This product is designed to protect against hacker and network worm attacks, block spyware and adware, thwart so-called zero day attacks via its heuristics technology, and even ban the use of forbidden networking software.

It provides an automatic change of security level when the laptop of a roaming user is connected to a network outside corporate premises. Another feature is the offering’s monitoring of suspicious activity. It combines both signature- and non-signature-based protection, such as system monitoring, blocking code injection and manipulation.

While the client-side software can run on Windows 2000 and XP, the Policy Management centralized management offering provides support for a wide range of popular enterprise Linux distributions, including Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 and Linux 4, SuSE Linux 9, SuSe Linux 10, SuSe Linux Enterprise Server 9 and Debian GNU Linux 3.1.

The product consists of two functional units: the F-Secure Policy Manager (console, server and web reporting) with F-Secure Policy Manager Proxy for centralized management of the anti-virus solution in the network. It is partnered by the F-Secure Anti-Virus Client Security to prevent damage by a virus or hackers on workstations.

After installing Policy Manager on our Windows server, we were presented with a console interface that is clear and well-designed. Using the intuitive GUI we easily built up a list of client PCs on our test network using an autodiscover feature that creates a domain tree. Using the product’s "push installation," administrators can remotely deploy F-Secure Anti-Virus Client Security for laptops and desktops without needing to visit them physically. The console allows you to specify target IP addresses to simplify management.

The suite was simple to install, although the sheer number of configuration components could be confusing. But it’s an impressive and comprehensive package.