V isa’s Cyber Fusion Center in Ashburn, Virginia is so secure that Michael Jabbara, the San Francisco-based global head of fraud services for the credit card network, has trouble getting through its double set of doors. With a Forbes reporter in tow, he scans his badge to get through the first door, a sensor beeps, but it doesn’t unlock. Finally, with the help of the on-site security team, we get through both sets (the second requiring a fingerprint as well as an ID badge) and enter the Cyber Fusion Center, which sits at the heart of a secure 42-acre campus.
Drive into this Visa complex without clearance from the security personnel manning the gate and you could end up in a drainage pond—a modern day protective moat. Inside the Fusion Center, analysts monitor a large screen displaying a variety of data reflecting how smoothly Visa's deluge of transactions–some 310 billion worth $15.9 trillion in 2024–are being processed worldwide, and where suspicious activity is high.
“A lot of the suspicious attacks are handled in an automated fashion, but there are certain incidents that generate human intervention and then they get worked through a consistent playbook,’’ Jabbara explains. Visa employees keep an eye on usage statistics and reported problems in the Cyber Fusion Center in Ashburn, Virginia. Many suspicious attacks are handled automatically, but sometimes humans intervene.
visa His ID badge now working, Jabbara leads the way through yet another set of secure d.
