IssViews Forum

F-Secure Internet Security 2010
REVIEW DATE:09.03.09
by Neil J. Rubenking

Security software written by security geeks for security geeks can be scary for the average user, and F-Secure's suites have long had a geeky air. That all changes with F-Secure Internet Security 2010 ($59.99 direct for 3 licenses) and its all-new task-focused user interface. The changes aren't merely skin deep, either. The new Real-Time Protection Network feature improves detection and remediation of problems in many different areas. But it's not enough to make this suite an outstanding overall choice.

F-Secure's usability research showed that users generally launch the program's main window with a specific action in mind. The redesigned main window lets the user quickly check the suite's security status, launch a full scan or perform some other task, or get a view of the program's recent activity. It's a simple, attractive interface—possibly too simple. The main screen has the usual red/yellow/green status indicator and notes status problems but lacks the usual button to fix all issues. The status screen shows each module's status but doesn't link to that module's settings. And the charts on the statistics page aren't connected to detailed reports.

The Real-Time Protection Network gathers non-personal information from all F-Secure users and combs it for patterns. Although not visible itself, the intelligence it provides helps in many different areas. For example: The firewall uses this information in deciding whether to trust a program, the spam filter uses it to tune its detection, and parental control categorization relies in part on it.

F-Secure's Internet Security 2010 software still needs to sort a few interface issues
Friday December 04, 2009
Written by Darien Graham-Smith

The big thing that's new about F-Secure's 2010 security suite is its revamped front-end. It's cleaner than the old design, which had come to look pretty clunky.

Alas, in terms of ease of use, it isn't a great improvement: the big buttons merely open further displays, and finding the feature you want isn't straightforward at all.

The default installation now includes parental controls as well. This is quite a pain, since it requires you to enter your password to allow a program through the firewall. And that happens more often than we'd hoped.

On the plus side, the firewall proved perfectly robust at repelling intruders. Our attacking computer was unable to confirm the existence of the test PC, even while the client machine was happily able to communicate over the internet.

Malware detection was good, too. Although the software took several minutes to churn through this month's collection of malware, it identified 96% of our threats, just 2% behind our A-Listed choice, Avira Premium Security Suite. That figure includes a generic trojan (identified by F-Secure as IS.585803), which Avira missed.

When it comes to resource usage, there's good and bad news. F-Secure added a relatively small overhead to a running system, with system RAM usage under Vista resting at 602MB, compared to 595MB with Avira and 477MB for a bare Windows install.

F-Secure Internet Security 2010
Monday March 22, 2010
Written by Staff Writer

F-Secure's 2010 suite sports a simple front-end with just three buttons. Click on one, though, and it just opens up further panes with more controls and details.

It's easy enough to get where you're going, but it isn't the usability revolution it might appear to be, and the suite further blots its copybook with an intrusive boot-time splashscreen that can't be disabled.

Nor is F-Secure a particularly lean package. Its startup time of 12 seconds was merely par for the course this month, and its memory footprint of 86MB was above average.

Still, F-Secure has its merits. In our malware detection test it scored 97%, placing it only a whisker behind first place, and we appreciated the clear, informative notifications that appeared when infections were found. When we tested network security, we found the software had completely cloaked our PC, so an attacker couldn't see it at all - and opening ports was a single-click procedure.

In our web test, F-Secure proved the most active package of the group, blacklisting 50% of the suspicious sites we tried to visit.

Under the auspices of F-Secure's integrated Parental Controls, the program can also block certain types of website by category, limit browsing time and bar applications from accessing the internet unless a password is supplied.

A closer look at F-Secure Anti-Virus 2010
by Zeljka Zorz - Thursday, 15 July 2010.

F-Secure Anti-Virus 2010 protects your computer against viruses, spyware, infected e-mail attachments, and other malware. It uses DeepGuard cloud computing technology to ensure fast protection against new threats.

The installation process is simple and you can choose between an automatic or step-by-step installation. Restarting your computer is required to download updates - the process might take up to 20 minutes (depending on your network speed). The welcome screen:

Press the Status button to check the status of the installed security features (DeepGuard, Virus and spyware scanning, Scheduled scanning). Turn on everything you think necessary. The Tasks button presents you with these options: