Comodo CA Buys Website Disaster Recovery Startup CodeGuard

The acquisition of CodeGuard will help Comodo CA customers with both malware identification and removal as well as dealing with a down or defaced website

Comodo CA has purchased early-stage startup CodeGuard to help customers protect their websites from malware through backup, maintenance and disaster recovery capabilities.

The Roseland, N.J.-based company said its acquisition of Atlanta-based CodeGuard will help customers with both malware identification and removal as well as dealing with a down or defaced website, according to Michael Fowler, Comodo CA's president of partners and channels.

While other players in the industry scan the web for malware, Fowler said CodeGuard is the only company to incorporate backup with malware discovery and removal. The one-click restoration function offered by CodeGuard allows businesses to avoid a manual remediation process that could cost hundreds of dollars, according to Fowler.

[Related: Francisco Partners Acquires IoT Security Company Comodo's SSL Business, Bill Holtz Appointed CEO]

CodeGuard starts by creating a backup of a company's entire website, Fowler said, and once per day, it runs a malware scan against any files that have been changed or modified over the previous 24 hours. If any problems are found, Fowler said the customer is alerted and the website can be returned via backup to the most recently available version prior to when the malware was introduced.

The entry-level package for CodeGuard covers a single website and costs $5 per month, Fowler said, while the highest-tier package secures up to 100 websites, offers the highest amount of storage space, features such as white-labeling and OEM, and costs $299 per month when billed monthly. CodeGuard customers sign an annual contract for the service, according to Fowler.

All six of CodeGuard's employees, including CEO David Moeller, joined Comodo CA when the acquisition closed in late July. The company was founded in 2010, and has raised $2 million in three rounds of funding, according to CrunchBase. Fowler declined to disclose terms of the acquisition.

CodeGuard is compatible with an array of organizations -- from small businesses to larger enterprises -- including, for example, Levi Strauss, Fowler said.

Endurance International Group is a longstanding Comodo CA partner and has, over the past year, undertaken the process of replacing its own homegrown backup solution with the CodeGuard offering, according to Mitch Haber, SVP of corporate strategy and partnerships for the Burlington, Mass.-based company.

Customers have lauded CodeGuard's toolset and ease of use, Haber said, specifically calling out the product's real-time backup and ability to quickly recover old versions of a website. CodeGuard is a perfect fit for Endurance's typical small business customer, who typically favor tools that are easy to use and understand.

As Comodo CA looks to move beyond its origins in commercials certificate authority (SSL) and become a more holistic security provider, Haber said adding backup capabilities was a logical next step. And when it comes to backup, Haber said CodeGuard's technology and innovation exceeds any other offering on the market today.

"Both companies have good, upstanding teams," Haber said. "Bringing them together will help complement their [Comodo CA's] core asset."