F-Secure
 | |
| Company type | Public |
|---|---|
| Nasdaq Helsinki: FSECURE | |
| Industry | Computer software |
| Founded | May 16, 1988 (as Data Fellows) 1999 (as F-Secure) |
| Founder | Petri Allas Risto Siilasmaa |
| Headquarters | Helsinki, Finland |
Key people |
|
| Products | Cybersecurity software |
| Services | Computer security |
| Revenue |  €111.0 million (2022)[2] |
| €38.8 million (2022)[3] | |
| Total assets | €62.7 million (2022)[3] |
| Total equity | €24.8 million (2022)[3] |
Number of employees | 350+ (2022)[3] |
| Website | f-secure |
F-Secure Corporation is a global cyber security and privacy company, which has its headquarters in Helsinki, Finland.
The company has offices in Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States, with a presence in more than 100 countries, and Security Lab operations in Helsinki and in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
F-Secure develops and sells antivirus, VPN, password management, and other consumer cyber security products and services for computers, mobile devices, smart TVs and internet of things devices. The company also offers several free-to-use tools on its website.
In 2022, F-Secure announced a demerger of its corporate and consumer businesses: the corporate business branch was renamed to WithSecure.[4][5]
History
[edit]F-Secure was first established under the name Data Fellows by Petri Allas and Risto Siilasmaa on May 16, 1988. Data Fellows trained computer users and built customized databases. Three years later, the company launched its first major software project and developed the first heuristic scanner for antivirus products. F-Secure’s first antivirus product for Windows PCs was launched in 1994. Data Fellows became F-Secure in 1999. F-Secure was the first company that developed an anti-rootkit technology called BlackLight in 2005.[6]
In June 2015, F-Secure expanded into the enterprise market by acquiring nSense, a Danish company that specialized in security consultation and vulnerability assessment.[7] The purchase followed of Inverse Path, a privately owned Italian security consultancy with experience in avionics, automotive, and industrial control sectors.[8]
F-Secure Client Security received the AV-TEST Best Protection award for the fifth time in 2016.[9]
In June 2018, F-Secure acquired security company MWR InfoSecurity for £80 million ($106 million). F-Secure gained the MWR consulting business (now F-Secure Consulting), its threat hunting product Countercept (now F-Secure Managed Detection and Response), and its suite of phishing protection services, phishd.[10][11]
On February 17, 2022, F-Secure announced a demerger of its corporate and consumer businesses. In conjunction with the demerger, the company was renamed as WithSecure Corporation.[4] The consumer security business was to be transferred into a new independent company and continue using the name F-Secure Corporation. The demerger came into effect July 1, 2022, when F-Secure was listed on Nasdaq Helsinki and the corporate business was completely separated from the company.[12]
Academia
[edit]Around 2008, in co-operation with Aalto University School of Science and Technology, F-Secure ran a one-semester course for future virus analysts, with some material available online.[13]
Controversies
[edit]In 2001, after media coverage of the Magic Lantern spyware and claims by some AV vendors to purposely leave a backdoor for it in their products, F-Secure announced their policy on detecting these spying programs:
"F-Secure Corporation would like to make known that we will not leave such backdoors to our F-Secure Anti-Virus products, regardless of the source of such tools. We have to draw a line with every sample we get regarding whether to detect it or not. This decision-making is influenced only by technical factors, and nothing else, but within the applicable laws and regulations, in our case meaning EU laws."
"We will also be adding detection of any program we see that might be used for terrorist activity or to benefit organized crime. We would like to state this for the record, as we have received queries regarding whether we would have the guts to detect something obviously made by a known violent mafia or terrorist organization. Yes we would."[14]
See also
[edit]
References
[edit]- ^ Ranger, Steve. "Inside the secret digital arms race: Facing the threat of a global cyberwar". TechRepublic. Retrieved April 25, 2014.
- ^ Financial statement 2022
- ^ a b c d "Annual Report 2020" (PDF). F-Secure Corporation. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 18, 2021. Retrieved March 23, 2021.
- ^ a b "Demerger | WithSecure™".
- ^ "F-Secure Corporate Security relaunches as WithSecure™".
- ^ "Using Blacklight to detect and remove Rootkits from your computer: Home". BleepingComputer.
- ^ "F-Secure snaps up security consultation firm nSense: Home". ZDNet.
- ^ "F-Secure F-Secure acquires consultancy player Inverse Path: Home". Computer Weekly. Archived from the original on January 18, 2018. Retrieved March 13, 2017.
- ^ "The Independent IT-Security Institute: Home". AV-TEST. Archived from the original on March 13, 2017. Retrieved March 13, 2017.
- ^ "F-Secure acquires MWR InfoSecurity". Help Net Security. June 18, 2018. Retrieved June 19, 2018.
- ^ "F-Secure to buy cyber security firm MWR". Reuters. June 18, 2018. Retrieved October 22, 2019.
- ^ "Nasdaq Helsinki welcomes F-Secure after a partial demerger". Nasdaq. July 1, 2022. Retrieved July 13, 2022.
- ^ "TKK - TML - Courses". TML. August 29, 2008. Archived from the original on February 7, 2012. Retrieved February 1, 2012.
- ^ "F-Secure Corporation's policy on detecting spying programs developed by various governments". F-Secure. Archived from the original on February 25, 2012. Retrieved June 25, 2011.
External links
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