F-Secure Internet Security 2007

F-Secure Internet Security 2007

Dan Sippy, Mar 11, 2007 1616 hrs IST

F-Secure is world famous for it's PC Security Suites. I mean, if the US Marine Force uses your software, you're good.

Unbreakable Firewall, Impressive Parental Control, Decent Price

Takes long time to quarantine, Sad Spam Filter, Average Anti-Spyware

E-Mail Print

EXPERT REVIEW

Next Page



Anti-Virus Ownage, Anti-Spyware - Not So Much



F-Secure's Antivirus recieved a VB100% rating from Virus Bulletin and has the West Coast Labs checkmark certification for virus detection and cleaning (looked it up). However, F-Secure didn't participate in ICSA's testing (International Computer Security Association). The AV scans files on access, on demand, and on schedule. No multiple schedules here, though-the single scheduled scan uses whatever settings are current for a manual scan. It can run daily, weekly, or monthly, with an option to hold off until the system has been idle for five minutes. The antivirus also scans the incoming and outgoing e-mail stream and (new in this version) can optionally scan and clean HTML traffic as it enters your system.



F-Secure's integrated virus and spyware scan uses its very own BlackLight rootkit protection technology. It took about 22 minutes to scan my system, so it's not especially fast or slow. A Norton or PC-Cillin would take about 30 minutes on the same system, Panda or BitDefender spent around 15, and the spyware-only scans from Spyware Doctor and Spy Sweeper zoomed through in about 7 minutes. However, F-Secure took a good bit longer on a fully malware-infested test system (ya, I set one up), and the repeated pop-ups from the real-time protection system were a real pain in the err....umm application. Right in the middle of the on-demand scan, the program would announce that it found this or that threat and offer to quarantine or delete it. The quarantine process took anywhere from half a minute to 5 minutes or more, and sometimes ended with a request to reboot (which would, of course, stop the ongoing scan). Often a separate (and pointless) standard Windows message box announced the same discovery, without offering to do anything about it. When the real-time scan failed to quarantine the threat (as was often the case), I got the same warning again a few minutes later. And if I chose to take no action rather than fruitlessly try to quarantine again, the program literally made me feel guilty for leaving malware on the system.



The on-demand scan separates its results into three groups: viruses, spyware, and "riskware." You can let it take its default actions or view the results in detail and make your own choices. Naturally, I chose the manual mode so I could see what it found. On a couple of infested test systems, the removal process got stuck on one item or another. It did ask me to "please wait," but I figured that the hour I had already spent was long enough. Fortunately, it wasn't stuck in a loop-I managed to back up and exclude the problem item, thereby allowing for the removal of the rest. Most of the "stuck" items were actually removed. Overall, though, the removal process is very slow compared with most other spyware scanners. I tried to time it on a system with no malicious software running but with some malware installers dumped in a folder on the desktop. Even here, it hung while removing one of the installers and it at least went on for 15 minutes without finishing. Comparing this to its competition, F-Secure's scanner needs a lot of work.

Upon tallying the results of my spyware removal testing, I found that F-Secure missed just one of the 16 spyware samples. But despite its prolonged efforts, it didn't fully remove four of the threats it detected.

When charged with guarding a clean system and preventing malware infestation, though, F-Secure worked like the pro it was supposed to be, with some thanks to the System Control option. I didn't choose to block medium-risk actions such as writing to the System32 folder or modifying the start-up sequence, since plenty of innocuous programs do the same. But when it reported higher risk factors, I let it block them. In some cases the malware application installed, while the executable files were wiped out, completely preventing them from running. Even after this is done, it's better to run a removal scan in order to finish the process.



Overall, it blocked all but one of the 16 spyware and all but one of the eight keyloggers, a rather impressive result. In order to get this level of effectiveness, however, it's necessary to read and carefully consider all of the System Control warnings that appear.

Next Page



Write a comment

       (All fields are mandatory.)

Text Limit = 255 Characters

Type the characters you see in the picture below.

#

Characters are not case sensitive.

USER COMMENTS

please help to download

by mridul, sultanpur, on Mar 17, 2008 08:05 PM, Report abuse   Reply

sdfgfsdg

by Dang, Sydney, on Aug 19, 2007 08:48 AM, Report abuse   Reply

Kaspersky Internet Security Suite Ver 6.0 is the BEST

by Mack, Mumbai, on Mar 14, 2007 05:04 PM, Report abuse   Reply

Oh no terribly not. Your computer becomes a maniak after installing such software. Just like needs aspirin!

by Andy, Moscow, on Jul 13, 2007 01:45 PM, Report abuse

Please call me on +91-9820149352. Raju Desai

by Raju Desai, Mumbai, on Jun 07, 2007 07:18 PM, Report abuse   Reply

fdghdsfg

by ghdfgh, dfgdgh, on Apr 03, 2007 12:40 PM, Report abuse   Reply

Avast Home Edition rocks. Its so fast, free and best in detecting Trojans and other malware.

