Battle Trend Micro Maximum Security Or F-Secure SAFE ?

Compare list
Trend Micro Maximum Security
F-Secure SAFE

Zartarra

Level 7
Verified
Well-known
May 9, 2019
312
I tested both products the last month and they are running smoothly. The latest version of Trend Micro feels lighter then previous versions. F-secure is in some cases weaker in detecting malwarelinks compared to Trend Micro.

With F-secure I had an issue with Deepguard. It keeps blocking MS Office. With Trend Micro I had an issue with installing the Firefox extension.

F-secure has few options. A good thing for some people: it is set and forget. Trend Micro has a little more options.

If you compare prices, Trend Micro is cheaper.

Both are very close in total detection rate:
F-secure: 84.44%
Trend Micro: 85.20 %

The percentages contain the results from 2020 by the well known anti-virustestlabs and my own test (2000 malware-phishing links, 29 ransomwares, 217 old virus samples and around 30 recent samples. Not a lot of samples compared to the real world but it is a start :))

I hope this will help you.
 
F

ForgottenSeer 89360

I tested both products the last month and they are running smoothly. The latest version of Trend Micro feels lighter then previous versions. F-secure is in some cases weaker in detecting malwarelinks compared to Trend Micro.

With F-secure I had an issue with Deepguard. It keeps blocking MS Office. With Trend Micro I had an issue with installing the Firefox extension.

F-secure has few options. A good thing for some people: it is set and forget. Trend Micro has a little more options.

If you compare prices, Trend Micro is cheaper.

Both are very close in total detection rate:
F-secure: 84.44%
Trend Micro: 85.20 %

The percentages contain the results from 2020 by the well known anti-virustestlabs and my own test (2000 malware-phishing links, 29 ransomwares, 217 old virus samples and around 30 recent samples. Not a lot of samples compared to the real world but it is a start :))

I hope this will help you.
They both provide enough security for the average user, given that you use all tools provided.

They are both set and forget or shall I maybe say THE set and forget, as these are probably the 2 easiest-to-use AVs, that will hardly ever bother you with something.

They are both not extremely rich on configuration options, but as noted, Trend Micro does have a few more. Trend Micro also blocks malicious links access in all apps but I didn’t see an evidence of F-Secure doing the same.

It is important to note that Trend Micro is extremely cloud-reliant. Local definitions are only 40 megs (if we don’t count damage cleanup pattern and other intelligence) and it should not be used without internet connection, unless if you will be working with content downloaded and scanned before, when connection was still active.
F-Secure has better offline detection if that ever matters to someone.

Trend Micro uses less memory than F-Secure and less CPU cycles during a scan if that matters.

Trend Micro has one of the best ransomware recovery I’ve ever seen. I’ve tested it with quite a lot of ransomware, including the corporations nightmare Ragnar_Locker. Fortunately for me, it was undetected by standard AV, but was then blocked by behaviour and TM managed to recover all encrypted files, and delete all notes. I am not aware if F-Secure has file journalling available (don’t remember). Other members can chime in here and let us know whether this feature is available.

F-Secure offers VPN that you won’t get from Trend Micro, unless you live in the US and purchase Premium Security.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Faybert

Level 24
Verified
Top Poster
Well-known
Jan 8, 2017
1,318
They both provide enough security for the average user, given that you use all tools provided.

They are both set and forget or shall I maybe say THE set and forget, as these are probably the 2 easiest-to-use AVs, that will hardly ever bother you with something.

They are both not extremely rich on configuration options, but as noted, Trend Micro does have a few more. Trend Micro also blocks malicious links access in all apps but I didn’t see an evidence of F-Secure doing the same.

It is important to note that Trend Micro is extremely cloud-reliant. Local definitions are only 40 megs (if we don’t count damage cleanup pattern and other intelligence) and it should not be used without internet connection, unless if you will be working with content downloaded and scanned before, when connection was still active.
F-Secure has better offline detection if that ever matters to someone.

Trend Micro uses less memory than F-Secure and less CPU cycles during a scan if that matters.

