F-Secure is world famous for it's PC Security Suites. I mean, if the US Marine Force uses your software, you're good. However, the 2007 model of F-Secure's suite (I checked the previous versions feature) doesn't include any big visible changes, except perhaps in the parental-control section. The real changes are mostly, you can say, as good as invisible. F-Secure has revamped its application control to help protect you automatically. Its new DeepGuard technology monitors program behavior in real time and halts malicious activity. Also, it virtually eliminates those routine firewall confirmation pop-ups; Hurray!

Lets have a look at the features that it has to offer.

Rock-Solid Firewall

F-Secure's firewall guards your system against hack attacks, controlling which programs get to connect themselves to the Internet.By default, it allows all programs access to the Internet, while simply logging the fact that they were allowed. If a program is malicious and misuses its access, DeepGuard should catch it based on behavior. If you miss those confirmation pop-ups, you can have it ask for a confirmation the first time a program tries to access the Internet, with an option to automatically allow known good programs. This also replaces the advanced "application launch control" and "application manipulation control" techniques found in F-Secure 2006.

By default, F-Secure allows behaviors whose risk threshold is low, blocks high-risk behaviors, and asks the user only when the case is unclear. I set it to always-ask and tried launching a dozen leak-test programs. In several cases F-Secure's real-time protection flagged the program as a known problem; I told it to take no action. Even so, three of the tests wouldn't run at all. For all but two of the rest, it reported behaviors with a risk level of around 90 out of 100. When I chose to block those, it successfully prevented the test program's malicious behavior. For comparison's sake, I launched a number of utilities that use the Internet or hook deeply into the system. Most were passed without comment, but I did get alarming warnings about a few. By clicking the Details button, you can get plenty of information to help you make an informed decision.

The firewall stood rock-solid even when I attacked it directly by deliberately executing a malicious program. I couldn't shut it down by tweaking the Registry, I couldn't disable it using Task Manager, and I couldn't turn off protection by stopping essential services. I just couldn't bypass it! It was a valiant battle, but the outcome was clear.