Mastercard and NTU Singapore to Establish a Joint Laboratory to Drive Cybersecurity and Digital Trust

The Mastercard-NTU Joint Lab will be led by Prof Lam Kwok Yan (4^th from right) of the School of Computer Science and Engineering, NTU who is also the Executive Director of the National Centre for Research in Digital Trust. 

Mastercard and NTU signed a Master Research Collaboration Agreement to form a Joint Lab to perform advanced research in Cybersecurity and Digital Trust, and to train and reskill cybersecurity talent in the region. The partnership objective is to develop a talent pipeline and industry expertise to build cybersecurity ecosystem capability and create job opportunities in the fast-growing sector. The partnership has scope to scale as needed, and is part of Mastercard’s broader objective of establishing its first Cybersecurity Centre of Excellence (COE) for the Asia Pacific region, based in Singapore.  

“The Mastercard-NTU Joint Lab is a great example of how industry partnerships and the sharing of expertise is driving innovation in the cybersecurity and fintech space,” said Ari Sarker, President, Asia Pacific, Mastercard. Professor Lam Khin Yong, Senior Vice President (Research), NTU, said, “Cybersecurity and digital trust have become increasingly important as Singapore moves towards becoming a Smart Nation. NTU’s collaboration with Mastercard is thus timely to ensure that digital technologies and solutions can be made secure and trustworthy. NTU will bring our strong interdisciplinary approaches in research to address some of the most pressing and complex challenges facing the fintech industry. The collaboration is also aligned with the national RIE2025 plan, under which developing trust capabilities is one of the strategies.” Philbert Gomez, Vice President and Head, Digital Industry Singapore, Economic Development Board (EDB), said, “As digital technologies become more pervasive, strengthening our cybersecurity ecosystem will be even more critical. The Mastercard-NTU Joint Lab is a timely initiative that will advance cybersecurity research and train more cyber talent. EDB looks forward to the Lab furthering cybersecurity innovation in Singapore. 

At NTU, the Mastercard-NTU Joint Lab will be led by Professor Lam Kwok Yan of the School of Computer Science and Engineering, who is also the Executive Director of the National Centre for Research in Digital Trust.