F-Secure introduces revolutionary F-Secure BlackLight™ Technology

Mar 07, 2005: F-Secure further strengthens its solutions for Host based Intrusion Prevention (HIPS) by introducing the first version of the F-Secure BlackLight™ Rootkit Elimination Technology.

Criminal intruders and hackers are continuously inventing new technologies to penetrate personal computers and servers. The latest development is the use of advanced stealth techniques called rootkits. Rootkits can place e.g. Trojans and keyloggers invisibly on the computer to monitor and steal data from them. The malicious code is hidden so well that neither the operating system nor any of the existing conventional security products (like antivirus, antispyware or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) solutions) can detect them.

This invisible form of malicious code is believed to become a growing problem in the future. At the recent RSA security conference in San Francisco, Microsoft Corporation and security industry experts expressed their concerns about the rising problem related to rootkits. (ComputerWorld Article on Feb 17th, 2005; Microsoft on 'rootkits': Be afraid, be very afraid). For example the Windows XP operating system is unable to show files or processes deployed by many kernel rootkit programs. This leaves the user or administrator unaware of their presence. These types of stealth spyware programs are believed to be involved in some well-known industry espionage cases.

"Powerful Windows rootkits have the potential of becoming a major problem in the future", says Mikko Hypponen, Chief Research Officer at F-Secure. "Rootkit programs gain access to everything on the system and can silently do whatever they want on the computer. These attack programs penetrate personal computers and servers via viruses or vulnerabilities. After the rootkit has placed its payload, conventional security products - including anti-virus and spyware programs - will not be able to detect or remove them", says Hypponen.

F-Secure has been developing new techniques for detecting and eliminating kernel rootkits. As a result, F-Secure is now ready to release the first Beta version of the F-Secure BlackLight™ Rootkit Elimination Technology. F-Secure BlackLight™ can detect and eliminate files, directories and processes that are hidden from the operating system and undetected by current security products. “ Since existing antivirus and antispyware products are not able to detect and stop the next wave of stealth viruses and spyware, we are confident that administrators and IT specialists will appreciate this new level of security”, says Pirkka Palomäki, Vice President, R&D at F-Secure. “We are very exited about the BlackLight™ technology and its capabilities.”

The first public demonstration of the F-Secure BlackLight™ technology will be on March 10th at the upcoming CeBIT fair in Hannover (10-16th of March 2005, Hall 7, booth Nr. D 14). For more information about F-Secure BlackLight™, please visit http://www.f-secure.com/blacklight/ . A Beta-level trial version of the technology will be announced on the same date and it will be available for download at the same address.

F-Secure will announce products and solutions that use the BlackLight™ Technology during the year 2005. This will further strengthen the company’s existing host security offering which includes centrally managed anti-virus, firewall, intrusion detection and anti-spyware solutions.

About F-Secure Corporation

F-Secure Corporation is the fastest growing publicly listed company globally in the antivirus and intrusion prevention industry with more than 50% revenue growth in 2004. F-Secure services and software protect individuals and businesses against computer viruses and other threats coming through the Internet or mobile networks. Our award-winning solutions include antivirus and desktop firewall with intrusion prevention, antispam and antispyware solutions. Our key strength is our proven speed of response to new threats. For businesses our solutions feature a centrally managed and well integrated suite of solutions for workstations and servers alike. Focused partners offer security as a service for those companies that do not wish to build security expertise in-house. Founded in 1988, F-Secure has been listed on the Helsinki Exchanges since 1999. We have our headquarters in Helsinki, Finland, and offices in USA, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Japan. F-Secure is supported by a global ecosystem of service partners, value added resellers and distributors in over 50 countries. F-Secure protection is also available through mobile handset manufacturers such as Nokia and as a service through major Internet Service Providers, such as Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom and Charter Communications. The latest real-time virus threat scenario news are available at the F-Secure Antivirus Research Team weblog at http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/

For more information, please contact:

F-Secure Corporation
Jyrki Tulokas, Business Manager
PL 24
FIN-00181 Helsinki
Tel +358 9 2520 5683
Fax. +358 9 2520 5018