Finance & Banking , Industry Specific , Next-Generation Technologies & Secure Development

How Mastercard Benefits From the $2.65B Recorded Future Deal

Mastercard last week announced the purchase of threat intelligence powerhouse Recorded Future for $2.65 billion. Mastercard Executive Vice President Johan Gerber shared how the acquisition will help Mastercard secure digital transactions from account openings to transaction verification.

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The Boston-area threat intelligence firm will help New York-area Mastercard proactively combat cyberthreats within digital payments and see stolen identities and fraud before, during and after transactions, according to Gerber. Third-party risk is one of the biggest threats to the payments sector and by owning Recorded Future, Gerber said Mastercard can better manage cybersecurity across its ecosystem (see: Are Pure-Play Threat Intel Vendors a Vanishing Breed?).

"If you think about what Recorded Future can do for us today, they collect intelligence, including things like stolen identities or identity attributes," Gerber said. "So, if somebody wants to open up an account and they use identity attributes that we know have just been offered for sale on the dark web, that becomes very powerful intelligence to help our banks make better decisions."

In this video interview with Information Security Media Group, Gerber also discussed:

• Why Mastercard is buying cybersecurity vendors rather than relying on third parties;
• How Recorded Future complements Mastercard's RiskRecon and Ekata acquisitions;
• How Recorded Future fraud, identity and geopolitical intelligence will help customers.

During his 25 years at Mastercard, Gerber has overseen growth of the company's cybersecurity offerings, spearheading the successful acquisition of several security tech companies and harnessing identity, data science and AI to diminish the criminal enterprise. Prior to joining Mastercard, Gerber spent 10 years investigating organized crime and financial crime with the South African Police Services.