The F-Secure data security six-month summary

Dec 07, 2005:

Steep rise in virus count and two major worm outbreaks define last half year

Helsinki, Finland - December 7, 2005

In the second half of the year the virus count continued to rise with alarming force increasing from 110,000 to approximately 150, 000 by the end of the year – an unprecedented figure in virus history. At the same time, however the trend towards mass assaults using network worms dropped significantly with only two major outbreaks, one in September, with the Zotob worm causing larger disruptions internationally and the second, a worm called Sober. Y flooding email systems in late November. Earlier this year, the Zafi. D worm also made the headlines.

In November, F-Secure detected the use of rootkit technology in the digital rights management software used by Sony. This resulted in a major international issue for the entertainment giant but also raised bigger issues for companies like Sony in the way they handle data security issues and build processes to deal with vulnerabilities.

2005 was also a year characterized by a spate of criminal phishing attempts either directly to on-line banking customers yielding high profits to the malware authors or by exploiting man-made and natural disasters.

2005 was also the year, which saw the number of mobile malware exceed the 100 mark – growing proof that the criminal bodies behind their creation are serious in their attempts to exploit this new arena.

In the meantime, F-Secure has continued to up the ante against the malware community with a number of award winning products in the last six months including F-Secure Internet Security 2006 and its first venture into hardware, the F-Secure Messaging Security Gateway™.

For a full look at the last six months, please go to the F-Secure website at: http://www.f-secure.com/2005/2/

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 Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom, 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/ Press inquiries:

F-Secure Corporation Jaana Sirkiä, Communications Manager PL 24 FIN-00181 Helsinki Mobile: +358 (0)40 030 3096 Fax: +358 (0)9 2520 5001 Email: jaana.sirkia@f-secure.com