14 DAY TRIAL // Content delivery network CloudFlare has announced the acquisition of StopTheHacker, a San Francisco-based company whose SaaS services help organizations protect their systems against malware and other online threats.
According to Matthew Prince, the CEO and founder of CloudFlare, for the past several months, the company has searched for a vendor that could offer the best anti-malware solution.
The acquisition of StopTheHacker is part of CloudFlare’s plans to make the internet safer. While CloudFlare claims that it can do a good job of stopping malware from being distributed via its networks, it needs a solution that’s capable of making sure that newly added websites are not already infected.
Prince said that several vendors’ products were tested, but ultimately, StopTheHacker turned out to provide the best solutions.
The acquisition isn’t very surprising considering that the malware scanning service provided by StopTheHacker has been available to CloudFlare’s customers via the company’s Apps Marketplace for the last two years.
“We knew and respected StopTheHacker co-founder Anirban Banerjee as well as the rest of the team he assembled. While initially we explored an extended partnership, quickly we came to realize that there could be substantial synergies from the two companies becoming one,” Prince explained.
Prince compares CloudFlare to other major companies that have acquired anti-malware technologies in an effort to ensure that their networks are not abused for malware distribution. He has pointed to Google’s acquisition of VirusTotal and Twitter’s acquisition of Dasient.
Existing StopTheHacker customers and partners – such as GlobalSign, DreamHost, Parallels,Host Europe and Verio – will not be impacted in any way. StopTheHacker will continue to be sold as a standalone product.
“We will continue to operate the StopTheHacker service and invest in its continued innovation. StopTheHacker provides the most affordable, enterprise-class malware scanning available today and we will ensure it will only get better going forward,” Prince noted.
The integration of StopTheHacker products will enable CloudFlare to provide more efficient services when it comes to addressing malware infections and vulnerabilities. This means an instant patching service that will remediate malware and vulnerabilities quickly, without the need to wait for changes in code.
“The entire StopTheHacker development team is joining CloudFlare. Our head of sales, Ridley Ruth, will stay on board as our general manager responsible for sales and marketing,” Dr. Anirban Banerjee explained in a post published on the StopTheHacker blog.
The financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.