Level 3 Communications has acquired Black Lotus, a start-up offering global Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) mitigation services. Details on the all-cash deal were not disclosed.
Black Lotus, which is based in San Francisco, operates a global DDoS mitigation network which monitors traffic on edge routers to generate sample data called flows which are then sent to an analysis platform. The traffic sample is then evaluated to determine if there is a DDoS attack against the destination IP, and if so traffic to that IP is diverted into one or more scrubbing centers. Once traffic is in the scrubbing center it can be filtered based on signatures which are predefined traffic patterns which are known to be DDoS attacks, or heuristics which are abnormalities in traffic patterns which may be indicative of a DDoS attack.
Level 3 said the acquisition of Black Lotus will add additional capabilities to the existing Level 3 DDoS service, which launched earlier in the year, including adding extra scrubbing centers. The Level 3 DDoS Mitigation service provides an enhanced network-based detection and mitigation scrubbing solution alongside network routing, rate limiting and IP filtering abilities. Black Lotus adds proxy-based DDoS mitigation services to the portfolio providing additional capabilities for application layer attacks, along with advanced behavioral analytics technology. The application layer is a prime target for DDoS attacks that often impact Web servers and Web hosting providers.
“At Level 3, we value security and are committed to protecting our customers and our network,” said Chris Richter, senior vice president of managed security services at Level 3. “Black Lotus’ proxy and behavioral technologies, combined with their experienced team of DDoS experts, perfectly complements Level 3’s DDoS mitigation and threat intelligence capabilities. With this acquisition, Level 3 continues its commitment of investing in a comprehensive portfolio of services that enhance the growth, efficiency and security of our customers’ operations, helping enterprises combat the cybersecurity challenges they face every day.”
