Mastercard Strengthens Customer Security with New AI ‘Cyber Shield’

Mastercard acquired cloud-based cybersecurity company Baffin Bay Networks to better help businesses deal with the increasingly challenging nature of cyberattacks.

Baffin Bay Networks, based in Sweden, adds to Mastercard’s multi-layered approach to cybersecurity and helps to stop attacks, while mitigating exposure to risk across the ecosystem. The acquisition further strengthens Mastercard’s broader services offerings and value beyond the payment transaction.

Today’s increasingly digital world has delivered greater convenience and increased opportunities for people, businesses and governments. At the same time, it has exposed the need to strengthen protection against criminals who exploit this technology through malware, ransomware and distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks. For example, in 2022 alone, DDoS attacks rose by 22%^[1].

To counter these threats, Mastercard will integrate its solutions into a single cyber service available to all its customers across the world. Its existing RiskRecon data analytics enables organizations to identify vulnerabilities in advance. Customers will now benefit from Baffin Bay’s automated Threat Protection service, which helps to stop attackers from penetrating or taking down cyber systems.

“We see trust as central to securing the future of our digital world. The addition of Baffin Bay Network’s instantaneous, predictive and cloud-based  AI technology to our existing analytical capabilities will deliver a leading, singular cyber solution,” said Ajay Bhalla, president of Cyber and Intelligence at Mastercard. “This will enable us to provide our customers across the world with faster, smarter and more effective protection from cyber risk.”

Baffin Bay Networks’ cloud-based solution uses the latest in AI technology to automatically filter and counteract malicious internet traffic. It has a proven track record of mitigating or preventing costly and potentially catastrophic breach cyber events.

“Our cloud-based Threat Protection service provides a simple and effective way to safeguard against application and network-level attacks,” said Joakim Sundberg, founder and chief technology officer at Baffin Bay Networks. “Our two companies share this vision: to provide our customers with security and trust. We are thrilled to join the Mastercard family to expand our impact across the globe.”

^[1] EvolutionOfDDoS-ReturnOfTheHacktivists.pdf (fsisac.com)
^[2] Cost of a data breach 2022 | IBM

Source: Mastercard