F-secure Banking Protection Problems

[Laurene Arrison]

Justtoday, I started having trouble with "Banking Protection is Active" every time I try to print an attachment. I have to go through several steps just to get to the point where I can print them. The worst part is that this happens every time, even though I approved the sender in the last email. I don't mind extra protection but this is extremely inconvenient. And why does it think that all of my attachments are related to banking? Is there a solution to this? Can I approve the senders so it stops doing this? I looked in the settings but could not find where I could do this. Most of the selections are gray-shaded anyway.

when you open F-Secure Settings - usually - it is in the left-bottom part of it. Something like "You need administrative rights to change some of the product settings" and 'UAC'-logo with a button-like 'Change..'

can you clarify about this point: is banking protection session is active when you trying to read emails (like if "Green border" is all around and in the middle safe-checkmark or working "Banking Protection is active").

Could you please specify which Search feature you're having trouble with? There are two search options available: one in the middle of the page and another as a magnifying glass icon at the top-right corner. I've tested both, and they seem to be functioning correctly. To troubleshoot, you might consider clearing your browsing history, cache, and cookies, or attempting the search in a different web browser.

Regarding the banking protection, it should not activate when you simply open or download an attachment from your email. It's designed to activate only when you access a banking website. Can you confirm whether you accessed a banking website before attempting to print the attachment? If so, that could trigger the banking protection.

But, if the page just doesn't render correctly or something, then that particular resource (*or its background parts and web resources, for example, if the main website initiated the Banking Protection session) may not be marked as "trusted" within the Banking Protection functionality.

if so, it is then possible to send specific URLs (or the URL of the main website and describing the problem) for analysis to F-Secure Labs via F-Secure SAS. There is KB 'how-to-do' : How can I submit samples to F-Secure? - F-Secure Community

For example, where you can choose 'URL sample', and after using checkbox for more details - to choose "URL type" as "Banking Protection related trouble" and fill the description field with received impact after visiting mentioned URL.

Alternatively, if you can provide some 'safe' examples (that is, without any privacy risk for you or any other concerns) - I, as an F-Secure user, could also see what my experience would be. And, maybe, to understand why there are some problems here (and what needs to be fixed).

Thank you for your reply. I actually got it to work by clearing my browsing history and cache. I chatted with support and they suggested I try that. I'll keep what you said in mind if it happens again.

Strange that prior to the steps taken, it was possible to fix (or not get) the problem by turning off Banking Protection (or its active banking protection session), though. But it doesn't matter anymore. :)

I have a windows 10 laptop with F-Secure Safe installed wich has been working OK for several years. However, recently experiencing problems with blocked websites which I know are OK. Blocked websites even include my Micosoft account. Messages appear stating that the website is not secure, or there is a message stating " ERR_SSL_PROTOCOL_ERROR".

We had a problem with some known websites getting categorized as 'unknown' at around 14th and 15th of April. This issue has been fixed. Please go to Settings / Support and run "Reset reputation cache". This makes sure your device does not have any bad ratings locally cached.

Thanks for your message. I can not find any reference to "reputational cache". However, I have cleared the cache/ temporary files but this has no effect. Anyway, I do not think that this is a pc issue. I have just purchased a brand new pc; installed F-Secure Safe and experiened exactly the same problem as with my old pc. Clearly, because the problem is also with the new pc, it can not be caused by a cache issue or any other pc issue.

The only common elements between the two pcs (of different manufacturer) is Windows (although one is version 10 and the other is version 11), Virgin Media Broadband and F-Secure Safe. So my guess is that the problems is with F-Secure; perhaps resulting from a recent software update.

Mentioned there: What's New in F-Secure SAFE for PC and Internet Security - F-Secure Community (as "Other improvements" for Version 18.3 (4.80.1649) release). But since you tried with a fresh PC, perhaps, should not affect anything.

I feel that if F-Secure will block something directly as harmful or rated as dangerous - you should see F-Secure branded blockpage. Especially, if F-Secure Browsing Protection extension is active (for HTTPS support); And always if there is HTTP website connection.

