AVLab.pl Analysis of modules for protection of online banking and payments – 2026 edition

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Yep, I just do banking and checking email with Chrome (being logged into my Google account), which is the fully sanctioned browser of F-Secure, and use Brave for everything else :)
A lot of people disagree with my approach because I don't push specific tools. But my advice always stems from one core principle, your habits and knowledge are what matter. When you understand the fundamentals, you can confidently use any software and achieve the exact same results.
 
Are those signed/unsigned apps?

Avast hardened mode only blocks exe files, in case you didn't know.
Wouldn't it be better to install F-Secure in a VM and do your banking in that VM while keeping Avast on your system as the main AV?
When opening things like Brave, Chrome, IrfanView, the Proton Pass desktop app etc. It only happened occasionally (F-Secure slow downs), so it can be hard to tell without doing a laptop restart to see if it reset things. I'm more of a direct OS user, than a VMware type.

If I really wanted to, I could just go downstairs (split level house) and use F-Secure installed on that desktop PC to do online banking, as I will run F-Secure there without uninstalling or installing any other AV for testing. It's just a lazy convivence thing on my part to have it right in front of me, upstairs on my kitchen table 😅

But, it is food for thought, compared to running two apps on my notebooks, let alone when the Scam Protection trial ends, of shelling out more money for what I already have on that desktop PC, being the full I.S. version :) The Total used in AVLabs the test, only added features (VPN, Identity Monitoring and the Password Vault), and not any additional "security".
 
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A lot of people disagree with my approach because I don't push specific tools. But my advice always stems from one core principle, your habits and knowledge are what matter. When you understand the fundamentals, you can confidently use any software and achieve the exact same results.
Which I totally agree with :) 👍👍
 
A lot of people disagree with my approach because I don't push specific tools. But my advice always stems from one core principle, your habits and knowledge are what matter. When you understand the fundamentals, you can confidently use any software and achieve the exact same results.
Just another thought, which is why I had every intent on continuing to use F-Secure no matter what "tepid" reviews it had at times gotten, especially with v25, apart from the occasional slow down issue I have on the laptop (maybe just the one). It, AV should be the backup line of defense, and not be my total security blanket, my woobie, as in Mr. Mom 😅

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It has all of the real time shields and settings of Internet Security and Total. I just thought for curiosity sake, I'd run the 7 day trial version to see how it got along with Avast free. So far, so good. I'm not using the Avast browser extension, its Web Guard takes care of that.

View attachment 295630
F-secure Banking Protection and Comodo Secure Shopping achieved the best results for Internet banking protection. I still have a license for 5 F-secure devices that expires on May 5, 2026. I still use F-secure on two cell phones. (y)
1771183676273.png
 
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It's on my phone, too :)
I like F-secure, and it was because of you guys here at MT that I started using it for a while. I loved it. I didn't stop using F-secure because it was bad, but because I wanted to try other AV products. But when I used it, it blocked all kinds of malware and phishing sites. At least for me, it never failed. Although I already knew about F-secure from the web, I had never used the product before. Thanks to you and everyone here at MT, I started using F-secure, and my experience was positive, much more so than with BD, which I used for almost four years.
 
I like F-secure, and it was because of you guys here at MT that I started using it for a while. I loved it. I didn't stop using F-secure because it was bad, but because I wanted to try other AV products. But when I used it, it blocked all kinds of malware and phishing sites. At least for me, it never failed. Although I already knew about F-secure from the web, I had never used the product before. Thanks to you and everyone here at MT, I started using F-secure, and my experience was positive, much more so than with BD, which I used for almost four years.
The browsing protection is one of the main components I really like about F-Secure. Hopefully, they keep developing it to keep current to the latest online threats.
There was another time where it blocked a fake baking site that was posted on the forum. Some AV's missed it, and one member's DNS caught it.

 
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If this response makes sense from Gemini Pro, then it may be a good combination, Avast Free + F-Secure Scam Protection? I could just use F-Secure Internet Security as I do really like it, but it was randomly slowing my notebook down when opening apps, and Avast has been very smooth and responsive. I also think Avast is a stronger AV all in all.
Honestly, to protect yourself, it is best to expend your efforts to secure your identity and valuable personal data and financial transactions through private industry and governments. And I DO NOT mean buying software or identity theft services.

Since you reside in the EU and the EU does not have U.S. style credit file freezes, you are screwed. You can thank GDPR for that SNAFU. That said, for most Eurozone nations the identification requirements needed to mess with an individual's or business' credit and identify file, is typically much higher - if the bank or other financial institution does what it is supposed to do for the protection of the individual or business. Some argue that higher bar or standard negates the need for credit or identity file freezes, but that's just pure poppycock. The monied interests (e.g. banks, lenders, etc) in the Eurozone don't want any form of credit file freeze system. In fact, they lobbied the EU and individual nations hard to stop any such system - and in some nations it was the lobbyists that actually wrote the regulations for the politician that submitted it to Parliament for a vote. Essentially how the U.S. bing bong system works.

Paying for identity protection is a waste of money. One is better off paying for AV and then spending time and effort to learn what it can and cannot protect them against, why, what they can and cannot do about it, and what they need to do to protect themselves - dependent upon where on the globe one resides.

Since virtually every EU citizen's PII is already on the Dark Web, I would file fraud alerts and identity theft flags where possible with EU CRAs. Try. Even if they CRA says "Nope." Then keep trying. Come up with what they ask for to make the fraud alert stick - and you don't need to do anything illegal. It's already out there. You just have to find it and give it to them.

