AVLab.pl Advanced In-The-Wild Malware Test - September 2025

[Divine_Barakah]

Gemini will answer how you prompt. If you only feed it one side of the story, that's the answer you will obtain.

It seems you also like going in circles. I opt out. I'm busy "doing research" sorry.

 

[ForgottenSeer 123960]

Well, first I don't know Bazang and I have nothing against him and I'm not taking anything personally here. So please don't make it personal. No need to feel threatened here. Why would in the first place?

This is an online forum and discussion can always hear up or go out of place and that's expected.

No one is threatened. Although you are incorrect about one aspect, belittling with gang mentality is very personal. It's why I step in when I see it because I get tired of watching it here. Id absolutely help anyone that truly needed it, and bazang would as well.

 

[ForgottenSeer 123960]

It seems you also like going in circles. I opt out. I'm busy "doing research" sorry.

That's not circles it's fact.

 

[Jonny Quest]

Why bash it? Who suggested that F-SECURE should be bashed?

I use F-SECURE by the way on all my devices. It is good enough or me. I then combine it with Windows Security (enterprise) default deny and leave it at that. No worries. No worries even if I use default Windows Home.

Security is not software. It is a process.



I don't care. One is not vastly superior to the other. But of course it is common sense that blocking execution in the first place is always the best method. For that, the only proven secure way is default deny where the user can not execute anything and they cannot disable the protection because they are a "User that wants to use stuff."

I don't care what anyone says. But.. but... I can't install software I need! I don't want to hear it. The vast majority of installs are entirely unneeded. It's all really people playing with software and they place the rest of us at high risk.

My apologies then. In reading some of your posts on the F-Secure sub forum, I may have misinterpreted your posts regarding F-Secure as a company in some of those threads (Beta and Major Agreement).

 

[Antimalware18]

I would like to put my 2 cents in here as a 36yr old man. I completely understand some of the sentiment around certain users that people are the issue.
They are click happy, they are unkowledgable, and I get it. Most users are those things and more. That being said. selfishly, as a consumer of goods and services.

.....if i pay that much for a operating system, or......mostly anything for that matter. There is a expectation for it to work, work well, and continue to do so with as little personal maintenance required. Me being a power user, i recognize that this is not the case with PC's. But I am like this in other things i pay for.

 

[LinuxFan58]

This is what happens when you expect others to do everything for you. Making fun of the ones with the answers and pretending to be intelligent while asking for help figuring out something a few seem to lazy or inapt to do is priceless.

Divergent to rescue bazang again. The pattern repeats. Bazang was asked to provide links supporting his claim. You call that lazy and in the same post start to offend them by calling them "pretending to be intelligent" is also a repeating pattern.

Ad hominem and other distracting attacks add nothing usefull to the discussion.

 

[annaegorov]

BOT screaming in the background "ANYWAY", back on point please..... Lets review the software results.

After reading 3 pages, I thought for a second it was "girls night out"

 

[ForgottenSeer 123960]

BOT screaming in the background "ANYWAY", back on point please..... Lets review the software results.

After reading 3 pages, I thought for a second it was "girls night out"

Now see that's a proper indirect attack on others, demeaning in every sense. Just enough to say something without truly stating hey I was a part of that too.

 

[Zero Knowledge]

Can Windows be locked down? Yes but there is a huge trade off in usability, and after you do lock it down you think 'why don't I just install Linux with all it's security controls' and be done with this Swiss cheese ecosystem. Many times I've locked down Windows only to see a new patch Tuesday with 60 brand new CVE's and go why the fricken hell did I waste so much time?

I'll add this to the discussion:

The problem with forum threads like these is that they become dick waving posts. 'I'm smarter than you blah blah blah!!!'. No, we are all here to learn so no problems!

The reality is there is always someone smarter than you, always someone more bigger and bad as you. Just relax and read, we are all here to learn something new!

 

[ForgottenSeer 114717]

My apologies then. In reading some of your posts on the F-Secure sub forum, I may have misinterpreted your posts regarding F-Secure as a company in some of those threads (Beta and Major Agreement).

F-SECURE and WithSecure are both not transparent, plus doing other stuff that is shady.

I know multiple government agencies that once used both on various systems, and since those systems are regulated requiring any changes to software - such as F-SECURE and WithSecure moving to Avira - to be reviewed as part of a risk assessment - those agencies were required to stop using both products because both F-SECURE and WithSecure refused to provide any information about the changes.

F-SECURE now is nothing but Avira with a much better, simpler, more unified, easier to use GUI.

It has retained some of its features that are not present in Avira, but it got rid of multiple features such as DeepGuard as those were not compatible with the adoption of Avira SDK.

For good or ill, that's the basics. Is it the end of the world - no it is not. Can F-SECURE be trusted? Only so far. It has always been a company that is non-transparent with users and any major clients.

Does it provide adequate security? For Granny Grey that only visits a single knitting website, sure. For high risk environments it needs to be supplemented with strong default deny. It is powerless against a lot of types of malware - particularly scripts and mobile code - and that is by design on F-SECURE's part.

 

[ForgottenSeer 114717]

I wish you've taken the time to reply to the setup I suggested. How can I lose all of my work if I'm taking regular backups?

Are you taking regular backups that are properly isolated? Meaning that malware and other forms of infections or breaches cannot get to them.

Also what are the facts that you stated? I did not say that default-deny does not work. My point was about usability. You yourself that such setup might break stuff. You mentioned sth about MS software not working due to your setup right?

I deal with "breakages" and stuff getting blocked all the time because I or my reports handle literally thousands of systems.

