ThreatStream raises $4M to patrol the Internet & dig up clues on hacks

Cyberattacks keep making headlines. No wonder investors keep finding security startups to back.

Today, ThreatStream is showing off its new funding, a $4 million round led by Google Ventures. Paladin Capital Group, Cloudera chief executive Tom Reilly, and former ArcSight chief executive Hugh Njemanze also participated in the round.

ThreatStream has devised a system called Optic to scour the Internet for information on potential threats — in the form of files, IP addresses, and so on — and spot connections among them all. It can run in a company’s on-premises data center, or it can run in a public cloud on a limited basis free of charge, according to an email from ThreatStream.

Based in Redwood City, Calif., the startup is looking to sell its service to enterprises and governments. At least some of them should be receptive to ThreatStream’s offering, given the regular flow of news about hefty security breaches.

Today the University of Maryland disclosed a cyberattack. A few days ago, Kickstarter alerted users to attack it sustained. Other recent victims: Target and Neiman Marcus.

Amid all that, several startups trying to help big companies use cloud services securely have been getting funding. Elastica and FireLayers both announced new rounds this week, and we hear there’s more news in this vein coming soon.

ThreatStream is doing something different from those startups, although it does share with them the intent to protect businesses’ data and operations.

ThreatStream faces competition from vendors like Symantec, Verisign, and iSIGHT Partners. In September iSIGHT disclosed more than $9.3 million in new funding.

As for ThreatStream, it has raised $4.3 million to date. It has 16 employees and just under 20 customers, a spokesman wrote in an email to VentureBeat.