PURCHASE, N.Y.—Mastercard is expanding its efforts to eliminate the use of credit card numbers when customers make purchases online in a bid to fight fraud, according to a new report.
A decade after it first unveiled a technology that replaces consumers’ card numbers with so-called tokens, the company is now processing one-billion such transactions every week, Bloomberg reported.
“Now, Mastercard is planning to expand the use of the technology to replace security measures like passwords with biometric data such as fingerprints or face scans. It’s the latest step that the financial industry is taking to combat the rising issue of online payment fraud, which is expected to exceed $91 billion by 2028,” Bloomberg added.
Cybersecurity Firm Acquired
Separately, Mastercard said it has expanded its cybersecurity services with an agreement to acquire global threat intelligence company Recorded Future from Insight Partners for $2.65 billion.
Recorded Future is the world’s largest threat intelligence company, with more than 1,900 clients across 75 countries, including the governments of 45 countries and over 50% of the Fortune 100, Mastercard said.
‘Never Been Greater’
“The need for a holistic and global cyber defense has never been greater. As new technologies are introduced and adopted, there is a rising risk of cyber threats. In 2024 alone, cybercrime is projected to cost $9.2 trillion globally,” Mastercard said in a statement. “Recorded Future provides real-time visibility into potential threats by analyzing a broad set of data sources to provide insights that enable its customers to take action to mitigate risks. This ability, coupled with Recorded Future’s use of AI and other best-in-class technologies, will add to Mastercard’s identity, fraud prevention, real-time decisioning and cybersecurity services, bringing expanded threat intelligence capabilities to its network of merchants and financial institutions.”