Mastercard has agreed to acquire US-based threat intelligence company Recorded Future from Insight Partners in a deal worth $2.65bn, a move aimed at bolstering the payments company’s cybersecurity services. Established in 2007, Recorded Future specialises in offering real-time insights into potential cyber threats by analysing several data sources. This intelligence helps customers take proactive measures to mitigate risks.
Insight Partners previously acquired Recorded Future in 2019 for $780m. The firm claims to serve over 1,900 clients across 75 countries, including the governments of 45 nations and more than half of the Fortune 100 companies.
In April 2023, the threat intelligence company announced the immediate general availability of its artificial intelligence (AI) platform, which it describes as the world’s first AI capable of providing real-time assessments of the threat landscape. Recorded Future said the OpenAI GPT model was trained using a decade of expert insight from Insikt Group, in addition to integrating 100 terabytes of text, images and technical data from the Recorded Future Intelligence Cloud.
Leveraging AI for fraud detection
The company’s use of AI and advanced technologies is expected to complement Mastercard’s existing identity, fraud prevention, real-time decision-making, and cybersecurity services.
Through the acquisition of the threat intelligence firm, Mastercard intends to solidify its threat insights and intelligence capabilities to protect the digital economy, including the payments ecosystem. The addition of Recorded Future’s capabilities will also allow the payments firm to offer expanded threat intelligence to its network of merchants and financial institutions.
“By joining Mastercard, we see an opportunity to help more businesses and governments determine the steps to realise their full potential – and to enable everyone to feel safer in their daily lives,” said Recorded Future CEO, Christopher Ahlberg.
According to Mastercard, the need for robust global cyber defence is more critical than ever, with cybercrime projected to cost $9.2 trillion across the world in 2024.
Both Mastercard and Recorded Future currently use AI to process billions of data points, identifying potential cyber threats to safeguard individuals and businesses. The acquisition is expected to create synergies between the two companies, enhancing cybersecurity practices and further establishing Mastercard as a trusted brand in the field.
Both companies have already collaborated on an AI-driven service that alerts financial institutions to potential card compromises with greater speed and accuracy. Since its launch earlier this year, the service has doubled the rate of compromised card identification compared to the same period last year, said MasterCard.
Subject to regulatory review and other customary conditions, the payment giants’ takeover of Recorded Future is expected to be completed by Q1 2025.
Recently, Mastercard has been actively investing in advanced security technologies. Earlier this year, MasterCard announced a real-time decision-making solution, dubbed Decision Intelligence (DI), to help banks score and safely approve 143 billion transactions a year.
In 2022, the company developed a new type of contactless card incorporating quantum cryptography, designed to protect against hacks from both current classical computers and future quantum computers.
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