MasterCard says it expects to be able to detect that your credit or debit card number has been compromised well before it falls into the hands of a cybercriminal.
NEW YORK — MasterCard said Wednesday it expects to be able to detect when your credit or debit card number has been compromised well before it falls into the hands of a cybercriminal.
In its latest software update released this week, MasterCard is integrating artificial intelligence into its fraud prediction technology that it expects will be able to quickly spot patterns in stolen cards and It will allow banks to replace them before they are used by criminals.
“Generative AI will allow us to know where you've compromised your credentials, how we'll identify how it happened, and we'll be able to identify the situation not only for you, but for other users as well. How to fix it very soon. Know that they are still compromised,” Johan Gerber, executive vice president of security and cyber innovation at MasterCard, said in an interview.
MasterCard, which is based in Purchase, New York, says that with the new update it can use other patterns or related information, such as geography, time and addresses, to identify incomplete but compromised credit card numbers. can be combined with those that appear in the database. Cardholders should replace damaged cards as soon as possible.
The pattern can now also be used in reverse, potentially using batches of bad cards to spot compromised merchants or payment processors. Pattern recognition goes beyond what humans can do with database queries or other standard methods, Gerber said.
Billions of stolen credit and debit card numbers are floating around in the dark web, available for purchase by any criminal. Most data breaches over the years have involved theft from merchants, but a significant number have also been stolen from unsuspecting consumers who swiped their credit or debit cards at the wrong gas station, ATM or online merchant. used.
These compromised cards can go undetected for weeks, months or even years. It's only when the payment networks themselves dive into the dark web to capture stolen numbers, a merchant learns of a breach, or the card is used by a criminal, do payments networks and banks discover that a batch of cards can be compromised. .
“Now we can actually reach out to the banks to make sure we serve that customer and put a new card in his or her hand to minimize their life,” Gerber said. able to live with disruption,” Gerber said.
Payment networks are increasingly trying to move away from “static” credit card or debit card numbers — that is, a card number and expiration date that is universally used across merchants — and specific lanes. Transfers to unique numbers for religion. But that transition could take years, especially in the U.S. where adoption of payment technology has been slow.
According to EMVCo, the technology organization behind the chip in credit and debit cards, while more than 90% of all personal transactions worldwide now use chip cards, the figure is closer to 70% in the US.
MasterCard updates its major rival, Visa Inc. As has emerged, consumers are also finding ways to ditch their 16-digit credit and debit card numbers. Visa last week announced major changes to the way credit and debit cards work in the US, meaning Americans will carry fewer physical cards in their wallets, and a 16-digit credit or debit card number printed on each card. will quickly become irrelevant.