Microsoft rubber stamps F-Secure

Resellers believe F-Secure’s selection by Microsoft as the first data security vendor for its Windows Home Server, will give end-users a heightened awareness of the Finnish-based security vendor.

F-Secure provides protection of the digital home on Microsoft’s upcoming Windows Home Server which is designed to help families easily centralise, share and protect their digital assets, such as photos, music and videos.

The security vendor offers protection against virus and spyware attacks, guards against riskware and scans for hidden malicious software (rootkit protection). It will also keep itself automatically up-to-date with protection against new threats and needs no user intervention.

Kimmo Alkio, CEO at F-Secure Corporation said this collaboration fits well in our product portfolio.

“We are proud to work with Microsoft to offer customers a solution to support Windows Home Server. We look forward to a continued strong cooperation with Microsoft,” said Alkio.

Local F-Secure resellers are also excited by the prospect of having the Microsoft rubber stamp.

Justin Hannah, IT services manager at Western Australia based reseller, FutureTek IT said it will make F-Secure product an even easier sale.

“It won’t affect us directly because we are mainly in the corporate arena. However for F-Secure resellers in the consumer arena, this agreement will make the products an easier sale,” he said.

Hannah believes F-Secure is ‘one of the better products’ out in the marketplace and rates it higher then Symantec or McAfee.

“This will certainly give consumers a heightened awareness of F-Secure products, because the vendor does very little advertising,” said Hannah.

Victorian based ISP, Netcore is an F-Secure reseller that sells into the consumer market. Steve Dimitiro, director at Netcore said this was the best thing he had heard.

“[F-Secure] don’t have a huge market in Australia and it's been trying to break into the local desktop market, with some success,” he said.

F-Secure Anti-Virus will also be available for Microsoft Exchange 7 so that users connected to Microsoft’s email gateway can receive, open and send emails without worrying about viruses, worms or other types of malware. The optional anti-spam module increases the productivity by stopping the unwanted spam emails already at the gateway level, said Alkio.