FEBRUARY 2020 MACWORLD 93PERFORMANCE
F-Secure provides excellent security
coverage. AV-Test ran F-Secure Safe
through its widespread and prevalent
malware test for Mac in June.
F-Secure Safe earned a 99.5 percent
protection rate. During the testing
period there was one false detection
of legitimate software.
Over on the Windows side,
F-Secure earned 100 percent in July
and August against the widespread
and prevalent malware test, and the 0-day
and malware test.
AV-Comparatives also gave F-Secure
Safe high marks with a 99.8 percent
protection on Mac and 100 percent
detection of Windows malware on Mac.
The Windows tests for F-Secure Safe also
earned high marks, though in the real-
world protection test there were 25 false
positives.
Finally, F-Secure earned top marks on
the Windows side in the latest published
report from SE Labs earning a AAA rating.
In our own spot tests, F-Secure
performed very well. We couldn’t get into
the Wicar test site without running through
a bevy of warnings from both Firefox (our
chosen browser for these tests) and
F-Secure. Checking out the Objective See
malware archive, F-Secure easily detected
every piece of malware we tried to get
onto the test computer. We were able to
download these malware pieces, but the
minute we tried to install them F-Secure
stopped it and immediately deleted the
problematic software.INTERFACE AND FEATURES
F-Secure Safe has a very simple interface.
The primary dashboard shows pretty much
everything you need to know. At the top is
a large green message saying your
computer is protected, or a red warning
message if not.
Below that is a list of all the various
components that are active, including virus
and browsing protection, as well as having
“security features” up to date.
From the dashboard you can also
initiate a scan and open the Preferences
window.
Moving over to the left rail, select the
Family Rules tile to set restrictions on any
child accounts on the Mac. This includesF-Secure’s default dashboard on Mac.