Paypal.com not recognized by F-Secure Banking Protection

Der_Reisende
Der_Reisende Posts: 7 Explorer
edited September 9 in Device Protection

Title already tells it.

I also attached a picture of my online banking page, for which the Banking Protection is working fine (same browser, same session, i did not even enter credentials.

It's kinda worrying that a local bank has protection, but widespread PayPal doesn't.

Please fix urgently!!!


Accepted Answer

  • Ukko
    Ukko Posts: 3,768 Superuser
    edited February 19 Answer ✓

    Hello,

    Actually, I do not use PayPal - so I am not sure when PayPal dropped that 'status' of being treated as Banking or Online Payment website.

    But I confirm that, at least, main page and login form of PayPal Norway does not do that with my F-Secure installation (beta version). And Android application does not show 'trusted bank' notification when visiting paypal.com

    So, I think paypal.com with dropped 'banking'-category reputation for F-Secure Security Cloud (erroneously?!).

    I think it will be addressed by F-Secure team when it comes to their attention, but some things you can do:

    As for the protection, once Banking Protection Session is triggered - whole system is covered.

    So, you can use temporary workaround like activating Banking Protection Session (border-frame) by visiting your local bank's main page and in another tab to open PayPal and use safely. The only trouble can be if some resources or pages in PayPal will be blocked as 'during active banking protection session'.

    Sorry for my English.

    Thanks!

Answers

  • Der_Reisende
    Der_Reisende Posts: 7 Explorer

    EDIT: Yes, I logged in to PayPal to check my account, and no, not any green border. F-Secure Total v19.3; 5.4.1605.0

    Recently updated within the last hour.

  • Der_Reisende
    Der_Reisende Posts: 7 Explorer

    Sorry for my late reply :)

    Thank you so much for your valuable input!

    I just submitted the PayPal link, hopefully it get's vetted soon :)

    (Could not cross-check right now, because my spare laptop runs K7 Ultimate Security).

  • Ukko
    Ukko Posts: 3,768 Superuser

    Hello!

    Thank you so much for your valuable input! I just submitted the PayPal link, hopefully it get's vetted soon :) Could not cross-check right now..

    Not yet. At least, with my installation.

    Usually, F-Secure Labs may review submission not immediately - you can expect three-five working days for a casual situations. Maybe up to weeks - occasionally. And rare - up to months.

    If PayPal should be rated as "Banking Related website" or / and "Shopping" (additionally) - then - I think since PayPal is a quite popular and 'big' - they maybe will handle situation much quicker.

    // I also tried to 'report' it via F-Secure Browsing protection addon (just in case). :)

    Thanks!

  • It would be nice if we were able to add links into the Banking Protection settings for it to be enabled for those sites, too. Maybe it's been mentioned, or suggested here before?

  • Der_Reisende
    Der_Reisende Posts: 7 Explorer

    Seems to be recognized now, however, I can confirm tonight at earliest, being at work right now.


  • Ukko
    Ukko Posts: 3,768 Superuser

    It would be nice if we were able to add links into the Banking Protection settings for it to be enabled for those sites, too. Maybe it's been mentioned, or suggested here before?

    Quite many; the old ones are:

    There are also some newer feature requests about. My own view is that currently there are quite many workarounds to get Banking Protection for any desired session (or to trigger categorization for a particular website to be correctly rated as banking-related and with easy way to perform it by user). But maybe some tweaks about general Banking Protection feature design is something which can be interesting. However, I liked how it now and especially after receiving many improvements and options recently. Basically, a lot of ways of fraud and threats covered by Banking Protection feature (and the rest by general security features). Although not exactly bulletproof.

  • Der_Reisende
    Der_Reisende Posts: 7 Explorer

    Felt the need to share an update…

    I checked again yesterday, and even logged in to my Paypal account, the Banking Protection is still missing, though support did state otherwise closing my ticket. I even submitted the page via the FS extension in Edge (Chromium, default W11).

    I‘m very dissatified and I think I will consider this when my subscription runs out…

  • JOnes
    JOnes Posts: 709 Forum Champion

    I updated the sample paypal.com banking protection is not activated (win 11 chrome)

    after a month of investigation, its categorization should be clear???

  • Ukko
    Ukko Posts: 3,768 Superuser

    Hello,

    I checked again yesterday, and even logged in to my Paypal account, the Banking Protection is still missing, though support did state otherwise closing my ticket. I even submitted the page via the FS extension in Edge (Chromium, default W11).

    Yes, the screenshot with the response from technical support confuses me a little. Because otherwise there  might be a slightly clearer explanation about.

    Although this shouldn't be the case, maybe everything is a little messed up here (on their part or their perception of the problem). For example, if PayPal should not be considered as an online banking resource (and therefore should not initiate a Banking Protection session). However, as a service for online payments (and similar) it should not be blocked or unavailable during an active Banking Protection session (that is, the type of problem that was sometimes discussed in the Community (for example)).

    Maybe the tech support specialists made an effort to ensure that PayPal was marked and categorized as completely safe for Banking Protection Sessions. Although still not initiating them.

    as such Online guide about F-Secure Banking Protection (Banking safely online | Total | Latest | F-Secure User Guides) stated things as ""Banking Protection automatically detects secure connections to online banking websites""; and status of PayPal as online banking website is unclear.

    As I mentioned, I don't use PayPal, so I don't remember (or won't remember) whether a Banking Protection Session was ever initiated when opening the PayPal site. But there is a very easy workaround here due to the current design of F-Secure Banking Protection. It is enough to open any website (considered as an online banking resource) and get Banking Protection Session for the entire system and the entire current session in the browser.

    So to speak, you can open in one tab "nordea.no" (login is not required, or anything more than opening website) and in another tabs - you can use 'safely' PayPal and whole system with an active Banking Protection Session.

    Anyway, if you received a response by email, you can try to write a reply in the correspondence stating that after all these days, PayPal is still not marked as a reliable website for banking services. Or it simply does not activate banking protection session. So, to request either confirmation that  this should happen or that it shouldn't.

    Thanks!

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