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.

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.

Preston is due to be sentenced in May.

SOURCE: BBC