ClouldFlare, the CDN like DDoS defense and security service, announced the acquisition of CryptoSeal, a personal VPN service, this morning. Ryan Lackey, CryptoSeal’s founder told securitycurrent that his class of 2011 Y Combinator backed venture had already been leveraging CloudFlare’s infrastructure.

A quick conversation with CloudFlare’s CEO, Mathew Prince, revealed that this acquisition is as much about acquiring the security chops of Ryan Lackey as it is about getting into the VPN business.

VPN services are a way to securely connect to the Internet, even over open WiFi hotspots, while gaining some level of anonymity. One of the value propositions of using a VPN service is that, in addition to masking your browsing activity, you can choose what geographic region your web access appears to come from. In other words, Netflix subscribers can watch streaming movies when they are traveling overseas.

CloudFlare has been on a roll. In December 2013 it was revealed that it had secretly taken in a $50 million Series C round, with new investors Union Square Ventures and Greenspring. Its 30 data centers around the world ensure good CDN quality responsiveness for member websites. CloudFare has absorbed several very high profile and very high volume Denial of Service Attacks CloudFlare in recent months.

Foiling DDoS attacks is a sure way to endure the wrath of the Internet underground; so upping their security game is of prime importance as CloudFlare customers experience more sophisticated attacks. Those customers will benefit from Ryan Lackey’s security expertise.

CryptoSeal customers have been notified that the service is being shut down. For now. Both Lackey and Prince told securitycurrent that they would like to re-introduce a CloudFlare VPN service later in 2015. With CloudFlare’s global network of data centers it will be a valuable and robust service.

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