Trend Micro has one of the best ransomware recovery I’ve ever seen. I’ve tested it with quite a lot of ransomware, including the corporations nightmare Ragnar_Locker. Fortunately for me, it was undetected by standard AV, but was then blocked by behaviour and TM managed to recover all encrypted files, and delete all notes. I am not aware if F-Secure has file journalling available (don’t remember). Other members can chime in here and let us know whether this feature is available.

F-Secure offers VPN that you won’t get from Trend Micro, unless you live in the US and purchase Premium Security.
Do you know if the if AEGIS was reformulated/updated? I remember in my tests that it was not as efficient in recent samples, but that has been a long time, I do not know how they are currently. I plan to do tests with it (Trend Micro) and GDATA on the Hub soon.
 
F

ForgottenSeer 89360

Do you know if the if AEGIS was reformulated/updated? I remember in my tests that it was not as efficient in recent samples, but that has been a long time, I do not know how they are currently. I plan to do tests with it (Trend Micro) and GDATA on the Hub soon.
Aegis receives frequent updates. Trend Micro architecture is like a huge bunch of individual components divided in 3 groups: program, engine and patterns. This architecture doesn’t need grand updates and announcements to bring improvements. If you set it to hyper-sensitive it is quite good (not stellar). For many users it will be sufficient.
What I have noticed is that apart from analysing behaviour, it also applies policies, such as System.Net.WebClient can’t be used at all, scripts and Java can’t register startup items, PowerShell can't be launched with long encoded command and more. The effectiveness for average user is enough, but you will see some misses in the hub, just like with all other AVs.
For example today in the hub you tested ElectroRAT (signed). For Trend this is a miss if SHA256 was 568326883f9157fe8f1a7c681e2df341973a75205cf81d627040d101ce24f1bb
VT: VirusTotal
I am assuming this was the sample, as @upnorth commented there.
I have submitted the sample to them.

1609969367851.png
1609969396174.png
1609969422142.png
1609969444362.png
1609969466500.png
1609969493477.png
1609969519575.png
1609969545770.png

1609969562731.png


Trend Micro Architecture
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Faybert

Level 24
Verified
Top Poster
Well-known
Jan 8, 2017
1,318
Aegis receives frequent updates. Trend Micro architecture is like a huge bunch of individual components divided in 3 groups: program, engine and patterns. This architecture doesn’t need grand updates and announcements to bring improvements. If you set it to hyper-sensitive it is quite good (not stellar). For many users it will be sufficient.
What I have noticed is that apart from analysing behaviour, it also applies policies, such as System.Net.WebClient can’t be used at all, scripts and Java can’t register startup items, PowerShell can't be launched with long encoded command and more. The effectiveness for average user is enough, but you will see some misses in the hub, just like with all other AVs.
For example today in the hub you tested ElectroRAT (signed). For Trend this is a miss if SHA256 was 568326883f9157fe8f1a7c681e2df341973a75205cf81d627040d101ce24f1bb
VT: VirusTotal
I am assuming this was the sample, as @upnorth commented there.
I have submitted the sample to them.

View attachment 252597View attachment 252598View attachment 252599View attachment 252600View attachment 252601View attachment 252602View attachment 252603View attachment 252604
View attachment 252605

Trend Micro Architecture
What I like about them is the interface, if not the best is one of the most modern ones, it has an elegant, smooth format, very well done, just missing a dark mode, in my opinion. It seems to me that you know the product well, looking at your comments I was curious to know how it is currently, I will install it at any time and give a good analyzed.
 
F

ForgottenSeer 89360

What I like about them is the interface, if not the best is one of the most modern ones, it has an elegant, smooth format, very well done, just missing a dark mode, in my opinion. It seems to me that you know the product well, looking at your comments I was curious to know how it is currently, I will install it at any time and give a good analyzed.
To some extent this article can explain the various components:

Not all of them match the home version, but Worry-Free comes closest.
 

About us

  • MalwareTips is a community-driven platform providing the latest information and resources on malware and cyber threats. Our team of experienced professionals and passionate volunteers work to keep the internet safe and secure. We provide accurate, up-to-date information and strive to build a strong and supportive community dedicated to cybersecurity.

User Menu

Follow us

Follow us on Facebook or Twitter to know first about the latest cybersecurity incidents and malware threats.

Top