Security of Shell's Wide Area Communications Enhanced, and Simplified, Using F-Secure SSH

Petroleum Company's Information Technology Arm Chooses F-Secure to Provide Centralized Secure File Transfer

Espoo, Finland - September 12, 2000

Shell Services International (SSI) has chosen F-Secure, a leading developer of centrally managed security solutions for the mobile, distributed enterprise, to strengthen the security of SSI's wide area communications network in Europe and Africa. SSI, the IT management and outsourcing arm of the petroleum industry giant, is implementing F-Secure SSH to provide secure file transfer protocol (SFTP) functionality, as well as high strength encryption support, across the 16 divisions of Shell in Europe and Africa.

F-Secure SSH gives Shell the control to provide secure wide-area communications for the 1,700 Unix systems used by Shell staff throughout Europe. Centralized management, administration, updates, and support can now be done from one location in Leidschendam, Holland, whereas previously this was decentralized to six locations in Europe, with site-specific updates. The F-Secure solution will protect terminal connections for SSI's large number of Unix services and remote workstations over the network.

Shell's IT services include management consulting, information management, e-business, ERP, supply chain management, and infrastructure services and solutions. The company is involved in leading-edge developments in all aspects of information security, both technical and non-technical, for governments, international corporations, and global programs.

Robert Matthijssen, Global Service Delivery Manager for UNIX at SSI, said, "We wanted to provide our staff in Europe and Africa with the right level of security to coordinate Unix server management and updates from a centrally-managed security system, instead of having to update multiple servers locally."

F-Secure SSH enables remote workers to access corporate network resources without revealing passwords and confidential data to potential eavesdroppers. In addition, the solution secures all TCP/IP based traffic for secure Web and email use, as well as providing military-strength encryption that works with an installed base of routers and firewalls.

Given the wave of positive initial feedback, SSI is also considering plans to implement the F-Secure SSH solution worldwide. "As the solution is proving to be a success in Europe, we are also looking at extending the reach of F-Secure SSH to our American base in Houston, and additionally in Australia and Kuala Lumpur for Asia, the Pacific rim, and the Middle East," Matthijssen added.

Risto Siilasmaa, President and CEO of F-Secure Corporation said, "This deployment was quite unusual in that the preferred route to deploying F-Secure SSH is having a large number of F-Secure SSH clients and few servers. SSI chose to implement the software differently, using central servers to push the latest software upgrades to large numbers of servers distributed worldwide. This demonstrates the flexibility of the F-Secure software."