Akamai Acquires Bot Detection Startup Cyberfend

Internet infrastructure giant Akamai Technologies announced on Monday that it has acquired bot detection firm Cyberfend for an undisclosed cash sum.

Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Santa Clara, California, Cyberfend’s platform helps protect against attacks and fraudulent activity stemming from account take-over, payment fraud and the use of stolen credentials.

Deployed as a cloud based service, Cyberfend can detect attacks that use a simple script, malware, man-in-the middle or remote-access Trojan (RAT).

While the terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, the acquisition price is likely small, as Akamai said the acquisition is not material to its financials.

Akamai says the acquisition will help strengthen the capabilities of its Bot Manager solution that helps web and mobile applications distinguish between real customers and attackers or bots.

“Successfully detecting attacks utilizing stolen credentials can be challenging as the credentials themselves are legitimate,” Akamai explained. “In addition, the attackers can hide within regular web and mobile user traffic, attack during normal service hours and distribute attacks from commonly used devices associated with millions of IP addresses across multiple geographic regions.”

“The addition of Cyberfend’s technology is intended to give our customers a better way to spot and stop credential abuse on their sites – benefitting both the online business and its users,” Stuart Scholly, SVP  and general manager, Web Security at Akamai, said in a statement.

Cyberfend is a privately funded and backed by Y Combinator, SV Angel and A Capital.