business managers to run diagnostics on cyber risk exposure, deliver an assessment of the potential financial impact of these risks, and provide advice on how to improve protection. SMEs and micro-businesses will be able to use the tool once again to measure the impact of the recommendations once they have been implemented.

The programme will be available for 18 months and is part of the France Relance digitalisation programme for VSEs and SMEs supported by BPI and France Num. It represents a collaboration between Mastercard and CCI Paris Ile-de-France that is in line with the Digital Economy Partnership program that was announced by Mastercard at the Choose France summit in January 2020. The commitment includes an investment of € 15 million over 4 years and aims to support the French Government's policies in the digitalisation the economy.

The latest programme builds on Mastercard’s portfolio of solutions designed to enable small businesses to protect themselves against cybersecurity risks. These include the RiskRecon software – an AI-based solution that enables businesses to proactively protect payment data and intellectual property – which has been made available to businesses free of charge during the health crisis.              

"Cybersecurity continues to be considered a low priority for too many SMEs and micro-businesses, considering that they are often the primary targets for cybercriminals. It is critical that entrepreneurs realise the importance of protecting themselves – and understand that protective measures don’t need to be expensive – so they can focus their attention on developing their business. This is the main objective of this new programme and we are pleased to launch it in partnership with the Paris Ile-de-France Chamber of Commerce and Industry and support the digitalisation of SMEs and micro-businesses strategy for France Relance,” says Brice van de Walle, General Manager of Mastercard France.

The CCI Paris Ile-de-France supports, informs, and advises companies at all stages of their development. The Covid-19 crisis has emphasised the need for SMEs and micro-businesses to master digital technologies in order to stay connected and run successfully. Yet, a comprehensive awareness and understanding of cyber risks is imperative to perform digitalisation processes safely and effectively.

"We partner with small and medium-sized businesses daily to help them address their digital needs and issues. Cyber risks are a major issue for business continuity, and so we address cyber resilience to encourage managers to plan for attacks that could be fatal to their business", says Maxime Garreta, Regional Digital Coordinator of CCI Paris IDF.