Hot Take It's important for Emsisoft a safebanking Browser;

[bazang]

I definitely would love to have that in my hands… Sophos had something similar, also Bitdefender Central is a very light implementation of that…

To me, for personal use, a centralized online management portal is useful once in a while but most of the time I use it just to download the software installer or to deactivate device seats.

Unless there is some other compelling reason, I'm not going to do be the SOC/NOC monkey staring at the various portal pages all day (what a dreadful job, but some are into it). I would if there were a personal system suspected breach, but otherwise I'd just do the occasional "look-see."

 

[Trident]

To me, for personal use, a centralized online management portal is useful once in a while but most of the time I use it just to download the software installer or to deactivate device seats.

Unless there is some other compelling reason, I'm not going to do be the SOC/NOC monkey staring at the various portal pages all day (what a dreadful job, but some are into it). I would if there were a personal system suspected breach, but otherwise I'd just do the occasional "look-see."

I don’t even know if the home version displays events and all that in a SOC-kinda style.

But if the console offers general settings and notifications (such as when malware/website is blocked), it cold be useful in a family setting.

I got no interest in monitoring 300 events that have occurred when the mouse was moved 123 px horizontally and 34 px vertically either (I am not subjecting myself to such punishment).

 

[IceMan7]

And I agree, F-Secure's is implemented well.

I do like F-Secure's implementation, however.

Yes, I agree. I've already praised it in another thread. The Fsecure solution is great. It's a shame others don't copy it.

 

[BigWrench]

I might be a little off base here, but I have ESET’s “banking mode” or whatever it is, on all the time. A green border. However, I don’t really do much banking on my PC. It’s just on all the time. Don’t even notice it, in look or feel.

 

[Digmor Crusher]

I might be a little off base here, but I have ESET’s “banking mode” or whatever it is, on all the time. A green border. However, I don’t really do much banking on my PC. It’s just on all the time. Don’t even notice it, in look or feel.

I could be wrong but I think that is browser protection and not banking mode, Eset has a separate banking mode that you have to activate. Someone correct me if I'm wrong please.

 

[LittleDude]

I could be wrong but I think that is browser protection and not banking mode, Eset has a separate banking mode that you have to activate. Someone correct me if I'm wrong please.

I believe Digmor Crusher is correct. The Banking Mode starts the browser without extensions etc.

 

[rashmi]

I might be a little off base here, but I have ESET’s “banking mode” or whatever it is, on all the time. A green border. However, I don’t really do much banking on my PC. It’s just on all the time. Don’t even notice it, in look or feel.

It seems you are using a browser that ESET Banking Mode supports. ESET automatically enables the banking mode for these browsers. I noticed this when I tried it. I believe Banking Mode and Protected Browser are the same thing.

 

[simmerskool]

I could be wrong but I think that is browser protection and not banking mode, Eset has a separate banking mode that you have to activate. Someone correct me if I'm wrong please.

user opens the Eset Safe-Banking browser on the desktop. I think your understanding is correct, browser protection is always there (if you leave it on), Safe-Banking "hardens" Edge (or perhaps your default browser).

 

[simmerskool]

I believe Digmor Crusher is correct. The Banking Mode starts the browser without extensions etc.

yes, I think so too, and Safe-Banking hardens in other ways too, including DNS and other means.

 

[simmerskool]

It seems you are using a browser that ESET Banking Mode supports. ESET automatically enables the banking mode for these browsers. I noticed this when I tried it. I believe Banking Mode and Protected Browser are the same thing.

I think you are wrong, no offense Safe-banking hardens browser in various ways -- you have to specifically open it. According to chatGPT 5 it is more secure than eg Trendmicro Pay Guard. I have both on different VMs.

 

[Divergent]

I might be a little off base here, but I have ESET’s “banking mode” or whatever it is, on all the time. A green border. However, I don’t really do much banking on my PC. It’s just on all the time. Don’t even notice it, in look or feel.

For a period, ESET's "Banking and Payment protection" (as it was called) would create a separate desktop shortcut. When you launched that shortcut, it would open your default browser in the secure, green-bordered mode, and that mode was intended to be used specifically for banking and financial transactions. This was a clear and intentional way for users to know they were in a protected environment.

However, ESET has since changed the default behavior of this feature. Now, with the "Secure all browsers" option enabled by default in many of their products, the secure browsing mode with the green border automatically launches for all supported web browsers. This means that the green border is present whenever you're using a web browser, not just when you're on a banking website.

This change was made to provide a more comprehensive and continuous layer of protection, but as you've noticed, it can also lead to the green border being on all the time, even when you're not doing anything financial.

ESET simply evolved the feature to be more proactive and to secure a wider range of online activities by default. You can still get back to the old behavior by disabling the "Secure all browsers" setting in your ESET product's advanced setup.

 

[bazang]

Virtually all "banking mode" or "banking protections" provide protection against banking trojans on an already infected system (client side). Some provide server side protections against various attacks on the bank website. Sometimes the security solution can parse for and detect suspicious or known malicious code injected or added to a compromised bank website from within the client side browser - but these protection capabilities are iffy and infos on which solutions incorporate them are hard to come by. All of these are little know, not well understood facts. In the case of the machine already being infected, then its a roll of the dice as to whether or not the user's identification & authentication credentials will be protected. "Safe browsing" sessions rely upon the user adhering to a specific sequence of steps. One mis-step by the user and the protection is gone. If the bank-online vendor website/backend is compromised, there's not much that can be done - although such attacks being successful at that level are rare. The one I recall is the Indian national bank where the backend was compromised.

