F-Secure Releases Its IT Security Wrap-Up for the Second Quarter of 2009

Jun 25, 2009:

Highlights from the quarter include President Barack Obama’s major speech on cybersecurity, the huge interest in the Conficker worm and social networking sites, as well as growth in PDF exploits

SAN JOSE, Calif., June 25, 2009 – F-Secure Corporation, the global leader in providing security as a service through Internet Service Providers and mobile operators, today released its IT Security Wrap-Up Report for the second quarter of 2009. Key highlights include:

President Obama puts spotlight on cybersecurity
“So cyberspace is real. And so are the risks that come with it.” These were the words of President Barack Obama on May 29, 2009 as he announced a new strategy to secure America's information and communications networks. F-Secure welcomes the fact that the Obama Administration is taking cybersecurity seriously on the national level and welcomes the new Cybersecurity Coordinator as a partner in the fight against eCrime. A strong advocate of establishing ‘Internetpol,’ F-Secure is committed to international cooperation and also encourages an increased focus on developing an offensive capability against online criminals.

Conficker worm
The threat landscape in the first half of 2009 was dominated by the Conficker worm, which has proved to be the most significant malware outbreak in recent years. The Conficker Working Group’s successful collaboration is an example of effective international cooperation within the Internet security industry. Conficker created a great deal of media interest, especially around April 1, 2009, when the Conficker C variant was due to activate. In fact, the Conficker B variant spread most widely and infected millions of computers worldwide. The Conficker case once again demonstrated the emotional interest in virus outbreaks. While media interest has waned, the Conficker worm is still out there and there are still no answers as to what it was designed to do.

News, tweets and malware  
Social networking websites have continued to grow in the first half of 2009, which makes them increasingly attractive targets. The first Twitter worm and spam outbreak occurred in April, created by a hobbyist calling himself Mikeyy. Then, with online criminals quickly seizing the opportunity, Google searches for “Twitter worm” or “Mikeyy” soon led people to malware sites. Malicious search results about popular news stories are very common. More than ever, social networking sites are both making the news and breaking the news – and, in the process, they’re creating fast-spreading security problems that need to be addressed.

PDF files used for targeted attacks   
F-Secure’s research shows that PDF files have become the most popular file type in targeted attacks during the first half of 2009. Last year the most commonly used file type for targeted attacks was Microsoft Word’s DOC. Adobe has responded with a quarterly response cycle due to the growth in PDF exploits.

For the full F-Secure IT security threat summary for the second quarter of 2009, please visit www.f-secure.com/2009/.

For the latest security news from F-Secure, please visit our blog at www.f-secure.com/weblog.

You can follow Chief Security Officer Mikko Hypponen on Twitter at  www.twitter.com/mikkohypponen  and Chief Security Advisor for the North American Labs Patrik Runald at www.//twitter.com/patrikrunald.

About F-Secure Corporation
Innovation, reliability and speed of response - these are the qualities that have made F-Secure one of the world’s leading IT security providers since the company was founded in 1988. Today F-Secure’s award-winning and easy-to-use products are trusted in millions of homes and businesses around the world. We provide powerful real-time protection that works quietly and smoothly in the background, so computer and smartphone users can enjoy the benefits of connected life to the full. F-Secure’s solutions are available as a service subscription through more than 180 Internet service providers and mobile operator partners around the world, making F-Secure the global leader in this market. F-Secure has been listed on the NASDAQ OMX Helsinki Ltd since 1999. The company has consistently been one of the fastest growing publicly listed companies in the industry. The latest news on real-time virus threat scenarios is available at the F-Secure Data Security Lab weblog at http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/.

Media Contact
Ulla Toivanen
Tel. +358 40 752 0688
E-mail: firstname.lastname@f-secure.com