EscapeNet F-Secure Security Service FAQ

No computer is instantly protected against Internet threats while accessing the Internet unless a security solution is installed. Computers that are not secured will rapidly be confronted with a variety of threats and annoyances that could include viruses, trojan horses, worms, spyware, hacker attacks, spam, inappropriate content and many more. Typical consequences of such threats range from loss of files and slowing down your computer to theft of personal data.

More and more people are accessing the Internet through a broadband or "always-on" connection. "Always-on" also means that their system is more open and vulnerable to different types of system intruders such as hackers. As a result, antivirus protection by itself is not enough.

Antivirus software will primarily protect your computer against viruses. A firewall will protect your computer against other types of Internet threats such as hackers, worms and trojan horses, which cannot be fully detected by any Anti Virus software. Reversely, firewall software does not necessarily protect your computer against all types of viruses. As a result, it is advised to install both antivirus and firewall software to achieve maximum protection.

Without adequate protection, viruses will infect your computer. A computer virus attaches itself to, overwrites or otherwise replaces another program in order to reproduce itself without your knowledge. This may quickly use your computer's available memory and slow down the system or possibly bring it to a halt. Viruses may damage data files, attempt to destroy files or possibly make disks unreadable. Viruses can delete files, format hard drives or mix up the data on them.

Our antivirus software is based on F-Secure's award-winning Anti-Virus. This allows you to open e-mails, files and surf the Internet without fear of virus infections. You can also be sure that no viruses will be sent out to others. Our Anti-Virus is fully automatic and is virtually invisible to the end user. As any antivirus solution is only as good as its latest update, F-Secure is consistently ahead of its competitors regarding the delivery speed of cures for new viruses.

To be protected against hackers and malicious software. Hackers are constantly looking for opportunities to access computers to steal passwords, financial or other types of personal information and files. Hostile software writers are increasingly finding ways to establish hazardous attacks through the launch of Trojan horses and worms. These types of malware are able to take over control over your computer turning it into a "drone".

Our firewall filters Internet traffic and protects your computer against hackers, Trojans, worms and other types of malware. It maximises system uptime by preventing denial-of-service attacks. The easy-to-use interface offers a set of adaptable security profiles for different users and different situations. The Firewall includes the industry's latest technology, including a stateful network inspection with application control.

To be protected against e-mail spam messages. Unsolicited commercial e-mail, better known as spam, is a major problem. Spammers can send out millions of mails with minimal cost. The amount of spam is increasing heavily over the years. Besides spam being an every day hassle for end-users, it also leads to receiving a high amount of offensive content. Spam increases the risk for virus infections and it lowers employee productivity.

The spam filter in the Spam Control examines all inbound mail messages. Advanced recognition technology is used to sort out the junk from the important mails. The user can fine-tune the detection intensity to suit their needs by selecting between predefined levels. Spam is placed in a separate folder and can be reviewed by the user or deleted automatically.

While home internet use is growing at rapid pace, millions of teenagers and children have gained access to an unlimited number of websites. The Internet can quickly undermine worried parent's control to protect their children against inappropriate, harmful and overwhelming online content. Intentional or accidental, children are growing increasingly likely to be exposed to objectionable sites.

Parents can rely on the Parental Control when their children are playing in cyber-space. The Parental Control will refuse access to harmful or inappropriate online content. The solution automatically performs an on-the-fly content-based categorisation of the web pages and immediately blocks access to unsuitable material. Parents are always in control, due to selectable content categories, a configuration password and logging capabilities.

Malware "malicious software" is any file or software that can do harm to a computer system. Malware is a common term that is used for Internet threats like viruses, Trojan horses, worms and spyware.

strange files - sometimes with hidden attributes - appear on a hard disk, especially in folders where access is restricted (Windows folders)

unusual hard disk activity or network activity when the computer is idle

weird behaviour of hardware and software (opening cd-rom tray, switching on webcam or microphone, swapping mouse buttons, mouse cursor moves by itself, etc)

applications starting and closing by themselves, new icons appear on a desktop

frequent application crashes, inability to run certain software that used to be working previously

inability to go to anti-virus vendor sites or to the sites that were previously accessible

anti-virus, firewall or other security software gets damaged, disabled or uninstalled

data (files, directories) gets damaged, modified or deleted

system slowdown

sudden decrease of free hard drive space amount

Another browser window(s) suddenly opens when your browser is running or even not running at all.

Online advertisements re-open when you close them.

Multiple browser windows open and take control of your screen.

Simple pop-up blockers which you have downloaded online for free do not help stopping pop-up advertisements anymore.

Your start menu, desktop and tray icons, homepage and/or favourites suddenly modify.

You computer slows down while inspection of systems shows a lot of inactive system activity and network activity, especially when you are using your browser.

Your browser stops working or can only address you to a specific website like for example a shopping website.

Unexpected sounds or movies start playing with or without having the browser activated.

A webcam or microphone goes live beyond your the direct control.

You receive "official" notifications that solicite to help you with tuning up your PC, fixing security problems, etc.

The browser skips towards unexpected web pages, text or pictures change or are overlapping the displayed window you are looking at.

Your workstation becomes unexpectedly operated by remote control

F-Secure Corporation is the fastest growing publicly listed company globally in the antivirus and intrusion prevention industry. F-Secure services and software protect individuals and businesses against computer viruses and other threats coming through the Internet or mobile networks. Our award-winning solutions include antivirus and desktop firewall with intrusion prevention, anti-spam and anti-spyware solutions. Our key strength is our proven speed of response to new threats.

Antivirus is today "a must" when you are connected to internet

Antivirus is not enough, you need Firewall as well

Protect against hackers and Trojans while connected to internet

Protect against network worms (Blaster)

Firewall is extremely important when you are using BROADBAND connection

You are connected to internet all the time with large bandwidth

Spam Control: Controlling all inbound mail messages and separates the spam from important mails

Parental Control: Controlling access to internet content which might be harmful for children

The minimum requirements to run F-Secure are 128Mb of RAM and Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP Home or XP Pro and Vista Home