Mastercard bolsters threat intelligence capabilities with $2.65 billion deal for Recorded Future

(Reuters) -Mastercard has agreed to buy threat intelligence company Recorded Future from private equity firm Insight Partners for $2.65 billion, the payments company said on Thursday.

The acquisition will bring expanded threat intelligence capabilities to the New York-based payments firm, which recorded $9 trillion in gross dollar volumes last year, a metric that represents the total dollar value of all transactions processed.

The rapid adoption of new technologies has upped the risk of cyber threats, with companies increasingly facing hacking or ransomware attacks. In June, Arkansas-based Evolve Bank confirmed that it was a victim of a cybersecurity incident with customer data illegally released on the dark web.

With threat actors looking at new ways to exploit technology, Mastercard has been ramping up card fraud detection by using generative artificial intelligence technology.

The company is already collaborating with Recorded Future, which uses AI-powered analytics to identify potential threats, on a service that alerts financial institutions when a card is likely compromised.

Since the launch of the service earlier this year, it has doubled the rate at which compromised cards are identified compared to last year, Mastercard said.

The card company currently offers cybersecurity services such as identity fraud prevention and real-time decision-making, among others, to its clients.

In 2019, Insight Partners acquired a controlling interest in Recorded Future - which serves over 1,900 clients across 75 countries, including the governments of 45 countries - in an all-cash deal valued at more than $780 million.

The deal with Mastercard is expected to close by the first quarter of 2025.

(Reporting by Arasu Kannagi Basil in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)