Finnish cyber security giant F-Secure has split itself in two, spinning off its enterprise security branch into a new company called WithSecure, while F-Secure will continue to operate the consumer side of the business.
Announced during a virtual event last night, WithSecure will operate all of F-Secure's business-focused services and products, such as endpoint protection, managed detection and response, as well as the company’s consulting services.
Concurrently, F-Secure will keep its name and focus only on consumer security solutions, such as virtual private networks and identity protection.
Juhani Hintikka, F-Secure’s CEO and president, will assume the same role at WithSecure. He says the new entity will aim to combine its security solutions with its expertise and consultants to offer more personalised solutions for customers.
“The company’s new 'co-security' paradigm reflects the need to address today’s security challenges through good partnership,” Hintikka adds. “Ultimately, complexity is creating huge problems in information security. By working together, we can stop approaching security as controls. Instead, we will implement technology and services that work in a business context and deliver proven outcomes.”
WithSecure’s portfolio consists of cloud-native and intelligent endpoint protection, cloud content protection for Salesforce, managed detection and response, and a slew of cyber security consulting services.
Among those who will be joining Hintikka under the WithSecure banner are CTO Christine Bejerasco and chief research officer Mikko Hyppönen.
Says Hyppönen: “Traditional endpoint security and protecting against malicious programs is still important. But more important is visibility into your systems, because the age-old idea of a safe and secure internal network and the badness of the external network is all wrong.”
Both entities will maintain their current base of operations in Helsinki, and Hintikka says he does not expect the split to cause any disruptions to either business's operations.
F-Secure founder Risto Siilasmaa also said as bad actors have evolved their tools and methods over the years, the security needs of corporates and end users have begun to drift further apart, meaning having one company to manage both needs isn’t practical.
A common ground for end users and the B2B landscape has shrunk, and Siilasmaa said he believes these groups will be better served by two, separate companies.
In ending, Hintikkato said WithSecure enjoys an extensive network of partners, clients, and customers along with vast experience working with the information security community to solve today’s challenging and novel threats with a co-security mindset.
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