“With virtually 100% protection, Client Security proved to be a front-runner in terms of corporate security in all the certification tests performed by the AV-TEST Institute in 2016.” You read that right. Leading independent testers AV-TEST found that our Client Security blocks “ … | Continue reading
How can I get into computer security? Our chief research officer Mikko Hypponen seems to get some version of that question whenever he does an online Q&A. The industry he joined more than 25 years ago has transformed as radically as digital technology itself. Viruses no long trav … | Continue reading
Have you ever wondered if you have what it takes to hunt down malware? Last Friday at aTalent’s annual Coding Factory event, researchers from F-Secure Labs asked participants to put their security skills to the test by hunting down simulated “malware” planted in test computers. C … | Continue reading
What does your digital history have in common with an animal or plant that lived the Earth around the time of the dinosaurs? The remains of both, when combined with the remains of lots of other animals and plants, can be quite valuable — at least after a few million years. “I bel … | Continue reading
The Internet gives you access to the world. But it also gives the world access to you. The borderless, dynamic nature of the web makes it more likely that you’ll be a victim of a crime online than in your real life. In real life, we take basic safety precautions. So why wouldn’t … | Continue reading
This is how we like to start a new year. We’re launching a new development team at F-Secure. It will be in the front line of our flagship product operating within our consumer cyber security business unit. The team will be located at our headquarters R&D in Helsinki, surrounded b … | Continue reading
With Safer Internet Day set to arrive again the seventh of February, we all need to review our security basics to “Be the change” and “unite for a better Internet” — which are the themes of this year’s edition of the annual international event to remind us all to spend a little t … | Continue reading
F-Secure Senior Security Consultant Harry Sintonen appeared at Disobey last week in Helsinki to teach the audience a lesson in how attackers take advantage of insecure devices. Harry created the demonstration after he discovered several vulnerabilities in a QNAP network attached … | Continue reading
Mobile devices have largely avoided the malware outbreaks that have plagued PCs for decades now for a simple reason — app stores. Nearly all — or even all — the software that’s on your phone or tablet now came through these official portals, where they endured some degree of vett … | Continue reading
A great deal has happened within the online privacy sphere in the last 12 months. The subject has become a genuinely hot topic, and we have done our best to dissect relevant industry issues into an easily readable form while reporting directly from the eye of the storm, so to spe … | Continue reading
“I believe data is the new oil,” F-Secure’s chief research officer Mikko Hypponen says. “And just like oil brought us both prosperity and problems, data will bring us prosperity, and problems.” We’re just beginning to understand how so-called “big data” is changing everything, ev … | Continue reading
Here’s how to turn off Facebook’s facial recognition, which will stop you from being automatically suggested for tagging in your friends’ photos: Log into Facebook and click on the lock in the upper right corner: Click on “See More Settings”. In the left column click on “Timeline … | Continue reading
Headlines exploded last week after US authorities published a report examining Russia’s alleged attempt to undermine last year’s US Presidential elections. While the report’s value in terms of “exposing” Russian hacking is debatable (there was very little information that had not … | Continue reading
It’s a story that’s been told thousands, if not millions of times, already. One wrong click and bam! Files taken hostage by unbreakable encryption and there’s nothing you can do but give up — or pay the ransom. There’s a reason that cyber criminals who run ransomware offer custom … | Continue reading
If you’re looking for a self-improvement project that doesn’t require much effort to use as your New Year’s Resolution, start using a password manager. Seriously. At work and at home. Here’s why. In his recent SecTor Talk, F-Secure Chief Research Officer Mikko Hypponen told the a … | Continue reading
Two very dangerous words figured prominently in the lexicon of democracy this year — election hacking. On one level, the solution to this problem is quite straight forward. In his recent Quora Session, Mikko Hypponen — F-Secure’s Chief Research Officer — offered some simple advic … | Continue reading
This will be only the ninth Christmas when you could receive a full touchscreen smartphone as a gift but smartphone penetration has already reached 81 percent in the UK. But every year people are using phones less for talking and more for the internet-connected features. Over 30 … | Continue reading
Which would you rather have stolen by hackers: your phone’s photo history or your home address? Earlier this month, we told you how much fun we had at Slush. At the event, our team took it upon ourselves to chat with fellow attendees of the event about their online security. Cons … | Continue reading
She was getting ready for her first Christmas since the divorce. It had been a bad year, to say the least. Alone with three young kids, Alicia was determined to make this a Christmas to remember. It was, but for all the wrong reasons. It was Christmas Eve at the biggest toy store … | Continue reading
A multinational law enforcement operation gave internet users a big gift just in time for the holiday season! In late November, Europol, the FBI, and several other organizations around the world worked together to takedown Avalanche – an international crime network behind cyber a … | Continue reading
Millions of people don’t just like free Wi-Fi—they plan their lives around it. A study from last year found that 49 percent of business travelers say that they consider free Wi-Fi a “deciding” factor when picking out a place to stay. And when they connect from their hotel room or … | Continue reading
The cliché used to be that you can tell a lot about how a person’s mind by looking at her desktop. If that’s true, it’s probably even more true of the desktops of your mobile devices and PCs. Old bills, receipts and documents stack up and demand attention. But what about all the … | Continue reading
Studies have shown time and time again that computer science skills are invaluable tools to have in today’s world. And last week at F-Secure headquarters in Helsinki, F-Secure fellow Maaret Pyhäjärvi invited her colleagues’ kids to come to the office to take part in the Hour of C … | Continue reading
It was supposed to be a dream vacation. And it really was, until he came back home. When Adam left Poland and returned to New York, his life had become a nightmare. While exploring the streets of Warsaw, he wasn’t only focused on the sights. His eyes were open and his senses shar … | Continue reading
