Serious Discussion F-Secure - General discussions

[Virtuoso]

F-Secure has stabilised a lot in the recent months. First few months were terrible after the new changes, used to get tons of false positives and constant CPU spikes while using torrent client. Now, there are lesser FP's, exception function actually works and zero CPU spikes while torrenting. I have another two months of subscription left, will decide on Kaspersky or McAfee at that time.

 

[Jonny Quest]

F-Secure has stabilised a lot in the recent months. First few months were terrible after the new changes, used to get tons of false positives and constant CPU spikes while using torrent client. Now, there are lesser FP's, exception function actually works and zero CPU spikes while torrenting. I have another two months of subscription left, will decide on Kaspersky or McAfee at that time.

That will give you enough time to see if the changes with v25.9 are enough for you to consider staying with F-Secure. Otherwise, those are two other good choices to consider when that time comes

New Update Post in thread 'F-secure protection introducing firewall in the latest updates?'

Sep 17, 2025

This is not a full firewall module, hence it is called a sensor. It will extract raw data, but it won’t be pulling any triggers on files or packets.


It looks like F-Secure is upping up the detection of botnets which is extremely pleasant to see. Looking at the network activity (even if it’s not a proper IPS but just inspects the domains and ports) allows F-Secure to:

-Run heuristics that flag connections to suspicious top level domains such as xyz, abused services and so on. These, according to explanations, can add confidence to the detections and can make a difference from not...

• Trident

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[bazang]

F-Secure has stabilised a lot in the recent months. First few months were terrible after the new changes, used to get tons of false positives and constant CPU spikes while using torrent client. Now, there are lesser FP's, exception function actually works and zero CPU spikes while torrenting. I have another two months of subscription left, will decide on Kaspersky or McAfee at that time.

F-Secure (not the same as WithSecure, which is its "sister" company and shares the source code and agreed-upon resources) is struggling. I think WithSecure is doing even worse. Don't be surprised if one or both are purchased by DenGigital or even Natalia Kaspersky's InfoWatch.

I will be surprised if F-Secure and WithSecure exist as standalone companies 5 years from now.

F-Secure got rid of a lot of personnel, scuttled internal development teams and technologies, and then purchased Avira modules to replace both the people and the technology. Mikko Hyppönen is long gone under the guise of "Wanting to expand my horizons" and "Drones are the future."

F-Secure and WithSecure have entered the death spiral stage. Now it is just a matter of time. And waiting. How long will it take? Maybe quickly. Perhaps slowly. But it will happen.

Despite all that, F-Secure stable (not beta or insider builds) seems to be plain old vanilla ice cream AV, with perhaps a sprinkle or two.

 

[Jonny Quest]

F-Secure (not the same as WithSecure, which is its "sister" company and shares the source code and agreed-upon resources) is struggling. I think WithSecure is doing even worse. Don't be surprised if one or both are purchased by DenGigital or even Natalia Kaspersky's InfoWatch.

I will be surprised if F-Secure and WithSecure exist as standalone companies 5 years from now.

F-Secure got rid of a lot of personnel, scuttled internal development teams and technologies, and then purchased Avira modules to replace both the people and the technology. Mikko Hyppönen is long gone under the guise of "Wanting to expand my horizons" and "Drones are the future."

F-Secure and WithSecure have entered the death spiral stage. Now it is just a matter of time. And waiting. How long will it take? Maybe quickly. Perhaps slowly. But it will happen.

Despite all that, F-Secure stable (not beta or insider builds) seems to be plain old vanilla ice cream AV, with perhaps a sprinkle or two.

View attachment 291406

Lately, the English forum gets very little attention compared to the Finnish side. Firmy (English community manager) hasn't posted since Aug 14th.
But, I do like sprinkles

 

[Sorrento]

10+ years ago it was one of the premium AV's & was never found cheap at least here.

 

[annaegorov]

Sad but true, I would go McAfee Total and get the unlimited VPN as a bonus, and that all with a very cheap price tag, as seen here on MWT.com

 

[bazang]

10+ years ago it was one of the premium AV's & was never found cheap at least here.

F-Secure is now just Avira with a blue Finnish skin, with perhaps a few vestigial F-Secure technologies or features.

The F-Secure and WithSecure share prices at 0.75 Euros per share are far more interesting, but the products themselves - well - they're decent products. Not the best, and certainly not the worst.

I don't understand what the big disappointment about F-Secure is. It's feature set was never top-tier. It was always a second or third tier product.

The fact that it was expensive in cost only meant that it was way over-priced compared to AV leaders such as Bitdefender, Kaspersky, and Norton.

F-Secure has always been a "boutique" AV, so it does not have economies of scale and therefore its expenses are much higher than the industry average and the company just passes on those higher costs to consumers. Same with Avira - which is only really popular in Deutschland - and everything there is expensive.

F-Secure today is worth about 15 Euros for a 1 year subscription for 3 devices.

 

[Jonny Quest]

It was reported on the F-Secure forum that the latest Edge update may have broken the functionality of the browser extension, as well as some other misc. extensions? Everything is fine on my end, though

 

[Jonny Quest]

It was reported on the F-Secure forum that the latest Edge update may have broken the functionality of the browser extension, as well as some other misc. extensions? Everything is fine on my end, though

The resolution for the OP's issue was a complete uninstall and reinstall of F-Secure.

Needless to say, the OP was not impressed with F-Secure's forum support, and rightly so. On the English side, you may as well contact the other off forum Support options first. On the Finnish side of the forum, it's a whole different story, as they seem to take care of their own.