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This year is becoming the worst of all time for viruses
in terms of their number, extent and seriousness. The F-Secure
Group fights daily against new threats to the network, protecting
its customers all over the world.
Last year F-Secure, which specializes in information security
solutions, registered 28 general epidemics that spread through
the Internet, seven of them being classed as serious. "This
year we've reached almost the same number in eight months.
We've already gone through six serious epidemics," confirms
Mikko Hyppönen, F-Secure's director of antivirus research.
Reaction speed gives the edge
Seen from Finland, the viruses are almost one hundred per
cent imported. They move globally and proceed from one time
belt to the next. F-Secure's customers are all over the world.
The company's undisputed trump card is its reaction speed.
"This causes constant surprise throughout the world.
In practice, we beat our competitors for speed almost every
time. Speed is decisive when a virus epidemic can spread throughout
the world in hours, even minutes. Even a small saving in time
is important," Hyppönen stresses.
When the first sample of the source of a new virus epidemic
is received, F-Secure produces, within 2.5 hours on average,
a virus-identification capability that the software uses to
notice the newcomer. The virus-identification capability is
automatically downloaded to customers' systems and workstations
and they also receive a warning about the virus threat immediately.
"Problems caused by a new virus are at their height
during the first hours. That's why receiving information early
is vital for the customer," Hyppönen says
Virus growth increases work
The more viruses there are, the more work there is. The turnover
of F-Secure's antivirus and intrusion prevention products
increased in the second quarter of this year by 62 per cent,
reaching EUR 9.8 million. The company's total turnover went
up by 29 per cent.
"There really are so many virus epidemics at the moment
that we could do with fewer - and even then we'd have enough
work," Hyppönen states.
A quite extensive information security industry has grown
in Finland in the past two decades. Besides F-Secure, companies
known worldwide include Stonesoft and SSH Communications Security.
Development in the sector has demanded not only people with
specialist skills but also investment in research and development.
F-Secure employs about 300 people, who embrace 14 nationalities.
It spends a considerable amount of its turnover on research
and development. Last year, for example, almost 10 million
of the 39-million-euro turnover were spent on R&D.
Virus a social problem
Antivirus software writers are in a race against virus writers.
The latter are in a lead that the former are trying to catch
up with. Hope is being brought by the development of software,
its updating and making life more difficult for virus writers.
Hyppönen says - perhaps slightly surprisingly - that
computer viruses are not technical problems but social problems.
"It's all about people's enthusiasm for writing viruses.
This enthusiasm should be recognized, In the long term, education
and legislation can have an effect on the problem."
If reacting to impending threats is no longer enough, investment
will have to be made in predictive information security. "Developments
are moving towards more comprehensive technical information
security. We've moved from traditional antivirus products
to an increasingly broader information-security and intrusion-prevention
concept," Hyppönen says.
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Now mobiles under attack from viruses
Action on the mobile-phone-virus front has picked up
pace during this year, and during the summer in particular.
Cabir, which was found in the middle of June, was confirmed
as history's first mobile-phone virus.
Cabir spreads via Bluetooth in telephones that use
the Series 60 version of the Symbian operating system.
Although the worm does not cause an immediate threat
to mobile-phone users, it is a concrete example that
writing viruses for wireless equipment is possible.
Left to its own devices, the virus is capable of spreading.
If, for example, a telephone infected with the worm
were to go through a city centre in its user's pocket
when the rush hour is at its height, it could contaminate
thousands of other phones along the way.
F-Secure tested the worm's effectiveness in a bomb
shelter in the summer. The tests showed that with the
right program even this worm can be controlled and eliminated.
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www.f-secure.com
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