The Finnish cyber security company was deemed to be best in class by the Finnish Security Awards in the Future Category from among three finalists.
Also in this category were the Ministry of Employment and the Economy AI technology and The Technical Research Center of Finland’s (VTT) vehicle technology development projects. F-Secure won due to research into making hotel room electronic entry systems safer, beating strong competition.
The award was given for the “Ghost in the Locks” hacking project, where F-Secure consultants Tomi Tuominen, Practice Leader at F-Secure Cyber Security Services, and Senior Security Consultant Timo Hirvonen found a way to create master keys to access these.
The project succeeded due to serious design flaws in Assa Abloy’s smart lock system Vision by Vingcard, allowing the experts entry to hotel rooms within seconds.
Hundreds of websites published coverage of the issue following F-Secure’s disclosure. This list also includes major news organizations and industry publications such as the BBC, Reuters, Wired, CNBC, and Newsweek.
Tomi Tuominen, who received the award on behalf of F-Secure’s Cyber Security Services (CSS) division together with Timo Hirvonen, says that “they [the judges] wanted to acknowledge the effort put into securing the physical world and making a world a bit of a safer place.”
“They also wanted to promote the importance of cyber security, as it impacts us all,” he adds.
Other companies and individuals who received awards at the annual ceremony in Helsinki’s Old Student House were:
- Abloy Oy, Security Company of the Year
- Elina Niemimaa, Security Researcher of the Year
- Helen Oy, Safe Organization of the Year
- Finnish Parliament President Jukka Savola, Security Branch Lifetime Achievement Award
- Xpyro Oy, OHTO Security Innovation of the Year for their pending patent regarding forest fire anti-incendiary agent Firestop
- Jere Peltonen. Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Security Branch Cooperation Promoter of the Year
- Investigative journalist Pasi Peiponen, Security Deed of the Year for his work towards YLE’s A-studio program aired this year. The program concerned the security of critical organizations
- Seclion Oy security consultant Niko Ryhänen, Security Consultant of the Year
- VPK (Finnish volunteer organization), Security Volunteer of the Year
- Helen Oy Security Manager Mats Fagerström, Security Manager of the Year
Categories