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IndustryUpdate

payments and data services provider Cuscal and NFTs-
as-a-service provider Mintable, the solution enables
CBDCs to be wrapped onto different blockchains, pro-
viding increased security and ease of use for consumers,
Mastercard stated, adding that it ensures that CBDCs can
only be held, used and redeemed by authorized parties
that have undergone Know Your Customer verification.

Payments Innovation Alliance tackles cyberattacks
Nacha's Payments Innovation Alliance released a table-
top exercise to help small to midsize businesses pre-
pare for cyberattacks. The exercise, developed by the
Alliance’s Cybersecurity Response Project Team, aims
to enhance preparedness, response and recovery efforts
related to cyberattacks. It provides actionable approach-
es for leadership to bolster an organization’s resilience
and compliance framework by fostering an understand-
ing of relevant laws and regulations. The exercise kit
includes a leader's guide, a cybersecurity scenario, a dis-
cussion points workbook, and a participant workbook.
ANNOUNCEMENTS RESEARCH

Charge Anywhere moving to new offices Blackhawk predicts flat holiday spend

Effective Dec. 1, 2023, Charge Anywhere has a new phys- According to Blackhawk Network's holiday forecast,
ical address for mail and shipments: Charge Anywhere, shoppers plan to allocate 43 percent of their holiday
1 Corporate Place South, Suite 201, Piscataway, NJ 08854. budget to gift cards this year, a trend driven mainly
All existing phone numbers and email addresses will by Gen Z consumers. The report also indicates shop-
remain the same. There will be a brief period when the pers are starting their holiday shopping later this year,
company's current and future offices will both be par- with many planning to wait until the final weeks of
tially occupied. However, that transition will be fully December. Overall gift spending is expected to remain
completed by the end of the year. relatively flat, as 96 percent of consumers express ongo-
ing concerns about cost-of-living pressures. This empha-
Infosec: Cyera most innovative sizes the importance for retailers to expand and optimize
cybersecurity startup marketing and gift card programs to attract and engage
Cyera, a data security company, was named the 2023 younger consumers who hold significant influence and
Most Innovative in Cybersecurity Startup at the 11th spending power, Blackhawk noted.
annual Top InfoSec Innovator Awards presented by Discover releases Fintech State of the Union report
Cyber Defense Magazine. Cyera's AI-powered data secu-
rity platform offers an agentless, cloud-native solution Discover Global Network released its third annual
for preventing data breaches and ensuring compliance, Fintech State of the Union report, offering insights from
award judges noted. The platform includes features fintechs, venture capitalists and consumers. Key find-
such as data discovery, AI-powered classification, data ings include growth opportunities—venture capitalists
security posture management, real-time data detection anticipate growth in investments/capital markets, pay-
and response, data privacy, and data access governance, ment processing and fraud prevention among fintech
making it a comprehensive tool for security profession- segments; building trust—payment and data security
als to protect sensitive data in multi-cloud environ- are crucial for building trust and adoption of digital
ments, they added. payments; and digital payments rise—consumer spend-
ing may have declined, but digital payments and ecom-
Mastercard demos CBDC for Web3 merce continue to grow, with online channels preferred

To open up opportunities for consumers to participate for discretionary spending. The study noted the impor-
in commerce across multiple blockchains, Mastercard tance of fintechs building strong relationships with pay-
introduced a solution that enables central bank digital ment networks and prioritizing security.
currencies (CBDCs) to be tokenized and used on various
blockchains. Developed in partnership with Australian

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