Secure64 has raised $3.7 million in a first round of funding for its secure operating system business.
The Greenwood Village, Colo.-based company raised the money from angel investors. The company makes a secure operating system, in other words a system that makes it much easier for companies to deploy Internet servers that are protected against vulnerabilities such as the DNS (domain name server) flaw exposed in July.
The Secure64 operating system can protect companies against attacks related to the DNS flaw and denial of service attacks where hackers use hijacked computers to overwhelm a web site with traffic. It does so by making use of the DNSSEC, or the secure extensions to the DNS system, which is basically the Internet's address book.
DNSSEC uses a more complicated system to ensure security in the routing of Internet trafffic. The system, which authenticates the source of requests for Internet addresses in order to weed out malware, uses cryptographic keys which must be protected. Hence, the Secure64 secure operating system is a better way to protect those keys and keep the entire system safe.
"It's an operating system built from scratch to keep secrets safe," said Joe Gersch, vice president of engineering.
To date, adoption has been slow because it means that companies have to change the Internet servers that they've had for years. But demand for more secure servers is likely to increase as new threats convince everyone to upgrade the security of the Internet infrastructure.
Steve Goodbarn, chief executive, said the non-profit ".org" group is adopting DNSSEC over the next year, as well many other Internet governing bodies, in an attempt to make the Internet more secure. As it does so, that will increase demand for secure solutions such as Secure64's. Secure64 sells a DNS server for $10,000 and a Secure64 DNS Signer for $14,000.
The company was founded in 2002 and has 26 employees. It started shipping its software in late 2007. Goodbarn said the company will use the money to expand sales and marketing and to roll out more products.