Mastercard has struck a deal to buy threat intelligence specialist Recorded Future from private equity form Insight Partners for $2.65 billion
Mastercard says the acquisition will boost its fraud prevention, real-time decisioning and cybersecurity services in the payments ecosystem and beyond.
Boston-based Recorded Future claims to be the world’s largest threat intelligence company, with more than 1900 clients across 75 countries, including the governments of 45 countries and over 50% of the Fortune 100.
The firm provides real-time visibility into potential threats by analysing a broad set of data sources, enabling customers to take action to mitigate risks. It relies on artificial intelligence to analyse billions of data points to identify potential threats and already works with Mastercard on an AI-supported service that alerts financial institutions when a card is likely to have been compromised.
Since its launch earlier this year, the service has doubled the rate in which compromised cards are identified, as compared to the same time period last year, says Mastercard.
“Trust is the foundation of any relationship. Recorded Future adds to how we deliver that greater peace of mind before, during and after the payment transaction. Together we will innovate faster, create smarter models and anticipate emerging threats before cyberattacks can take place - in payments and beyond,” says Craig Vosburg, chief services officer, Mastercard.
The transaction is slated to close by the first quarter of 2025, subject to regulatory review.