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F-Secure Full review 2021 : The cyber crime expert
Last Updated by Moh'd on
February 16, 2021
Founded in 1988 in Helsinki Finland, F-Secure is an Antivirus company with many third-party lab testing to vouch for their performance. F-secure runs on the Avira engine. They have participated in many investigations against cybercrime making it one of the pioneers in the market.
Quick Stats
Security and Protection
In regards to F-Secure antivirus security, how should an Antivirus protection assessment be measured? Do we simply take the words of the AV creators for their own devices?
The best way to assess an Antivirus on its functionality is by using a third-party antivirus testing lab.
Third-party testing Labs are experts with well-constructed criteria and testing methods on testing AV-products, providing an unbiased opinion on product security.
F-secure has abundant data from different third-party testing labs.
according to av-test labs results:
It scores a full 6 in the Department of Protection, as it detects threats very well.
It scores a full 6 in the Department of Performance with a low impact on your device's resources.
It scores a full 6 in the department of Usability with a low false-positive rate.
AV comparatives star ranking goes from 1 star (standard) up to 3 stars, with 2 stars (advanced award) and 3 stars (advanced + award).
In terms of Malware removal, according to AV comparatives, whose latest reports are dated back to 2018, the results were as follows:
When tested against 40 of the latest Malware, F-secure scored 75/100 points, giving it 2/3 stars and an advanced award.
In terms of real-world protection test done in 2020 (i.e., blocking dangerous downloads and suspicious websites), despite a 100% blocking of 758 domains/files. F-secure had a false positive block of 44 domains/files, with the average false positive being 17. The total score was 2/3 stars and an advanced award.
Firewall
The F-secure "Firewall" option is simply a button to redirect you to Windows defender Firewall or Mac firewall. That is to say; it doesn't have a firewall of its own.
Ease of use
The F-secure user interface takes a minimalistic approach, with a two buttoned main page user interface making it fairly simple for users.
Plans and Features
F-secure provides five types of plans for you to decide.
This includes the Antivirus, SAFE, FREEDOME VPN, ID PROTECTION, and TOTAL plans
1. F-Secure Antivirus
This is the simplest of the bundles. It's basically a standalone antivirus with no added features.
It provides Antivirus and ransomware protection.
F-secure Antivirus is compatible only with Windows.
2. F-Secure SAFE
This is the more comprehensive variant of F-secure.
It adds to the bundle:
browsing protection, which protects users from phishing websites, and blocks suspicious downloads
Banking Protection provides the user with an extra layer of protection for online payments.
Parental control provides parents with the means to block unwanted traffic to their children using a color-coding feature to block unwanted websites.
Device Finder helps locate lost devices. It doubles as a child finder by tracking the device your child has.
This Plan is compatible with Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS.
3. F-Secure FREEDOMVPN
This Plan provides you with a VPN service that masks your IP address and encrypts your data.
The bundle also includes Browsing protection, Tracking protection and Wi-Fi Protection features.
Anti-tracking prevents individuals and companies from tracking your data online. Tracking is often used to tracks your data from websites you visit, allowing for identity theft profiling. Big companies like Google and Facebook have trackers implemented in many websites online, used for targeted advertisement.
Google tracker can be found lurking in approximately 75% of webpages online! Facebook is found in 24%. Trackers are used for targeted advertisement.
Wi-Fi Protection ensures your connection is secure to avoid hackers attempting to use your connection.
Wi-Fi hacking is often much easier than hacking devices connected to the network, depending on the type of Wi-Fi encryption protocol, with the WEP being the easiest to hack.
This Plan is compatible with Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS.
4. F-secure ID protect
This Plan includes:
Password Manager to help you produce a strong password and save them with encryption, to be used later using a master password. This helps keep stronger passwords that are various, meaning if you get hacked in one account you wont lose all the others with the same password.
Online ID monitor scans the DarkWeb for data breaches and informs you if any of your information is found there.
Most identity theft info is sold online using the dark web? Having an alarm to warn you of such breaches can help you act before that info is used to harm you.
Breach alerts on Android and iOS inform you when popular services are breached
This Plan is compatible with Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS.
5. F-Secure TOTAL
This is the mother of all plans, including all features provided by all other F-Secure plans combined.
This Plan is compatible with Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS.
Banking protection
When entering a website, Banking Protection checks with security cloud/querying and compares whether the site is listed as a trusted banking website or not.
Note: When Banking Protection is used, access to any unsafe website is automatically blocked, and all untrusted connections to your device are terminated to ensure your safety.
VPN
While VPN FREEDOME used to lack a kill switch back in 2017, later on, the kill switch feature was added, protecting users from possible leaks in the event their connection fails.
FREEDOME uses strong encryption protocols for network traffic encryption:
For Android, Windows, and macOS utilize OpenVPN with either 128-bit or 256-bit encryption.
iOS / IPSEC:
IKEv1, IKEv2 that utilize either 256-bit or 128-bit encryption
VPN FREEDOME uses Diffie-Hellman key exchange for PFS (Perfect Forward Secrecy).
Device compatibility
All F-secure products except for F-Secure Antivirus are compatible with:
- Windows (Windows 7, Windows8,1, and Windows 10),
- macOS X 10.14 or later,
- Android 6.0 or later and
- iOS 13.0 or later.
F-Secure Antivirus is compatible only with Windows.
Prices
| 1 Device | 3 Devices | 5 Devices | 7 Devices | 10 Devices | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| F-Secure Antivirus | $29.99/year | 39.99/year | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| F-Secure Safe | N/A | $59.9/year | $79.9/year | $99.9/year | N/A |
| F-Secure ID Protection | N/A | N/A | $3.99/month $29.90/year |
N/A | $4.99/month $39.90/year |
| F-Secure Total | N/A | $79.99/year | $99.99/year | $119.99/year | N/A |
| F-Secure FREEDOME VPN | N/A | $3.33/month (12 months) | N/A |
$5.83/month (12 months) |
N/A |
Stay Secure Today!
Free Trial
A free trial period of 30-days is available for users to try out products by F-secure.
Money-back guarantee.
A 30-day money-back guarantee is provided for users of F-Secure. However, the money-back guarantee is only available if you purchased the product from official eCommerce partners or directly from F-secure.
When buying F-Secure through third-parties, such as Google Play Store or Apple AppStore, the 30-day money-back guarantee is not eligible via F-Secure. The third-party should be contacted instead to check if they have their refund policies.
Customer support
Customer support is provided for all F-protect users all plans in the form of:
• How to & FAQS
• Help Forums
• Chat Forum
• Call Support
Last words
While F-Secure provides a robust antivirus service with high security, along with many useful features depending on the Plan purchased. That said, the lack of a firewall is an issue that might be a deal-breaker for some. However, if you prefer using a third-party firewall or if you are content with using a Windows defender/mac firewall, then this might be useful for you.