Mastercard Beefs Up Its Cyber Defenses With Its Recorded Future Acquisition

Mastercard Inc. announced early Thursday it has acquired cybersecurity firm Recorded Future for $2.65 billion.

The acquisition builds on Mastercard’s strategy of investing in fraud detection and cyber defense technologies, the network says. The deal also enhances Mastercard’s identity, fraud prevention, real-time decisioning, and cybersecurity services for merchants and financial institutions through the use of artificial intelligence to provide deeper visibility into cyber risk.

Recorded Future uses analytics and artificial intelligence to provide real-time visibility into potential cyber threats. Providing better detection will provide merchants and financial institutions with greater peace of mind before, during, and after the transaction, Mastercard says.  

“This deal is right on point in delivering on our strategy,” Craig Vosburg, chief services officer for Mastercard says by email. “With our teams and technology, we believe we can innovate faster and help our customers spot potential cyber-attacks before they happen. And that gives people what they’re looking for–more security and greater peace of mind every time they pay and in their every day, increasingly digital lives.”

Cybercrime is a growing problem that is projected to cost businesses $9.2 trillion globally in 2024, according to data aggregator Statista. Launched in 2009 by software investment firm Insight Partners, Somerville, Mass.-based Recorded Future has more than 1,900 clients in 75 countries, including governments in 45 countries and more than 50% of the Fortune 100 companies.

Earlier this year, Mastercard and Recorded Future collaborated on an AI-supported service that alerts financial institutions more quickly and with greater accuracy when a card is likely to have been compromised. Since its launch, the service has doubled the rate in which compromised cards are identified, as compared to the same period last year, Mastercard says.