"ERR_SSL_PROTOCOL_ERROR" will be visible if F-Secure browser's addon is disabled / not installed and HTTPS page is opened (Checking that browser extensions are in use Total Latest F-Secure User Guides).

I do not see any other why F-Secure will block something. But it is a good idea to check what is status of F-Secure Security Cloud connection (it is possible to find in the place, which described there: Viewing the latest updates Total Latest F-Secure User Guides)

Since there was a mention about 'unknown'-categorization - I do use Parental control profile with Content Blocker, where "unknown/uncategorized/unrated content" is chosen (Editing content filtering settings Total Latest F-Secure User Guides). I do not know if it should affect normal / adult profiles of F-Secure SAFE installation, but after a very brief try - I did not manage to get 'same' trouble without Content Blocker. So, it should not perhaps.

As a random guess - can you try to disable Adblocker feature in F-Secure SAFE (described there: Blocking advertisements on websites Total Latest F-Secure User Guides). You mentioned Microsoft Account (at least, free plan of its mail service with some advertisements if I remember right).

FSecure browser extension is active. However, when I originally tried to download with FSecure switched on it would not work and showed a download error "Image Decode Failed". I could only download the extension with FSecure disabled. Very odd.

Further to my earlier message. I have just spoken to the FSecure helpline (which I should have done much earlier) and have been advised that this problem is known to FSecure and is affecting many customers worldwide. They believe that the problem is with the browser extension software. They are currenly working on a fix.

Indeed, quite odd. But very 'explainable' if F-Secure solution blocked (blocks) some resources for some reason. Well, I mean, the problem you originally described, but applied to the resources of the Google Chrome (?) store, where the extensions were taken from. When F-Secure was turned off, no 'wrong' blocking happened anymore (but, most likely, it shouldn't have happened even with it turned on; if not for this strange reason for the described trouble).

Thanks for the examples. Sadly, I did not manage to test it myself (or if the problem is still relevant, I haven't been able to reproduce it yet). But I find it 'odd' that adding to the 'allowed' list of websites did not help. Have you tried adding just the main domain? like "ebay.com" (or sort of)? Or maybe some other "subdomain" was actually blocked.

For example, as I understand it - your problem was not clearly pinned to the BrowsingProtection addon. Or if so, was it possible to solve it (as a workaround) by disabling the extension? As such, protection would still have to be provided and connections to malicious websites would have to be prevented. But if there were no "wrong" blocks, then it would be quite a suitable (temporary) solution.

but somehow it looks more like the problem was with something like DNS queries (and some sort of filtering). And, maybe, is not directly pinned to extension. At least, I will then be able to understand most of the described details of your problem.

However, the Family Rules feature has always been there over several years without any problem nd I can not understand why the categories that are blocked have anything to do with the safe websites (such as Microsoft and Gmail) that I have been trying to access.

And, also, perhaps the original reply with the suggestion to reset reputation cache was a very valid one. But just maybe there were more problems (or there is a situation that is not considered a problem).

As with original response from F-Secure: "" some known websites getting categorized as 'unknown' "" - perhaps, it was enough to get difficulties with category or reputation-score for certain websites. As a result, erroneously or unexpectedly - blocked.

I'm using Content filtering with most categories (where "unknown content/uncategorized/unrated"-category with (?)-logo is also included). So, my experience was about Google resources (actually, attempting to login with web-Gmail) and Outlook main page blocked as "unknown content". So even if you didn't use such a category, then some "dropping" reputation or categorization even for such safe websites was possible. Accordingly, it may be due to the impossibility of obtaining a reputation score or a category (or a very specific state) - it was poured into a blocking problem.

Remote access tools (aka remote desktop software) allows the computer or software on it to be run remotely. This feature was created to facilitate administration and technical support. And many companies still use these tools.

However, criminals employ outright malicious software with similar functions. These Remote Access Trojans (aka RATs) are powerful tools for getting access to personal information and maintaining remote access to our devices.

3a8082e126