F-Secure launches new service platform for operators

F-Secure today announces a unique corporate security concept, F-Secure Service Platform for Businesses, representing a major opportunity for multiple service providers to offer security services to the Small and Medium Sized Business sector (SMB). The service, based upon award winning client software and an easy-to-use www-based administration portal developed by F-Secure, will offer complete protection against present data security threats either through the business client itself or via the service provider.

The key advantage of the new service is the increased level of automation in the security solution and the ease of management. Accordingly, companies need to spend significantly less time implementing and managing security with the new solution than previously.

F-Secure Service Platform for Businesses is able to protect against viruses, spyware, malware and intrusion attempts. In addition, it also includes a firewall, as well as spam and content filtering. A company’s workstations and the network covered by the service can be controlled through the web-based management portal. The security status is available 24/7 in real time and security risks can be addressed without delay. The client organization can therefore manage and take control of its own network or outsource its management to a service provider.

The concept has been piloted with four different service providers around the world: New World Telecom in Hong Kong, intY in the UK, the portal Infinito.it in Italy and Finnet in Finland. It is now available to all service providers interested in targeting the SMB sector. License control has also been made flexible and easy thanks to the web-based management portal and the absence of extra installation components, as is the case with competing workstation security software.

Speaking about the launch, Riikka Jakovuori, Business Development Manager at F-Secure said: “The needs of IT security change continuously which in turn place great demands on enterprises to increase know-how, resources and budgets to cover maintenance and upkeep. Until now security as a service has been out of reach for SMBs and accordingly they have had to choose between consumer products and enterprise grade solutions without either being particularly well suited to their needs.”

“The F-Secure Service Platform for Businesses from F-Secure enables the SMB sector to ensure cost efficient security services, which they presently lack. The pilot schemes have proved the workability of this solution and service providers such as Internet service providers, telco’s and other type of network service providers have proven to be the natural choice for service provision to this significant business sector,” Jakovuori concludes.

"The unique new service concept developed by F-Secure helps the corporations' IT managers to follow the security status of the corporations' workstations and network. We at New World Telecom or our customers themselves can easily proactively spot and isolate the disruptive workstation and prevent a possible crisis situation in advance. We are pleased to be able to offer our customers together with F-Secure an automated always-on service that does not need any extra installation components nor concern about updates", said York Mok, Vice President of Marketing, New World Telecom.

"The F-Secure Service Platform for Businesses will prove a valuable tool to help small and medium sized businesses secure their desktop PCs. The easy to use and easy to manage format make it an ideal solution for busy smaller businesses, leaving them with the peace of mind that their PCs are protected from malicious threats. We will be looking at how we can integrate the F-Secure Service Platform for Businesses into our existing range of security products, giving our customers protection from email and web-based security threats at both the network and desktop level," said Mark Herbert, Founder Director of intY Ltd.

About F-Secure Corporation

F-Secure Corporation protects consumers and businesses against computer viruses and other threats from the Internet and mobile networks. We want to be the most reliable provider of security services in the market. One way to demonstrate this is the speed of our response. According to independent studies in 2004 and 2005 our response time to new threats is significantly faster than our major competitors. Our award-winning solutions are available for workstations, gateways, servers and mobile phones. They include antivirus and desktop firewall with intrusion prevention, antispam and antispyware solutions, as well as network control solutions for Internet Service Providers. Founded in 1988, F-Secure has been listed on the Helsinki Exchanges since 1999, and has been consistently growing faster than all its publicly listed competitors. F-Secure headquarters are in Helsinki, Finland, and we have regional offices around the world. F-Secure protection is also available as a service through major ISPs, such as FranceTelecom, TeliaSonera, PCCW and Charter Communications. F-Secure is the global market leader in mobile phone protection provided through mobile operators, such as T-Mobile and Swisscom and mobile handset manufacturers such as Nokia. The latest real-time virus threat scenario news are available at the F-Secure Data Security Lab weblog at http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/

F-Secure Corporation
Riikka Jakovuori, Business Development Manager
Tel. +358 40 7057878
PL 24
FIN-00181 Helsinki

For further information, please contact:

New World Telecommunications Limited
Ms Y S Ng
Tel: 2133 7199 / (852) 9214 7232
Fax: 2133 0795
E-mail: cindy.ng@newworldtel.com