Level 3 Communications Acquires Black Lotus

Level 3 Communications has acquired privately held Black Lotus, a provider of global Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) mitigation services. The acquisition of Black Lotus represents another step in Level 3’s continued commitment to provide leading security product capabilities. Level 3 noted the increase in frequency, volume and complexity of DDoS attacks in a recent research report, Safeguarding the Internet: Level 3 Botnet Research Report, substantiating the need to invest in the DDoS market.

The acquisition of Black Lotus will add additional capabilities to Level 3’s existing 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.”

Level 3 acquired the outstanding equity of Black Lotus in an all-cash transaction on July 1, 2015. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.