F-Secure Leads The Way in Mobile Security With a New Service Platform and Wireless Security Clients For Smartphones
F-Secure Corporation today introduced a new groundbreaking security service solution for mobile operators and mobile phone vendors who are planning to provide consumers and corporate customers with wireless virus protection services.
The customers of mobile operators are concerned about harmful content on their mobile devices, but should not be troubled with security any more than is absolutely necessary. The burden of managing and updating security applications should be taken out of their hands.
The easiest and the most efficient way for the operator to accomplish this is to offer the required protection as an outsourced service, which allows automated distribution of the security software and updates directly to the mobile device over a wireless connection. The security application can also be pre-installed to the mobile devices before distribution and activated later when it is needed.
The F-Secure wireless security service solution consists of two components: F-Secure Mobile Services(tm) is a platform for hosting automatic subscription-based security services with wireless connectivity and a patented SMS update mechanism. The platform offers several secure methods for efficiently distributing data to mobile terminals and secure web interfaces for sales and subscription management. Digitally signed downloads and updates ensure system security at all times.
F-Secure Anti-Virus for Series 60 is a fully automatic security solution that offers transparent real-time protection against harmful content locally on the Symbian OS device. It is the only security solution in the world that can be incrementally updated with SMS messages. It also detects a GPRS connection automatically and can update the threat database of the phone on the background over the Internet without any user interaction.
“It is the responsibility of the operators and hardware manufacturers to help their customers to get protection against harmful content. The success of our security services with the biggest Internet service providers in Europe proves that PC users prefer the subscription-based security service model to traditional software licensing. The same model will be dominant in the mobile telecom business, where the operators are starting to offer similar protection for the users of mobile terminals”, said Risto Siilasmaa, President and CEO of F-Secure Corporation.
Protection against all kinds of harmful content, not just viruses
The introduced security solution can be used for blocking harmful content from undesired messages to malfunctioning applications. This kind of harmful content exists already for mobile terminals, although the virus situation is not as demanding as in the PC environment. The antivirus client can also be used for deleting the malware from the infected terminals to restore their functionality.
In general, history has shown that three things are needed for a new platform to become an interesting target for writers of malicious applications: enough functionality (for the malware to work), enough connectivity (for the malware to spread) and enough target terminals (for the platform to become interesting to the malware writers). These factors are starting to be in place for the most common handheld platforms, such as the Symbian Series 60 terminals.
When a new instance of harmful content appears, be it a virus, a malformatted message or a malfunctioning application, the users who have subscribed to the F-Secure service before the incident get the fastest possible protection for their devices. In the vast majority of cases, the protection is active a long time before the device would become affected.
For the operators and hardware manufacturers, a wireless antivirus service is preventive insurance against end user support load, terminal downtime, negative user experience and bad publicity.
The wireless virus protection service and the new antivirus clients for Series 60 terminals will be available through mobile operators and F-Secure in cooperation with hardware manufacturers. Service pilots with selected operators and terminal vendors are currently taking place. The F-Secure service solution is based on a partnership model, where F-Secure hosts the production environment and maintains the service platform. In operator cooperation, the virus protection service is sold and marketed by the operator and its sales channel. In hardware vendor cooperation, the antivirus clients are pre-installed to the terminals with a pre-paid service period, after which the users are redirected to F-Secure or local operator partners to buy continuation to the service.
About F-Secure
F-Secure Corporation is the leading provider of centrally managed security solutions for the mobile enterprise. The company’s award-winning products include antivirus 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 France, 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.