F-Secure Anti-Virus 5.40 Upgrades Award-Winning Software With Improved Infection Handling, Advanced Delivery Mechanism for Virus Signature Updates.

Business/Technology Editors

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 12, 2002

F-Secure, provider of centrally managed security solutions for the mobile enterprise, today announced a new version of the company's award-winning Anti-Virus for Workstations. F-Secure Anti-Virus 5.40 introduces new techniques for battling complex network worms and malicious code, and features an advanced delivery mechanism for automatically updating virus signatures.

F-Secure Anti-Virus 5.40 is based on a totally new internal architecture, and provides better performance, increased stability and improved infection handling. The product is being demonstrated in the F-Secure exhibit at the Computer Security Institute conference, being held at the Chicago Hilton, Nov. 10-12.

Malware has become more complex and difficult to disinfect, forcing antivirus vendors to create new defensive techniques. F-Secure Anti-Virus 5.40 reduces companies' risks of both interrupted commercial activities and legal risks from sending viruses out. Companies can concentrate on their core businesses, and remain protected and under control.

As demonstrated by Internet-borne malware such as Nimda and Klez, and more recently Slapper and BugBear, virus outbreaks are becoming more frequent and more complex, with multiple propagation methods. Anti-virus vendors have been handed the challenge of creating the virus signature updates, making them available for customers, and more importantly facilitating their delivery all the way to workstations and servers to stop the epidemic. The release of F-Secure Anti-Virus 5.40 takes a huge leap toward answering these new challenges.

F-Secure Anti-Virus 5.40 can be run faster on low-end machines, yet is more scalable, enabling management of up to 10,000 hosts. F-Secure Policy Manager 5.10 and F-Secure Policy Manager Reporting Option 5.10, which are part of the product, contain significant performance enhancements with all operations.

In addition, F-Secure Anti-Virus Proxy is a local proxy server used in remote offices to download virus definition updates from F-Secure to each workstation, reducing network traffic for limited Internet connections in a remote office.

"Making the customer safer, with such measures as frequently delivered virus signature updates before a virus impacts them, has been one of F-Secure's key drivers since the company was founded," said Pirkka Palomaki, vice president of marketing at F-Secure Corp. "This is the most advanced new version of our anti-virus product, and introduces new features that will make the administrator's work easier and more efficient than ever. We are pleased that Virus Bulletin granted it the VB100 award."

Around 10 new computer viruses are found each day, and antivirus software has become an essential element in most of companies' IT portfolio. For this reason, easy software deployment and use are one of the basic building blocks for implementing successful corporate security. With F-Secure Anti-Virus software, deployment can be accomplished from a single console without the need for an IT administrator to visit even one employee workstation. The same console is used to configure and view full overview of anti-virus status in the network. F-Secure Anti-Virus works automatically around the clock updating the virus definition updates from F-Secure Virus Research Lab against the latest threats.

According to a test by Messagelabs, the UK-based content provider of secured e-mail services, F-Secure has been the fastest antivirus vendor to provide signature updates against the latest threats. MessageLabs uses several top-notch security products, including F-Secure Anti-Virus, to protect their customers against viruses.

F-Secure Anti-Virus 5.40 is currently available at a cost of $32 per license for 100 users. It supports Windows 95, 98, NT, 2000, ME, and XP and is available in Chinese, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean and Spanish.

About F-Secure

F-Secure Corporation is the leading provider of centrally managed security solutions for today's mobile enterprise. The company's award-winning products include antivirus, file encryption and network security solutions for major platforms from desktops to servers and from laptops to handhelds. Founded in 1988, F-Secure has been listed on the Helsinki Exchanges since November 1999. The company is headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, with the North American headquarters in San Jose, California, as well as offices in Germany, Sweden, Japan and the United Kingdom and regional offices in the USA. F-Secure is supported by a network of value added resellers and distributors in over 90 countries around the globe. Through licensing and distribution agreements, the company's security applications are available for the products of the leading handheld equipment manufacturers, such as Nokia and Compaq.