1. Several days ago I was notified, by a popup in the notification area of my screen, that there was an available update to Norton Utilities Premium. I wasn't expecting such a message, so I was a bit leery. Instead of clicking the link on the popup, I logged into my Norton account, downloaded "NortonUtilitiesPremiumSetup.exe", and installed it.
2. Today Acronis released TrueImage 2021. After installing the TrueImage 2021 update, TrueImage quarantined the Norton Premium installer (NortonUtilitiesPremiumSetup.exe) as a threat "Malware.CloudGeneric".
Now I'm concerned that I might have somehow installed a compromised version of Norton Premium.
Guidance Please. Screen cap of the Acronis message attached.
Another confusing aspect was that TrueImage was telling me to turn off my "3rd party" virus/malware utility. (BP: 132/90)
I was in such a panic (BP: 142/96) thinking I'd let my guard down and finally got caught, at that point rational thought gave way to sweaty palms, chest pain and nausea. (BP: 149/101).
I swear I would have done a more thorough search for answers if I hadn't been freaking out.
Now it's time to relax with 3oz/151.
Thank you for the peace of mind and great, complete answers! Much appreciated.
"... The new release has one major highlight: integrated protection against anti-malware....Note, the real-time protection components are not design to run alongside other anti-malware software. Users should disable one or the other depending on which they plan to use to protect their computer in real time going forward...."
The section titled "Can I keep my third-party antivirus and Acronis at the same time?" in the Acronis KB article 65499: Acronis True Image 2021: Advanced Antimalware Protection FAQ also suggests you uninstall any third-party antivirus to prevent a possible conflict with the new Acronis antimalware protection.
Yes. Acronis will not activate its real-time antimalware protection feature, if Windows Security Center reports that another antivirus is currently active. That ensures that we will not initiate any conflict between two simultaneously running antivirus solutions. To eliminate possibility of that conflict from the other antivirus part, we recommend that you leave only Acronis True Image 2021 and uninstall the third-party antivirus.
If the VirusTotal.com analysis suggested by JJ_ confirms your Acronis detection of NortonSecurityPremiumSetup.exe was a false positive (e.g., the file has a low score like 1/68, which would indicate that only 1 of 68 scan engines found the file was suspicious / malicious) then it's possible you've created a conflict by running both Acronis and your primary antivirus together in real-time. If you use Norton Security or some other third-party antivirus as your main protection I'd suggest turning off the real-time antimalware protection in Acronis True Image 2021 (Protection | Settings button | Real-Time Protection | OFF). It might even be necessary to turn off the Acronis anti-ransomware protection that runs in the background (Protection | Settings button | Antiransomware Protection) if Acronis starts reporting false positive detections of "safe" files.
I logged into my Norton account, downloaded "NortonUtilitiesPremiumSetup.exe", and installed it.
If you're concerned about the installer "NortonUtilitiesPremiumSetup.exe" you downloaded from your My Norton Account, you can upload a copy to VirusTotal and see what its scan of the file shows.
FYI, if you want to check for NUP updates, click on Help> Check for Updates, rather than downloading the installer.