Use eIDAS & the New European Digital Identity Wallet where possible until it is proven to be a bunk, broken, ineffective system. The U.S. equivalent is something like ID.me.

The best protections supported by private industry and enforced by government are these nations:

Estonia
Sweden
Norway
Denmark
Finland
Iceland
Belgium
Austria

Switzerland will sell you out to the CCP for a price.

NOTE: I did have to use AI to lookup the best protections and all the details per nation. Everything else I've written I've known for a very long time. To be a protected citizen, you have to be a highly informed citizen, which - in the days of old - meant spending much time at a law school library on a routine basis.

Use AI to become a highly informed citizen - knowing the laws, regulations, and system under which you live. And always know what drugs you are carrying to another nation are illegal, even if prescribed by a fully licensed physician and completely legal in your home nation.

@Divergent
 
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Honestly, to protect yourself, it is best to expend your efforts to secure your identity and valuable personal data and financial transactions through private industry and governments. And I DO NOT mean buying software or identity theft services.

Since you reside in the EU and the EU does not have U.S. style credit file freezes, you are screwed. You can thank GDPR for that SNAFU. That said, for most Eurozone nations the identification requirements needed to mess with an individual's or business' credit and identify file, is typically much higher - if the bank or other financial institution does what it is supposed to do for the protection of the individual or business. Some argue that higher bar or standard negates the need for credit or identity file freezes, but that's just pure poppycock. The monied interests (e.g. banks, lenders, etc) in the Eurozone don't want any form of credit file freeze system. In fact, they lobbied the EU and individual nations hard to stop any such system - and in some nations it was the lobbyists that actually wrote the regulations for the politician that submitted it to Parliament for a vote. Essentially how the U.S. bing bong system works.

Paying for identity protection is a waste of money. One is better off paying for AV and then spending time and effort to learn what it can and cannot protect them against, why, what they can and cannot do about it, and what they need to do to protect themselves - dependent upon where on the globe one resides.

Since virtually every EU citizen's PII is already on the Dark Web, I would file fraud alerts and identity theft flags where possible with EU CRAs. Try. Even if they CRA says "Nope." Then keep trying. Come up with what they ask for to make the fraud alert stick - and you don't need to do anything illegal. It's already out there. You just have to find it and give it to them.

Use eIDAS & the New European Digital Identity Wallet where possible until it is proven to be a bunk, broken, ineffective system. The U.S. equivalent is something like ID.me.

The best protections supported by private industry and enforced by government are these nations:

Estonia
Sweden
Norway
Denmark
Finland
Iceland
Belgium
Austria

Switzerland will sell you out to the CCP for a price.

NOTE: I did have to use AI to lookup the best protections and all the details per nation. Everything else I've written I've known for a very long time. To be a protected citizen, you have to be a highly informed citizen, which - in the days of old - meant spending much time at a law school library on a routine basis.

Use AI to become a highly informed citizen - knowing the laws, regulations, and system under which you live. And always know what drugs you are carrying to another nation are illegal, even if prescribed by a fully licensed physician in your home nation.

@Divergent
I'm in the US, but thanks for the post, I appreciate it :)

The greater issue for my online life has been companies servers being hacked. Companies that I needed to use, for my business supplies, my phone carrier, my financial investment company, and my mortgage company that let me know they were hacked about 2 months after they had sold my mortgage to another company. Most of the time, if not all, it seems we find out after the fact, making ID protection in that regard a moot point.

I do have my credit monitoring accounts frozen. There were times in the past where F-Secure did show me the parts of my passwords that were exposed with the ID monitoring , which is when I upped my game and changed all the passwords I could using a password generator. Proton Pass has their Pass Monitor features, like Dark web monitoring (paid version), weak passwords, reused passwords, which is helpful.
 
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The browsing protection is one of the main components I really like about F-Secure. Hopefully, they keep developing it to keep current to the latest online threats.
There was another time where it blocked a fake baking site that was posted on the forum. Some AV's missed it, and one member's DNS caught it.

It makes me want to install F-secure on a virtual machine or convert it to VHDX and leave only a browser and F-secure for banking protection, although I currently use internet banking more on my cell phone.
 
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I'm in the US, but thanks for the post, I appreciate it :)

The greater issue for my online life has been companies servers being hacked. Companies that I needed to use, for my business supplies, my phone carrier, my financial investment company, and my mortgage company that let me know they were hacked about 2 months after they had sold my mortgage to another company. Most of the time, if not all, it seems we find out after the fact, making ID protection in that regard a moot point.

I do have my credit monitoring accounts frozen. There were times in the past where F-Secure did show me the parts of my passwords that were exposed with the ID monitoring , which is when I upped my game and changed all the passwords I could using a password generator. Proton Pass has their Pass Monitor features, like Dark web monitoring (paid version), weak passwords, reused passwords, which is helpful.
Don't use the paid services from Experian, Trans Union, or Equifax. You will actually sign away some of your government protections hidden deep in the fine print.

Just always use a credit freeze 100% of the time across all of them. Unfreeze for less than 24 or 48 hours. Then re-freeze.

99+% of people/users lose their money through third party system hacks (as in Payment Card Industry backends) and similar. You can use AI such as CoPilot to quickly do a case study of what happens most often and what can and cannot be done. Either that or pay a consultant at hundreds of USD per hour, and need to consult with more than 2 or 3 consultants to get what AI will give you for free.

@Divergent
 
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