{"id":239,"date":"2024-09-13T03:34:17","date_gmt":"2024-09-13T03:34:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/?p=239"},"modified":"2024-09-13T03:34:17","modified_gmt":"2024-09-13T03:34:17","slug":"mastercard-acquires-recorded-future-how-will-threat-intelligence-transform-the-payments-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/?p=239","title":{"rendered":"Mastercard acquires Recorded Future: How will threat intelligence transform the payments industry?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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As cyber criminals grow ever more crafty with their tactics, enterprises are increasingly turning to threat intelligence<\/a>, which \u2014 much like military threat intelligence \u2014 involves collecting, processing and analyzing data to determine behaviors, motives, and target areas.<\/p>\n

To help protect its enormous global network and secure the digital economy, payment giant Mastercard is increasingly relying on this comprehensive method, and is further bolstering those efforts with a new agreement to acquire global threat intelligence company Recorded Future for $2.65 billion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the next step in our journey to secure the digital ecosystem,\u201d Craig Vosburg, chief services officer of Mastercard<\/a>, said in a statement to CSO Online. \u201cRecorded Future\u2019s threat intelligence capabilities help to identify the intent and tools behind an attack and the associated risks. That allows companies and governments to quickly safeguard their operations and infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Real-time, AI-powered intelligence<\/h2>\n

Recorded Future<\/a> uses artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze billions of data points across a broad set of sources to provide real-time visibility into potential threats. The company serves more than 1,900 clients across 75 countries, including more than 50% of the Fortune 100.<\/p>\n

The acquisition will allow Mastercard to expand its threat intelligence capabilities across its network of financial institutions and merchants. Recorded Future, for its part, will gain access to the payment giant\u2019s vast network, whose billions upon billions of data points will help it further optimize its AI-driven models.<\/p>\n

In several posts on X (formerly Twitter), Recorded Future CEO Christopher Ahlberg said the company will remain an \u201cindependent and open intelligence platform,\u201d serving as an independent subsidiary of Mastercard.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur commitment to you is stronger than ever,\u201d he pledged. \u201cOur capacity to deliver will increase. We will push the envelope in collections, analysis, AI, finished intelligence, all of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The significance of the acquisition lies in Recorded Future\u2019s ability to provide real-time, actionable intelligence through its AI-powered analytics, which can parse vast amounts of data from across the web, including the dark web<\/a>, explained Scott Dylan, founder at NexaTech Ventures.<\/p>\n

The technology will allow Mastercard to identify and mitigate risks before they \u201cmanifest into full-blown security breaches,\u201d he said. Just as importantly, the payment giant will gain a more holistic view of the threat landscape to help ensure that both consumers and businesses are better protected throughout the entire payment process.<\/p>\n

Improving threat intelligence capabilities is consistently a \u201ctop tactical security priority\u201d for enterprises, which purchase more than a half dozen threat intelligence tools on average<\/a>, said Brian Wrozek, Forrester principal research analyst focused on security and risk. <\/p>\n

\u201cThreat intelligence allows companies to prevent and interrupt types of attacks to minimize the impact to customers and preserve their brand reputation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Because of that, the threat intelligence market is expected to explode; Statista estimates<\/a> that by 2033, the cyber threat intelligence (CTI) market will grow to more than $44 billion (up from $11.6 billion in 2023).<\/p>\n

The combination of Recorded Future\u2019s threat intelligence capabilities and Mastercard\u2019s extensive network of merchants and financial institutions should provide greater, more widespread protection to digital payment transactions, said Wrozek.<\/p>\n

He added that it will be interesting to see how this partnership impacts other threat intelligence use cases long-term, such as providing additional context to prioritize vulnerability remediation.<\/p>\n

Addressing the fraud that happens \u2018when security fails\u2019<\/h2>\n

Mastercard and Recorded Future previously partnered on an AI-supported service that alerts financial institutions when a credit card is likely to have been compromised. Launched earlier this year, that service has doubled the rate at which compromised cards are identified, the companies claim.<\/p>\n

\u201cMastercard has made multiple investments in fraud prevention companies and technologies over the past 10 years,\u201d said Aaron Press, research director for worldwide payment strategies. This includes Brighterion AI, Vocalink, Ekata and Ethoca, among others. \u201cThey have different angles on things, but they\u2019re all around fraud prevention and risk management.\u201d<\/p>\n

He pointed out that the direct financial risk of fraud<\/a> to Mastercard and its competitors, such as Visa, is minimal, as they don\u2019t issue the cards themselves \u2014 the financial institutions that make up their customer base do.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s interesting that they\u2019re taking such an interest in this,\u201d he said. Although risk is indirect, \u201cit\u2019s in their interest to maintain integrity in the payment systems that they operate. If consumers lose trust in the process, nobody uses the cards. They want to increase their stickiness with their constituents.\u201d<\/p>\n

Press explained that in the card world, fraud comes from both the issuing side (loan origination) and the acceptance side (transaction authorization). Threat intelligence essentially \u201cgets to the aftermath of cybersecurity failures,\u201d he said, as it typically occurs after a breach has taken place.<\/p>\n

\u201cFraud is what happens when security fails,\u201d he said. \u201cFraud is how data from a breach is monetized.\u201d<\/p>\n

Financial institutions ultimately have to strike a delicate balance: It comes down to \u201cfraud versus friction\u201d and establishing a baseline for what they can consider an acceptable level of fraud.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s critical to know what to look for and be predictive about it, and at the same time you have to balance that threat with opportunity,\u201d said Press. \u201cYou can get to zero fraud, but you will have zero sales or zero profit. You\u2019ll say no to anything that\u2019s even remotely suspicious.\u201d<\/p>\n

Threat intelligence \u2018indispensable\u2019<\/h2>\n

Ultimately, Mastercard is building a comprehensive security service that addresses not just payments, but the \u201csurrounding infrastructure that powers the digital economy,\u201d said Dylan, pointing to the company\u2019s other recent cybersecurity acquisitions, including RiskRecon (third-party risk management) and CipherTrace (crypto services and payment).<\/p>\n

\u201cThis acquisition highlights the growing role that threat intelligence plays in fortifying the global financial system, where the stakes have never been higher,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

From a broader industry perspective, the move also signals that threat intelligence is becoming indispensable. \u201cAs the digital economy continues to expand, companies like Mastercard are recognizing that threat intelligence is no longer optional,\u201d Dylan said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As cyber criminals grow ever more crafty with their tactics, enterprises are increasingly turning to threat intelligence, which \u2014 much like military threat intelligence \u2014 involves collecting, processing and analyzing data to determine behaviors, motives, and target areas. To help protect its enormous global network and secure the digital economy, payment giant Mastercard is increasingly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":221,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}