The best internet security suites balance up-to-date cloud computing technology with smart heuristic and behavioral analysis to be able to detect all malware. F-Secure Internet Security has achieved this balance and has a long history of passing numerous independent tests to prove it. In fact, in July of 2011 AV-Test rated F-Secure 100% in protection and 100% for detection of actively running widespread malware.
This suite also includes highly customizable parental control tools, a firewall, email filtering, scans and application control. In addition, it has the ability to limit demanding interactions with the cloud when connected by mobile broadband. This helps limit over-usage issues and unexpectedly high mobile broadband bills.
F-Secure's marketing slogan is "protecting the irreplaceable." To help support this statement they provide identity protection tools, intrusion prevention and a firewall. It also identifies online and email phishing attempts and will warn you before you submit your passwords and personal information into a website that's behaving suspiciously. Based on our experiences and third-party testing, we believe F-Secure can support their slogan and protect your valuable data.
Kudos to F-Secure for providing superior and reactive protection. They have a proven record of receiving independent lab certifications and awards. In the past two years, they passed all of their AV-Tests. They also scored 99.2% in protection (second highest) in the latest July 2011 AV-Comparatives tests. In addition, they have passed every VB100 test except for one since June 2002. This proves to us that not only can they provide protection today against known threats but also have the ability to evolve and constantly react to new threats as they emerge.
F-Secure Internet Security also has the ability to provide protection from most of the malware sources out there. It has components to detect and remove viruses, spyware, adware, rootkits, Trojans, botnets, keyloggers, browser hijackers and phishing scams. Though it includes a website advisor and the ability to block websites, we did not see a tool specifically intended for protecting during social networking or IM interactions.
This security suite runs unobtrusively in the background, utilizing minimal resources. It includes excellent parental controls with the ability to create unique profiles for numerous users. In fact, we think their parental control tool is one of their best assets. With F-Secure, you can easily create profiles for your children by their age and customize it to block or allow certain types of sites based on your preferences. For example, you may decide to block most sites from your 5-year-old but allow online chat for your teen yet block them from being online late at night.
F-Secure supports customized scans and scheduled scans. It can run scheduled scans daily, weekly or monthly at whatever time you select. If you happen to be using your computer when a scheduled scan occurs, you can set it to delay the scan until the computer is idle for a specific amount of time so it does not interrupt you.
Though this internet security suite has the ability to protect your computer and personal information from malware, it is missing a few functions that we were looking to find. For one, it does not have a fullscreen or game mode. This feature would recognize when you are using your computer in fullscreen mode, like watching a movie or playing a game, and would delay a scan or limit non-critical updates during that time. Though you can certainly manually pause a scan, an automatic fullscreen mode is convenient. We also did not see a tool for creating a bootable disc. A bootable disc can be used to start Windows if a virus locks down your access, or the disc can safely boot and remove a suspected virus before Windows starts. In an ideal reality your computer will not be attacked by a virus, but the backup protection provided by a bootable file would be a useful tool just in case.
F-Secure provides adequate methods of support. You can contact them via telephone or convenient online chat, or you can request support by email. They also host an active user forum that discusses a wide range of topics, from social media security to mobile security to free tools. They post other documentation such as hot topics, How-To's and tips online for your perusal. However, at the time we composed this review they did not yet have a user guide available for the 2012 version.
We are confident that F-Secure Internet Security can provide you and your family with nearly 100% protection from nasty internet malware. It is missing a few security features we were looking to find, but the features that are missing are not the types that will compromise your security. They are features of convenience. F-Secure hit the mark where it matters and that is in the proven ability to provide protection that you can depend on.
