DDoS: Man who sold website defences pleads guilty to attacks Published duration 21 January

image copyright Getty Images image caption Akin to the Batman villain Two-Face, Preston married good with bad

A man in the US who co-founded a service to protect sites from cyber-attackers has pleaded guilty to launching distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks.

Tucker Preston is co-founder of BackConnect, a cyber-security firm that claimed to be "the new industry standard in DDoS mitigation".

However, he was accused of arranging DDoS attacks targeting an unnamed firm.

A court document stated the attacks took place between 2015 and 2016.

News of the guilty plea was published online by Brian Krebs , a cyber-security expert and blogger.

During a DDoS attack, a website or online service is flooded with high levels of internet traffic in an attempt to cause disruption or take the target website or service offline.

media caption EXPLAINED: What is a DDoS attack?

Preston, of Georgia, had arranged for DDoS attacks against a company with servers in New Jersey, according to the US Department of Justice.

"The count to which Preston pleaded guilty is punishable by a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss from the offence," the Department said in a statement.