DDoS fighter Prolexic raises $13.9M

The cyber security company gets backing from Kennet Partners

Prolexic Technologies, a cyber defense solutions provider, on Monday announced the close of a $13.9 million round of financing led by Kennet partners. Additionally, Gustavo Alberelli and Javier Rojas, Director and Managing Director, respectively, at Kennet Partners, will be joining Prolexic's Board of Directors. The company could not be reached for comment.

Founded in 2003, Prolexic has established global scrubbing centers to foil DDoS attacks (distributed denial of service attacks), the likes of which the world recently saw with the "Anonymous" fiasco as the group attempted to take down PayPal, Visa, Mastercard, and Amazon via a DDoS attack in retaliation for the censoring of Wikileaks. A DDoS attack involves the comandeering of a network of computers through a virus that bombards a single server (such as PayPal) with so many information packets that it overwhelms the server and effectively shuts it down. 

Prolexic says that it utilizes unique filtering techniques, high-speed bandwidth and peering, advanced routing, and a slew of other patent-pending techniques. The company makes the lofty promise that regardless of size or complexity, its cyber security solutions can fend off any DDoS attack.

During the "Anonymous" DDoS attacks, the only target that was not overwhelmed to the point of shutting down operations was Amazon, which has designed its server to be elastic and robust enough to withstand an onslaught of last-minute holiday shoppers. 

But other targets have not been so prepared. Prolexic notes that cyber attacks among both federal agencies and the private sector have increased markedly over the last year. In 2010, the federal government was the target of no less than 41,776 cyber attacks, an increase of almost 40% over 2009.

“As organizations of all sizes increasingly adopt Cloud computing solutions, DDoS and cyber attacks have soared in both frequency and sophistication," said Gustavo Alberelli in a prepared statement. "Prolexic has quickly emerged as the leader in Cloud Security and demand for its differentiated products has intensified. Kennet looks forward to building Prolexic into an industry leader.”

Image source: prolexic.com