Monday July 23 3:45 PM ET

Dell Funds Fight Against Web Site Hackers

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Dell Computer Corp. (NasdaqNM:DELL - news), the world's biggest PC maker, joined with others in providing $30 million to Sanctum Inc., the Internet security software maker said on Monday, stressing growing investor interest in products for stopping ``application-level'' hackers.

A growing threat to corporate and government Web sites, application-level hackers exploit flaws in site software to use sites as vehicles for getting into back-office operations to steal data, change prices and disrupt transactions.

Application-level hackers also exploit Web site software to disable sites.

Last week the White House, acting on a tip, averted a virus aimed at its site to make it crash, a sabotage effort similar to those that brought down major Web sites such as Yahoo! Inc. (NasdaqNM:YHOO - news) and eBay Inc. (NasdaqNM:EBAY - news) in February of last year.

Sanctum Chief Executive Peggy Weigle told Reuters that the 3-year-old, privately held company is steadily selling into corporate and government markets on growing demand.

``In a given month, the average is between 40 and 60 (hacker attacks on Web sites), and that is just what makes it into the press,'' said Weigle, adding that Sanctum software has been guarding Israeli Knesset and foreign ministry sites since raids in October.

Weigle said that Sanctum's latest funding round, led by the Menlo Park, California-based Sprout Group venture capital firm, should take it to profitability at some point next year.

Sprout Group General Partner Rakesh Sood told Reuters that his firm's investment in Sanctum was based on corporations becoming more aware that e-commerce will be at risk if Web site applications are left unprotected.

Joining the Sprout Group and Dell in Sanctum's latest funding round was electronics maker Hitachi Ltd. (6501.T)

Venture units of financial holding company First Union Corp. (NYSE:FTU - news) and mutual fund giant Fidelity Investments and the Gemini Israel Funds also joined the round, bringing the total raised by Sanctum since its 1997 launch to $54 million.

-- Anonymous, July 23, 2001