Security startup Zenedge exits stealth mode with $3.5 million

Zenedge, a San Jose, Calif.-based security startup, took in $3.5 million in a first round of funding Thursday and promptly emerged from stealth mode.

“We’ve created a solution to a problem no one else is adequately addressing: the ability to plug security holes in a content delivery network and shield businesses from any potential attack,” Yuri Frayman, Zenedge’s co-founder and chief executive, said in a release.

Security plays are hot right now. Especially in light of an unrelenting stream of serious security breaches in the U.S. beginning last December. First, Target suffered a hack after one of its point-of-sale systems was infected with malware. Over 40 million customers had their credit data boosted.

Then it was JP Morgan Chase’s turn over the summer, with 76 million customers victimized. Home Depot also suffered a breach similar to Target’s, with 56 million customers hit. In all these cases, the hackers were able to not only gain entry to company firewalls but to remain inside, undetected, for months.

So along comes Zenedge. The startup touts itself as an enterprise-class Web application security and mitigation platform. It has positioned itself as able to protect company firewalls and systems against superbugs like Shellshock and Heartbleed, both of which infected millions of machines globally this year.

Zenedge’s flagship product, called Zenshield, is deployed against “multiple modes” of customer needs. Zenedge is proactive, meaning it isolates web applications, operating as a protective shield against an enemy that is constantly changing tactics.

In the event of an attempted breach, Zenshield immediately takes over your website’s traffic, in theory isolating it from the malware.

A handful of entrepreneurs, including Fred Sorkin and Andrew Malik of Needham & Company, led the round. The names of the other investors were not disclosed.