Mastercard Debuts Threat Intelligence Solution for Issuers and Acquirers

Mastercard has introduced a threat intelligence solution designed to help cybersecurity and fraud teams at issuing and acquiring banks combat payment fraud.

The Mastercard Threat Intelligence solution combines Mastercard’s fraud insights and global network visibility with the Recorded Future platform’s curated cyber threat intelligence, Mastercard said in a Monday (Oct. 27) press release.

This combination is designed to bridge communication gaps between the fraud and security teams at issuing and acquiring banks and help them detect, prevent and respond to cyber-enabled fraud, according to the release.

Mastercard Threat Intelligence features card testing detection, digital skimming intelligence and merchant threat intelligence, the release said.

The platform also provides weekly reports detailing emerging threats and vulnerabilities across the payments landscape, as well as actionable case studies and fraud trend analysis, per the release.

“As the lines between cybercrime and financial crime continue to blur, innovation is an imperative,” Johan Gerber, global head of security solutions at Mastercard, said in the release. “Mastercard Threat Intelligence provides customers with actionable, real-time and targeted risk insights to disrupt fraudulent transactions, inform strategic defense and ultimately enable a more proactive approach.”

Mastercard finalized its $2.65 billion acquisition of Recorded Future, a threat intelligence company, in December 2024.

Mastercard said at the time that the acquisition would add threat intelligence and artificial intelligence-powered, actionable analytics to its cybersecurity capabilities, provide it with opportunities to serve different customer sets, and enhance the effectiveness of its existing products and services.

Gerber told PYMNTS in an interview posted in December 2024 that one of the attractions of the acquisition was the insight into consumer behaviors and potential threats that Recorded Future would bring.

“By the time you get to the payment, you’re almost at the last part of that digital interaction you’re having as a consumer,” Gerber said. “So for us to go beyond the payment really means in this specific instance, how do we look broadly across the entire digital interaction rather than specifically the payment. Now, if you think about the services that Mastercard offers today, we often talk about things that we do before the transaction, like account opening, biometrics authentication and so forth.”