F-Secure submitted a suite of security-blocking, filtering, and scanning-orientated applications. The spyware component was sourced from the people at Lavasoft, and is identical to Ad-Aware. The rest of the suite includes antivirus, firewall, anti-spam, and parental control components.
Installation takes quite some time and part of the process involves removing other similar applications (eg antivirus and anti-spyware programs). This could potentially be a problem if you are one of those paranoid users who does not trust a sole application to provide the level of security required on the desktop. Once the system has been installed and updated, the user could be forgiven for wondering where the spyware application is located. After a short period of poking and prodding, we discovered that it is in fact a separate standalone application launched from the start menu. One would expect that the programmers at F-Secure could have at least put a shortcut button on their main user interface window to allow operators to launch the anti-spyware application directly from the console.
For the purposes of this review, we are focusing solely on the anti-spyware capabilities of the product and not on the additional applications and features bundled in the suite.
As already mentioned, F-Secure sourced and re-badged the Ad-Aware application from Lavasoft. This being the case what we mention later for Ad-Aware can be considered to be the same for F-Secure's Anti-Spyware application.
F-Secure's suite of applications appears to be geared fairly and squarely at the SOHO or home-user market, particularly with the inclusion of applications such as parental controls. Therefore, from the standpoint of a business magazine review, there is very little that can be said except that F-Secure made a very good decision to bundle Lavasoft's technology and experience with their suite instead of trying to re-invent the wheel. If a home user or SOHO is looking for a complete security suite then consideration should be given to F-Secure's Internet Security 2005 package.
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| Product | F-Secure Internet Security 2005 |
| Price | Euro 79.90 |
| Vendor | F-Secure Corporation |
| Phone | +358 9 2520 0700 |
| Web | www.f-secure.com |
| Interoperability |  ½ |
| Bundled with quite a lot of applications but the system is standalone especially in respect to the anti-spyware component being the same as Ad-Aware. | |
| Futureproofing |  |
| Great array of features for a standalone application. | |
| ROI |
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| A reasonable price considering the bundled applications, but if one is just after a spyware scanner then perhaps it would be better to consider Ad-Aware on its own. | |
| Service | 
½ |
| 12 months appears to be the standard warranty with all these applications which is very good for software applications in general. | |
| Rating | 
½ |
Nastyware - a collective descriptive term...