In the Next Frontier of Technology - Digital Trust Is the New Foundation

Originally published in the   

Why Mastercard’s Amisha Parikh Says Cybersecurity is Critical for Business Leaders

The moment cybersecurity stopped being a technical conversation, it became an economic one. Amisha Parikh, Vice President Cybersecurity Solutions at Mastercard in Canada, frames the shift plainly. Digital trust is not a feature. It is the prerequisite for every transaction, every data exchange, every partnership, and every ambitious growth plan.

Trust Is the New Foundation

Parikh’s central message is that trust has become the foundation of the digital economy. When trust is strong, businesses move faster, adopt new capabilities, and enter new markets with confidence. When trust is weak, everything slows down, contracts get delayed, customers hesitate, and supply chains add friction. Cybersecurity, in this framing, is not a cost centre. It is the mechanism that protects trust at scale.

From IT Silo to Leadership Ownership

One of the most consequential changes Parikh highlights is ownership. Cybersecurity can no longer sit alone with IT or the security team. It must live with every leader who owns outcomes, revenue, customer experience, operations, and risk. In practical terms, that means security becomes part of everyday business decisions, not a last step review after the strategy is already set.

The Cyber Fraud Fusion That Leaders Still Underestimate

Parikh points to a reality many organizations experience but do not connect early enough. Cyber incidents and fraud events are increasingly fused into a single chain. Credentials get stolen, access is gained, data is harvested, and the downstream outcome is often fraud. Treating cyber and fraud as separate problems creates blind spots. Treating them as one risk continuum tightens detection, speeds response, and reduces losses.

Canada’s Advantage Is Hiding in Plain Sight

This is not an abstract global issue for Mastercard. Canada plays a visible role in how the company builds and advances cyber and intelligence capability. Mastercard’s Global Intelligence and Cyber Centre of Excellence is based in Vancouver, positioned as a hub for innovation and security development to drive economic resilience and growing Canada’s tech workforce.

A Signal to the Market

When a global payments company puts long term cyber capability into Canada, it signals confidence in Canadian talent, research capacity, and ecosystem collaboration. It also signals something else. The future of digital trade and digital payments depends on cyber intelligence, threat visibility, and fraud prevention operating in real time.

AI Is the Next Frontier and You Cannot Opt Out

Parikh describes the current landscape similar to an arms race where threat actors can move faster and scale quicker, including through generative AI. The uncomfortable truth is that the same tools that may help criminals industrialize scams are also essential to defend at speed. Mastercard has described using AI as one strategy to strengthen security and resilience across its network over time, and the direction of travel is clear; predictive defence may increasingly separate the resilient from the exposed.

Why Threat Intelligence Became Board Level Strategy

Mastercard’s acquisition of Recorded Future underscores the strategic value of external threat intelligence signals and actionable insights in anticipating risk before it becomes loss. In plain terms, it is a bet that intelligence and analytics are now core infrastructure for trust globally, including in Canada.

The SME Reality That Determines National Resilience

Parikh consistently returns to small and medium enterprises, making up 98 per cent of all business in Canada, because that is where national resilience either strengthens or breaks. Smaller organizations often operate with thin margins, limited time, and fewer specialized resources. Yet they are still targeted, still disrupted, and still expected to meet rising customer and partner expectations. The Mastercard’s Trust Centre positioned as a free resource hub of educational resources to help SMEs protect assets, reputation, and operations.

Security as a Barrier to Trade

The sharpest insight for business leaders is that security is now directly tied to market access. Without the right controls, smaller companies may face barriers to scaling beyond local markets, joining larger supply chains, or meeting procurement and insurance requirements. The result is not only a cyber problem. It is a competitiveness problem.

Team Sport Collaboration, Not Siloed Perfection

Parikh’s view of effective defence is collaborative by design. The strongest outcomes emerge when industry collaborates, shares signals, reduces duplication, and closes gaps that geography and specialization create. This is not about one organization building the perfect program in isolation. It is about building interoperable trust across an entire economy.

Curiosity Beats Titles in the Next Wave of Cyber Leaders

For emerging professionals, Parikh’s advice centres on curiosity, accountability, and continuous learning. Technical designations matter, but they do not replace judgment, collaboration, and the ability to connect security to business outcomes. Modern cybersecurity sits at the intersection of technology, human behaviour, geopolitical realities, and business strategy, and that intersection is where careers will be built.

The Bottom Line for Canadian Business Leaders and Executives

Parikh’s message lands where leaders already feel the pressure. Digital trust has become a commercial requirement. Cybersecurity is the discipline that protects it. And the organizations that treat trust as core infrastructure will be the ones that move faster, partner more easily, and win market access in a world where risk is always on.

You can connect with Amisha, here and at the Mastercard Trust Centre