The content delivery network and security provider purchased Cyberfend for an undisclosed sum.

Akamai Technologies Inc., one of the largest e-retail content delivery network and security providers, has bought startup Cyberfend, a vendor that aims to help retailers stop bots and malicious automated traffic that use stolen credentials, such as consumers’ emails and passwords, to log in to websites. The purchase price for the all-cash transaction was not disclosed.

Akamai says the acquisition, intended to beef up Akamai’s existing bot management and mitigation services, will not have a material impact on its financials.

“With the introduction of Bot Manager earlier this year, Akamai helped change the way online businesses deal with the bots and other automated agents that visit their sites,” says Stuart Scholly, senior vice president and general manager of web security for Akamai. “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.”

Successfully detecting attacks using stolen credentials can be challenging as the credentials are typically legitimate, Akamai says. 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.

Akamai’s e-retail clients include Best Buy Co. Inc., No. 12 in the Internet Retailer 2016 Top 500 and The Home Depot Inc. (No. 7). Akamai provides content delivery services to 338 online retailers in the Internet Retailer Top 1000 according to the Leading Vendors to the Top 1000.

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