by punjab234, Moga, on Mar 12, 2007 11:04 AM, Report abuse   Reply

can u pls give the link for download of this software avast...

by aks, Mumbai, on Mar 12, 2007 10:41 PM, Report abuse

yes! avast Home edition 4.7 (only with standard shield enabled ) coupled with Comodo pro (free) firewall is BEST FREE security s/w for any home user .. less resource and more control , avast takes fast scanning even inside ARCHIVES.setup(exe) even , dont use the Slutty AVG free it detects but never fixes , Zone alarm is resource hungry !! Bitdefender free consumes more cpu process , BEST OF

by NIJI, MADURAI, on Mar 14, 2007 05:57 PM, Report abuse

What about memory usage? does it slow the comp down

by uNkNoWn, Delhi, on Mar 12, 2007 02:35 PM, Report abuse   Reply

ive used this and i can tell u that like most Security Suites, it uses quite a bit of ur system resources......its only good for supercomputers.

by Akimichi Chouji, Konoha, on Mar 14, 2007 01:44 PM, Report abuse

Its Nice

by heven, Islamad, on Mar 12, 2007 01:11 PM, Report abuse   Reply

VIEW ALL LATEST

 

Leaked: HTC's WiMAX enabled T8290

News > Gadgets , October 11, 2008 1151 hrs IST

A new model that looks like the HTC Touch HD with WiMAX capability ...

Cheap Holographic Storage To Come Home

News > Hardware , October 11, 2008 1107 hrs IST

Will hold from 300 GB to 1 TB ...

Windows 7 Will Refine UAC

News > Software , October 11, 2008 1003 hrs IST

Will cease annoying you as much ...

iPhone Gets Brian Eno's Music

News > Gadgets , October 10, 2008 1759 hrs IST

Bloom app brings soothing music to your ears ...

Quantum Cryptography-New Kid on the Security Block

News > Security , October 10, 2008 1750 hrs IST

New solution for the ultra paranoid ...

 

USER REVIEWS

Software NEWS

Hide
Windows 7 Will Refine UAC

Windows 7 Will Refine UAC

News | Software | 11 Oct 2008

Will cease annoying you as much
Beat The PowerPoint Blues With ZuiPrezi

Beat The PowerPoint Blues With ZuiPrezi

News | Software | 08 Oct 2008

A new way to do presentations. Really.
Operating Systems are Less Important: Opera

Operating Systems are Less Important: Opera

News | Software | 08 Oct 2008

A brief tete-a tete with Jon S. von Tetzchner - CEO, Opera. We talk Firefox,...

Software REVIEWS

Hide
Three best free software updaters

Three best free software updaters

Reviews | Software | Productivity | 12 Oct 2008

These are some of the best software updaters I've come across in my quest to...
Software Explorer

Software Explorer

Reviews | Software | Productivity | 05 Oct 2008

Take a look at these software that you may find both interesting and helpful.
Chrome Part II : Performance

Chrome Part II : Performance

Reviews | Software | Internet | 14 Sep 2008

Last time we took a look at what Chrome did, today we see just how much of an...

Software USER REVIEWS

Hide
Auslogics,BoostSpeed 4

Auslogics BoostSpeed 4

Asphodel

software | Auslogics | Tue, 06 May 2008

A powerful and easy to use Windows optimization suite that really does its job...
Morange,Morange

Morange Morange

javadsha

software | Morange | Sat, 20 Oct 2007

great free or paid version
tally 7.2,tally 7.2

tally 7.2 tally 7.2

302303

software | tally 7.2 | Wed, 02 Aug 2006

Basic accounting requirement of displaying balance after each transection...

MOST POPULAR NEWS

Hide
News

Could A DVR Save Your Marriage?

News | Consumer Electronics | 04 Sep 2008

...Or should you stick to your shrink?
News

Firefox Counters Chrome's Speed Test

News | Internet | 04 Sep 2008

According to Mozilla's SunSpider test, Firefox 3.1 is 28% faster than Chrome on ...
News

Nokia N96 for Rs. 40,000?

News | Telecom | 04 Sep 2008

False alarm everyone... We have learnt from Nokia that the N96 will be priced be...

MOST POPULAR REVIEWS

Hide

MOST POPULAR GAMES

Hide

MOST POPULAR DOWNLOADS

Hide
Downloads

Forbidden.exe

Downloads | Games | 02 Sep 2008

Downloads

md5deep

Downloads | System Tools | 04 Sep 2008

Downloads

RivaTuner

Downloads | System Tools | 03 Sep 2008