Distil gets into a Scrape to boost bot defences

Distil Networks has bought managed security services provider ScrapeSentry in order to step up its fight against bots and ad fraud. Financial terms of the deal, announced on Wednesday, were undisclosed.

Bots are routinely used by hackers and fraudsters alike in all manner of malfeasance including but not limited to competitive data mining, malvertising, pre-hack reconnaissance and digital ad fraud.

Bot activity costs anyone that runs a website money in wasted traffic, as well as the potential theft of their data and intellectual property.

Distil’s existing customers include big web corporations such as AOL, Thomson Reuters, Dow Jones and retailers such as Staples. Its technology is designed to defend websites against malicious bots – without impacting legitimate users – using machine learning techniques.

ScrapeSentry anti-scraping technology is designed to protect sites from Intellectual Property loss and from data theft. The firm was set up in 2006 and in the 10 years since it has built up a roster of customers include easyJet, Ladbrokes, and Autotrader.com. According to a Distil PR rep ScrapeSentry is bringing in around $2,000,000 a year in revenue.

Protection against web scraping malfeasance is part of what Distil does already.

Buying ScrapeSentry will allow Distil to offer round the clock managed security service to mid-market and enterprise customers as well as detecting more automated nastiness, the pitch goes. ®