I think "banking protections" are mis-marketed and, to some extent, over-rated in their importance. Users think they need the capabilities and that they provide robust online security mainly because few people truly understand what "banking protections" are - and more importantly what they are not. In the end, "banking protections" have some value, but provide limited, specific added protections. Some of those protections are apt to be unraveled by the user.

 

[Trident]

I think "banking protections" are mis-marketed and, to some extent, over-rated in their importance. Users think they need the capabilities and that they provide robust online security mainly because few people truly understand what "banking protections" are - and more importantly what they are not. In the end, "banking protections" have some value, but provide limited added protections.

Banking protections typically don’t assist in the detection and removal of banking trojans and all that, this is assumed to be the anti-malware job. Banking protections (and anti-keylogger which some software offer) are usually designed as a last line of defence.

What banking protection could do:

• It may be able to block keyloggers from obtaining credentials. Modern banks rarely rely just on credentials anyway, unless additional phishing attacks are used, attackers won’t be able to log-in.
• It may be able to block browser hooking and other memory manipulations aimed at extracting credentials or redirecting to malicious sites. This would rarely be useful because malware would usually very quickly exfiltrate credentials after initial launch (though it still maintains persistence to obtain new credentials usually).

What banking protection won’t do:

• It can’t block/remove malware, it’s only a very light mitigation which as stated is iffy, even if executed in kernel mode.
• It can’t protect from compromised sites, including but not limited to phishing sites and sites with magecart malware

It is not a necessity. That’s why not many vendors are offering it currently.

 

[simmerskool]

For a period, ESET's "Banking and Payment protection" (as it was called) would create a separate desktop shortcut. When you launched that shortcut, it would open your default browser in the secure, green-bordered mode, and that mode was intended to be used specifically for banking and financial transactions. This was a clear and intentional way for users to know they were in a protected environment.

However, ESET has since changed the default behavior of this feature. Now, with the "Secure all browsers" option enabled by default in many of their products, the secure browsing mode with the green border automatically launches for all supported web browsers. This means that the green border is present whenever you're using a web browser, not just when you're on a banking website.

This change was made to provide a more comprehensive and continuous layer of protection, but as you've noticed, it can also lead to the green border being on all the time, even when you're not doing anything financial.

ESET simply evolved the feature to be more proactive and to secure a wider range of online activities by default. You can still get back to the old behavior by disabling the "Secure all browsers" setting in your ESET product's advanced setup.

yes... but "Safe-Banking" (still) exists as a feature that puts a Safe-Banking icon on your desktop, and when you open it the opening page is not a not a normal page, it clearly displays that you are using Safe-Banking, and you then open another tab in that browser to see your bookmarks. This is how it works with Eset Ultimate (on my computer).

 

[Divergent]

yes... but "Safe-Banking" (still) exists as a feature that puts a Safe-Banking icon on your desktop, and when you open it the opening page is not a not a normal page, it clearly displays that you are using Safe-Banking, and you then open another tab in that browser to see your bookmarks. This is how it works with Eset Ultimate (on my computer).

Thanks for the clarification. That's a great point, and it sounds like the 'Safe-Banking' feature you're describing is the specific, dedicated entry point that I remember. It's good to know that feature still exists and works that way in ESET Ultimate.

My main observation was about the change in the default settings for many of their products. A couple years ago, you had to opt-in to the wider 'Secure all browsers' protection. Now, it's often enabled by default, which is why a user might notice the green border on every browser tab, not just when they click the 'Safe-Banking' icon.

It sounds like ESET has both bases covered: they've made the wider protection a default for all browsing, but they've also kept the dedicated 'Safe-Banking' shortcut for users who want that clear, intentional, 'start from scratch' secure browsing experience.

Thanks for sharing how it works on your computer. It’s helpful to understand the different ways ESET is implementing these security features."

 

[TairikuOkami]

Safe browsing in short: sandboxing an insecure browser. Just use a normal sandboxing with an updated browser. A portable browser in ramdisk will do wonders.

 

[bazang]

Modern banks rarely rely just on credentials anyway, unless additional phishing attacks are used, attackers won’t be able to log-in.

The primary reason that "banking protections," and particularly, "safe banking/safe pay/etc" are marketing gimmicks, for the most part. I suppose they protect those few users that use those few banks that still rely upon only logon credentials for (IA) for online banking.

There are well-crafted and executed replay attacks, but most banks have implemented server side protections against those. They're not assuming that the client has a properly protected client side system.

Hence, "banking mode" is debatably needed or not needed. On the spectrum of users and security, it is more "feel good" security than providing a truly meaningful layer of value-added protections.

Safe browsing in short: sandboxing an insecure browser. Just use a normal sandboxing with an updated browser. A portable browser in ramdisk will do wonders.

It is more than just virtually sandboxing an insecure browser. Browser and/or OS capabilities are disabled in "safe browser" implementations. For example, clipboard capture, copy-pasta between system and browser, various network connections blocked, etc.

 

[tasos83]

Is it worth buying or using Εmsisoft these days;

What are your overall impressions? Is it worth the investment? What would you consider to be its strengths and weaknesses? I currently use it on my computer but I feel that something might be missing. Does it provide sufficient protection?

 

[Shadowra]

App Review - Emsisoft Anti-Malware Home 2025

 

[Khushal]

What are your overall impressions? Is it worth the investment? What would you consider to be its strengths and weaknesses? I currently use it on my computer but I feel that something might be missing. Does it provide sufficient protection?