F-Secure Internet Security 2012 review

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F-Secure’s Internet Security suite brilliantly implements the popular BitDefender malware detection engine to create a reassuringly easy-to-use software package. F-Secure effortlessly achieved a 100 per cent defence rate against malicious programs from the internet.

Every single test threat was blocked as soon as its web address started to load, usually with an F-Secure generated in-browser warning telling us that a harmful website had been blocked. In a couple of instances, we had to reboot our PC to completely stop the virus, but the test system running F-Secure never even came close to being compromised. We were also able to run all of the benign programs in our false positive test without any complaint or interference.

F-Secure’s interface isn’t quite as polished as its performance. To its credit, the program works so well that you’re unlikely to want to spend much time fiddling with its settings, but we found a couple of traits particularly annoying.

The worst of these is that simply clicking on the notification area icon doesn’t open the main interface. Instead, it pops up a launcher which allows you to go to the main interface, Online Safety options that allow you control how and when each user on your PC can access the internet, or the F-Secure website. We’d have preferred to instead have all of these options available from a single interface.

Once you’ve got to the main interface, it’s all very simple to use. Clearly labelled icons makes it easy to run full or quick system scans, check for upgrades or exercise more finely grained control over the software’s components. These include a firewall, e-mail scanning and spam filtering, parental controls including time-limited internet access for your PC’s different users and a web-based warning system to identify potentially risky websites in your search results.

A single-user licence costs £24, while a 3 PC licence will set you back £30. F-Secure is one of the most accurate anti-malware suites we’ve seen this year, stopping all threats before they even made it to our browser. We’d be happy to have it protecting our PC, but BitDefender Internet Security 2012 is a little bit cheaper and has a glossier interface.

For straightforward advice on getting the best anti-malware deal, and keeping your software up-to-date year-on-year, then read Avoiding the anti-malware trap now.