The data-threat landscape continues to gain sophistication. With every solution launched to protect our data, there seems to be a new tactic in play to undermine that protection. F-Secure is working hard to stay ahead of the criminals, hackers and espionage activities as they become more advanced.
I recently had an opportunity to speak with Christian Fredrikson, president and CEO of F-Secure to discuss data security. Connecting more “things” in mobile and to the cloud only increases the opportunities for bad things to happen. Of course we all want to get more connected for convenience in our daily lives, sharing information across devices and connecting the different things in our lives, but we need to be more aware of what could happen.
“You – used to be just about you. Now it includes your personal data, identity and devices,” said Fredrikson. “Within in the next 10 years it is predicted that the average family home will have 500 Internet-connected things.” Think about that for a minute. I know I had to let that figure settle in because it’s a bit mind-boggling. It’s not feasible to have a security solution for every device and service you use, that would become a management nightmare. There needs to be a higher level of service offering to embrace all of these devices, connections and the traffic that travels across them. Or as suggested during our discussion, “a guardian angel watching over the machines talking to other machines.”
Another topic we discussed was who the “bad guys” really are, because they don’t all fit into the same category. When security breaches occur, criminals and terrorists sometimes get put into the same category. They shouldn’t be. Criminals are all about making money – they want to take your information and use it for financial gain. Terrorists on the other hand want to instill fear.
F-Secure talks about protecting your mobile life. This not only includes the security of your data, but also helping to understand what applications are accessing other applications on your device or knowing exactly what access you are agreeing to via App Permissions. Creating an event supported by a secure storage area for sharing your photos and videos with only those you choose can be enabled via Younited, which is currently offered as a white-label solution through more than 30 mobile network operators globally.
What will 2015 bring? First, a greater need for cloud security solutions to avoid Sony Pictures-types of attacks. Expect those solutions to be on the rise in 2015. Second, we will see the first umbrella security solutions come into the market to address all connected things, devices and services. And lastly, “Internet of Things” vertical security solutions. What is needed for the connected car is different than what is needed in an industrial market. It will be interesting to watch where F-Secure moves next to solve these challenges.
Christian Fredrikson joined F-Secure as president and CEO in January 2012 from Nokia Siemens Networks where he was responsible for global sales of the network systems business unit. Before that he held several executive positions in Nokia since 1994, including head of the Asia-Pacific Region and head of the OBS business unit (operation and business software). He is a member of the board of Remedy Entertainment Ltd., a member of the steering board of the European Cloud Partnership, a member of the board of the Finnish Information Security Cluster and a member of the Communications Administration Committee of Ministry of Transport and Communications Mobile in Finland. Fredrikson holds a master’s degree in engineering from Åbo Akademi University in Turku, Finland.
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Claudia Bacco, Managing Director – EMEA for RCR Wireless News, has spent her entire career in telecom, IT and security. Having experience as an operator, software and hardware vendor and as a well-known industry analyst, she has many opinions on the market. She’ll be sharing those opinions along with ongoing trend analysis for RCR Wireless News.