It just takes a little bit of non-rocket science work to fix that stuff. In some cases just a few seconds.

 

[ForgottenSeer 114717]

I am a university professor

Then it should be easy.

Saying "Do your research" is not offensive or hostile. You expect your undergraduate and/or graduate students to do their research - or - no? You certainly expect them to study, or AIW? People learn by doing.

With the topic that we're discussing, we could have a 250+ page thread and would probably only cover the basics.

Cybersecurity and Privacy Reference Tool | CSRC

csrc.nist.gov

SP 800-171 Rev. 3, Protecting Controlled Unclassified Information in Nonfederal Systems and Organizations | CSRC

csrc.nist.gov

 

[Divine_Barakah]

Are you taking regular backups that are properly isolated? Meaning that malware and other forms of infections or breaches cannot get to them.


I deal with "breakages" and stuff getting blocked all the time because I or my reports handle literally thousands of systems.

It just takes a little bit of non-rocket science work to fix that stuff. In some cases just a few seconds.

The backups are stored on an external hard drive that I only connect when I need to backup. The most important files are synced to Koofr and then to Google Drive (I linked GD to Koofr and I just copy the files from there).

 

[ForgottenSeer 114717]

It seems that some people have also default-deny in their brain and that setup is blocking the legitimate brain.exe

That's not it. Default deny is the only thing that will save the day when a person makes a mistake and all else has not saved them.

I know of lots of highly skilled IT Pros with decades of experience, and they mess up - make mistakes - and for those that have solid default deny they are saved from their mistakes. For those that do not, they pay someone like me $375+ per hour to as over $2,500 per MITRE TTP to sort out their mistakes and fix what they did that resulted in damage.

"Brain.exe" is reliable up to a point - and that means it works until it doesn't. At some point everyone makes a mistake. Most mistakes are not a real problem. It only takes one mistake to result in massive damage.

So it all comes down to what you are willing to do. Nothing more. Nothing else.

There are no shortcuts to expert. I did my research and continue to research almost every single day.

There are no shortcuts to secure. There are easier, softer ways. But those ways come with high risk even when the users has knowledge and good security behaviors.

 

[ForgottenSeer 114717]

The backups are stored on an external hard drive that I only connect when I need to backup. The most important files are synced to Koofr and then to Google Drive (I linked GD to Koofr and I just copy the files from there).

Offline backups are well protected.

Google Drive and Koofr will not protect all malicious activities. Google just implemented ransomware protections in September of 2025 and it relies mostly upon Google's goofy AI that is unreliable. Even if Google had that sorted out, new ransomware is constantly developed that can bypass cloud protections. Same applies to Koofr.

So in certain attacks you can expect the loss of a data delta between your last isolated offline backup and any changes that you made since that last isolated offline backup.

 

[Jonny Quest]

@bazang nice bottom line assessment.

F-SECURE now is nothing but Avira with a much better, simpler, more unified, easier to use GUI.

It has retained some of its features that are not present in Avira, but it got rid of multiple features such as DeepGuard as those were not compatible with the adoption of Avira SDK.

For good or ill, that's the basics. Is it the end of the world - no it is not. Can F-SECURE be trusted? Only so far. It has always been a company that is non-transparent with users and any major clients.

I agree, they have not been very transparent with users. Trying to get them to admit or disclose anything on the forum is like pulling teeth. Compared to the Bitdefender forum where Alexandru and camarie will be realistically up front with their replies to questions...most of the time.

And why is this by design? TIA

Does it provide adequate security? For Granny Grey that only visits a single knitting website, sure. For high risk environments it needs to be supplemented with strong default deny. It is powerless against a lot of types of malware - particularly scripts and mobile code - and that is by design on F-SECURE's part.

 

[Divine_Barakah]

Offline backups are well protected.

Google Drive and Koofr will not protect all malicious activities. Google just implemented ransomware protections in September of 2025 and it relies mostly upon Google's goofy AI that is unreliable. Even if Google had that sorted out, new ransomware is constantly developed that can bypass cloud protections. Same applies to Koofr.

So in certain attacks you can expect the loss of a data delta between your last isolated offline backup and any changes that you made since that last isolated offline backup.

I did not say that my setup is bulletproof. I can call it secure. I'm careful, very careful. If my PC gets infected let's say with Ransomeware and both local files and cloud files get encrypted (because of Koofr sync) I'd still have the offline backup as well as the backup on Google Drive which are done manually with no sync.

 

[LinuxFan58]

.... they pay someone like me $375+ per hour ...

Thanks for sharing your highly intelligent and elusive thoughts in this thread worth at least 3750 dollars considering the number of posts you committed in educating us.

 

[ForgottenSeer 123960]

Ad hominem and other distracting attacks add nothing usefull to the discussion.

You are quite the hypocrite as I remember, Max90. I was not attacking anyone I was explaining. Maybe you could shed some light on your last remark in this post though, and explain what it is if not attacking another, just as you have come in at me directly like you are but a saint. Aka lenny_fox I recognized you the first time I seen you post. I do not forget idiots that pollute the atmosphere and quite frankly are a waste of oxygen.

See what I did there, that is a direct attack although I could claim it's truth too. Learn the difference.

Post in thread 'Advanced In-The-Wild Malware Test - September 2025' AVLab.pl - Advanced In-The-Wild Malware Test - September 2025

 

[LinuxFan58]

I do not forget idiots that pollute the atmosphere and quite frankly are a waste of oxygen.

Ad hominem and other distracting attacks add nothing usefull to the discussion.

I put you and your alter ego on the ignore list.