Data Fellows Announces Breakthrough with F-Secure Anti-Virus

World's first multi-tiered, multi-engine product provides robust network protection and the new F-Secure Anti-Virus CounterSign™ Technology

Helsinki, Finland and San Jose, California, October 1, 1997 -- Data Fellows, maker of the F-PROT Professional anti-virus and data security toolkit, today introduced its F-Secure Anti-Virus family of products. F-Secure Anti-Virus is the first line of anti-virus software to combine multiple virus scanning engines into a single framework. This technological approach, named F-Secure Anti-Virus CounterSign™ is a revolutionary departure from traditional anti-virus utilities. As operating systems evolve and networks grow more complex, a comprehensive strategy has become necessary to combat the threat of viruses. Using CounterSign, F-Secure Anti-Virus lets anti-virus products work within a common framework. The idea is that what one virus scanner misses, another will find. The product uses two award winning scanning engines, F-PROT and AVP.

"There certainly is no way any anti-virus product not utilizing F-Secure Anti-Virus CounterSign technology can achieve the astounding detection rates of F-Secure Anti-Virus," says Mikko Hypponen, Anti-Virus Product Manager. "We believe that a paradigm shift in anti-virus scanning technology has occurred and we are the catalyst."

Data Fellows understands that organizations have invested substantially in anti-virus protection. Future versions of F-Secure Anti-Virus will allow users to combine installed anti-virus products into the F-Secure Anti-Virus framework that is the basis of this new, revolutionary CounterSign technology. In addition, F-Secure Anti-Virus will use an advanced heuristic analysis to detect unknown viruses, limiting the risk of false alarms.

To manage the framework's central point, F-Secure Anti-Virus offers a wealth of network management and distribution features. These include:

  • Installing desktop versions of F-Secure Anti-Virus to multiple platforms from a single workstation automatically.
  • Sending updates to users with a single mouse click.
  • Receiving reports from workstations when a virus is found.
  • Receiving copies of infected or suspected files from workstations automatically.
With all its capabilities, F-Secure Anti-Virus doesn't sacrifice ease of use. It has a Windows 95/NT 4.0 look-and-feel, a customizable toolbar, right-mouse-click support, and a wizard for network installation. It also sports an extensive database of virus descriptions, explaining what the common viruses actually do, and direct links to Data Fellows' Anti-Virus WWW services, which provide the most up-to-date information.

"F-Secure Anti-Virus has the most advanced, easy-to-use management system of any product on the market," adds Hypponen. "The advantages for the network administrator are clear."

Data Fellows is offering related products under the F-Secure Anti-Virus umbrella. One program, F-Secure Anti-Virus for Firewalls scans and removes viruses before they enter a network. This product is OPSEC compliant with seamless integration achieved via CVP (Content Vectoring Protocol). Coupled with F-Secure Network Management, it's an ideal solution for Internet-borne viruses. Another program, F-Secure Anti-Virus E-Mail Gateway, delivers e-mail anti-virus protection to stop viruses at the gateway And finally, F-Secure Anti-Virus Macro Control which checks for certified and approved macros in organizations.

F-Secure Anti-Virus is the most cost-effective means of securing organizations large and small. F-Secure Anti-Virus with the dual scanning engines of F-PROT and AVP is available in Europe, Asia, and Africa. In the America’s, customers can chose their second engine from a list of approved anti-virus scanning vendors.