2017 is nearly here. People are looking ahead to the new year. And for cyber security experts, this inevitably involves thinking about what threats we’ll all have to contend with in the near future. The possibilities might seem incalculable. But experts know the past always offer … | Continue reading
“For years, signature-based antivirus detection has been only a fraction of what security companies have been offering… If someone thinks that antivirus being dead is news then we don’t know in what world they have been living in for the past five to six years,” F-Secure’s Timo L … | Continue reading
Using public Wi-Fi without a VPN is risky. Lots of people know that. Unfortunately, most don’t give a s**t. Think about it. People do all kinds of risky things even when they know they shouldn’t. They smoke, drink, eat too much. You get the idea. But when it comes to public Wi-FI … | Continue reading
Slush is Europe’s leading and the world’s’ coolest startup event. Over 15,000 top tech investors, starry-eyed startups and journalists brave the godawful Finnish November weather (blink and you miss the day’s sunlight) to give talks, pitch their ideas, form partnerships and final … | Continue reading
Mirai – malware designed to infect internet of things devices – is behind some of the biggest DDoS attacks in history. It knocked Twitter, Netflix, and other popular websites offline in October. And now, it looks like a variant of Mirai has been modified (or upgraded) to infect r … | Continue reading
Imagine you open your mail and find a letter from the IRS saying you owe them thousands of dollars. The letter also says you’ve collected tens of thousands of dollars in tax returns over the past five years. There’s only one problem – the “you” they’re talking about is actually s … | Continue reading
Holiday shopping has become such a tradition that it now has its own international holiday. Two of the them, actually. In Finland, for instance, where only American expatriates might celebrate Thanksgiving, Black Friday has become an annual celebration of great deals. It’s now th … | Continue reading
A turbulent U.S. election season. Ongoing tragedy in the Middle East. A Brexit vote result that threatens to tear apart the very fabric of European unity. Turkey continues to chip away at personal freedom, and Russia shows its increasing unwillingness to indulge dissenting opinio … | Continue reading
Online banking is becoming more common. But whether people are taking the right security precautions when using online banking services is a bit of a question mark. After all, do you really know what to do to keep your bank information safe when using it online? A recent Bank of … | Continue reading
What does it feel like to be a victim of identity theft? Spoiler alert, it really sucks. We recently sat down with some people who had their identities taken away in one way or another, and asked them to share their stories. Up first is Michelle, who is still struggling to get h … | Continue reading
A staggering 97 percent of children use mobile devices of some sort, according to a recent study. So even if a new phone or tablet isn’t on the holiday wishlist, you can bet that that your kids will eventually use any new device that enters your home. But you don’t have to be a c … | Continue reading
Are you ok with advertisers having access to your web surfing? Are you ok with them knowing your search terms, translated texts, visited websites, and clicked Facebook profiles? If not, you might want to have a quick look at your browser extensions. Browser extensions are plug-in … | Continue reading
Since this spring, online streaming service Netflix has actively started blocking users of all major VPN providers from watching their content. This blanket ban was met with an understandably negative backlash from customers, many pointing out that Netflix was now forcing them to … | Continue reading
In its broadest definition, online tracking is the practice of websites recording information about you. It’s one of the most secretive and misunderstood concepts on the internet, which makes sense when you consider the wide variety of its uses. Tracking can be used by websites d … | Continue reading
There’s been a lot of talk about whether or not hacking will have an impact on the upcoming US election. Between the DNC hack, the email scandal(s), and the accusations of Russian tampering with the election, it can seem like it’s inevitable. But what are the chances of this happ … | Continue reading
Earlier this week, Marjaana and Hertta gave us an example of how to go about destroying your old devices. They tried to break a hard drive with a hammer — and ended up breaking the hammer. It’s not so easy. So we decided to turn to the pros — our friends at the internationally re … | Continue reading
Even if you aren’t planning on getting new tech this holiday season, you probably have some old devices sitting around your house. And as we’ve learned from the monster hacks of the last year or two, anything that exists on a hard drive could eventually be made public. So it’s ti … | Continue reading
What does F-Secure have in common with Google, Microsoft and Reaktor? We’re all among “Finland’s Most Attractive Employers” according to a new survey of 5,993 professionals by Universum conducted from March to August of this year. We rank sixth behind those big names but we’re fo … | Continue reading
Everyone likes knowing what people are saying about them, right? We sure do, so we set up a bot to notify the team whenever someone mentions us in a Reddit conversation. We expected to get some insight into what people like and don’t like about Freedome, if they recommend it to … | Continue reading
The first known use of the term “trick or treat” was found in a November 1927 edition of Blackie, Alberta’s Canada Herald: Hallowe’en provided an opportunity for real strenuous fun. No real damage was done except to the temper of some who had to hunt for wagon wheels, gates, wago … | Continue reading
When he was still working in cyber security for the Finnish government, Erka Koivunen met a NATO diplomat who said that there was “nothing new” about the era we now live in. Foreign envoys have always lived with the constant awareness that their private communications could be “l … | Continue reading
Why doesn’t VPN work on my hotel Wi-Fi? What special benefits does a VPN give to me in my country? How does online tracking work? Who’s that handsome dude who writes your blog? These questions (except for that last one) are the kind we get from our Freedome fans on a regular basi … | Continue reading
Cyber security is playing an starring role in the drama surrounding the question of who will be the next president of the United States. “The security aspect of cyber is very, very tough,” Republican nominee for president Donald Trump said, when asked about securing American secr … | Continue reading
Occasionally we get a question on our privacy community about a Wi-Fi hotspot blocking VPNs. Thankfully this doesn’t happen very often, but we decided to write this letter to let companies that do this know why they shouldn’t. Dear business providing free Wi-Fi but blocking VPN, … | Continue reading