F-Secure Corporation and Novo of Finland strengthen cooperation

Espoo, Finland - March 5, 2001

F-Secure Corporation, a leading developer of centrally managed security solutions for the mobile, distributed enterprise, today announced that F-Secure's Anti-Virus service will be included as a service in the new Mediantti service center concept by the Novo Group. Through the service, the customer's anti-virus protection is centrally managed and updated automatically.

"The demand for outsourced services has grown quickly. Through outsourcing, companies are able to fully utilize their resources and concentrate on their actual area of business. Virus protection and updating are completely transparent to the customer, yet data security it kept up-to-date even in rapidly changing circumstances," says Pekka Kinnunen, Sales Director at F-Secure.

Increasingly, workstations with fixed network connections are being exchanged for portable PCs. PDAs and WAP telephones are part of the daily working environment, and employees are always within reach. Data security threats are also increasing as a result of new working methods and equipment. Since 1986, a total of over 55 000 different viruses have been found. Without virus protection programs, these viruses would have spread even further than they have done.

"Today, virus protection service is used to manage the security of the customer's workstation environment. The customer receives reliable and cost-manageable virus protection. The pricing is based on the number of terminals and the length of the service agreement. If needed, the service may be extended by consulting services to determine the state of data security in the entire organization," says Mika Lairi, Development Manager at Novo.

Novo's Mediantti service center in Helsinki supports services to the open network and it offers a well-developed and secure environment from which the customers can choose ready-made services. The center offers integration of mobile telecommunications, operator-independent utilization and support services as well as ready-made platforms for WAP services and others. The services are offered over the public networks and security is taken into account. The center also offers mobile and multi-channel services, consulting, application leasing and www-hosting services.

The Novo Group

The Novo Group is one of the largest IT service providers in the Nordic countries, with its 1999 net sales of MEUR 312 and staff of more than 2,000. In Finland, Novo has a nation-wide service network. Our offices abroad are located in Estonia, the Netherlands, Germany, the UK, China and the USA. www.novogroup.com