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2021 2022 2023 2024

2024: ACTIVITY REPORT OF THE CYBER SECURITY COALITION

"AI helps us to detect suspicious transactions faster"

Payment companies are a popular target for cybercriminals. To better protect itself against these attacks, Mastercard announced the intent to acquire the threat intelligence company Recorded Future. This way the company aims to detect and address suspicious transactions and security threats more quickly. "Collecting information about cybersecurity is one thing, the trick is to also link the appropriate action to it."

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Rigo Van Den Broeck

EVP Cybersecurity Product Innovation of Mastercard

In addition to obtaining data, money remains the biggest driver for cybercriminals. And as their attacks become more sophisticated, the financial sector and companies such as Mastercard are doing everything they can to identify potential threats. "Technology plays into the hands of cybercriminals, because with AI it is easier than ever to carry out attacks," says Rigo Van den Broeck, EVP Cybersecurity Product Innovation of Mastercard. The rise of AI-driven phishing is particularly worrying. "After all, criminals know all too well that people are the weakest link in an organisation and with AI they can now also write convincing, truthful emails." 

Turning intel into action 

To gain a better understanding of the behaviour of criminals, their tactics and the vulnerabilities they exploit, Mastercard announced its intent to acquire the threat intelligence company Recorded Future. "This company excels in collecting and analysing threat intelligence and translating it into actionable insights," explains Rigo Van den Broeck. According to Van den Broeck, that is exactly where many companies fall short. "Collecting data is only the first step, but it's about what you do with that information."  

Mastercard links that information to certain fraud cases. "It is precisely by making these connections that we can set priorities and take more targeted action within our security policy." In doing so, the company is also taking a close look at its entire supply chain. "After all, criminals are increasingly targeting suppliers. We therefore advise organisations not only to take a critical look at themselves, but to make a risk analysis of their entire ecosystem. Based on that analysis, it can then be decided which investments need to be made." 

AI as an ally 

In doing so, organisations should also take a look at what AI can do for them. "In any case, the technology helps us to detect suspicious transactions faster. The downside, however, is that criminals also have access to it and use it to set up new attacks."  

Despite this evolution, Van den Broeck mainly sees the advantages of AI. "I sincerely believe that thanks to AI, we can stay one step ahead of criminals, even though there are also attacks that cannot be detected yet." Fortunately, these attacks are the exception rather than the rule, and the number of criminals who have the knowledge to set them up is also limited. "Logically, most stick to the more classic phishing and ransomware attacks. However, where large companies have extensive resources and expertise to defend themselves against this, smaller companies are much weaker." 

To close that gap, Van den Broeck argues for more cooperation, such as the Cyber Security Coalition is offering. "By sharing knowledge and resources, we can also make every organisation more resilient. After all, no one can be completely cyber secure on their own," he emphasizes. 

In addition, a collective approach helps to get a better grip on the enormous amounts of data that come to organisations. "And if we only keep data to ourselves, we are playing into the hands of criminals, while we need to make our AI models more powerful. If used wisely, I see technology more as an ally that can make an entire organisation stronger." 

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