Statement on Microsoft’s product announcement

May 13, 2005:

F-Secure is pleased to see Microsoft continuing its efforts to improve the security of PC-users, and welcomes the additional security awareness Microsoft’s marketing power will generate for the global audience of PC-users. F-Secure is also encouraged to see an industry giant deciding to start developing similar service-centric security concepts that F-Secure has successfully pioneered over the past five years together with over 50 leading ISP’s in Europe and North America.

F-Secure is providing its security service both as licensed software and as a live service. F-Secure also believes a comprehensive PC security solution integrates a number of components that are not mentioned in Microsoft’s announcement. Such components include e.g. proactive protection capabilities, rootkit detection and features for zero-day protection.

”Microsoft’s announcement is good news for F-Secure. They support the approach we have pioneered through the last five years in providing security as a live service. The additional exposure for the service approach will create new pull for the solutions. There is a long learning curve in producing a live security service. Having been in the business of generating such a service for a long time we are able to create solutions that constantly win awards and comparison tests,” says Risto Siilasmaa, President and CEO of F-Secure.

F-Secure has been providing IT-security as a live service for over five years, and that evolution has enabled the company to reach an extensive level of reliability, feature richness and ease of use of the service. The service includes automatic updates which have proven to be faster in responding to new threats compared to all of the major players in the industry. The update service not only updates the detection capability, but also keeps the software, profiles and configuration on par with the latest developments. The largest part of F-Secure’s business consists of providing centrally managed security solutions for companies, and the company has enjoyed strong growth in its consumer business over the last two years.

F-Secure will actively continue its good co-operation with Microsoft.

More information from Pär Andler, Director, Global Marketing, tel. +358 40 544 2728 or Jaana Sirkiä, Communications Manager, tel. +358 400 303096.