I’m using Norton 360 Deluxe on a Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra running Android 14 and One UI 6.0. With the latest update, Samsung is offering the protection of Auto Blocker which protects a device and its data by preventing the installation of applications from unauthorized sources, checks for malware, and blocks malicious activity from ads.
I THINK that when this option is enabled, it involves McAfee’s software (Samsung phones have this software installed at purchase without the option to remove), but I prefer to use Norton.
Do I need to enable the Autoblocker option, or does the Norton product that I’m presently using already have the same protection in the app? And/or does this create problems when Norton is already running on my device when a McAfee feature is enabled?
I’ve tried contacting Norton thru their web chat, but I do not have the time to sit all afternoon and wait for someone to connect and answer my question, I gave up after waiting for quite some time.
Your comments on having 2 real time scanners active is a legitimate concern. But you have also noted that Norton and Malwarebytes work well together, and this is because MBAM was designed to work alongside mainstream AV products. This seems to be the same for this new Samsung offering.
I prefer Norton over any other protection for my devices and hadn’t planned on uninstalling it to run Samsung’s option. My question is, will Norton conflict with McAfee’s options running at the same time on my phone? I remember reading years ago that you shouldn’t be running two separate anti-virus programs on a Windows device at the same time because their protections would conflict with each other, so I’m wondering if it’s the same for Android. My worry is that if I’m running two separate software programs that are maybe designed to do the same thing, it may cause a problem.
I’m also running Malwarebytes alongside of Norton and it doesn’t seem to cause any issues.
If Norton already has the same abilities, I more than likely wouldn’t need to enable Samsung’s McAfee option. I do know that Norton already scans apps from the Google Play Store and Samsung’s Galaxy Store (I’m not interested in installing APK’s from unofficial sites) and it runs app checks. However, I do not know if Norton blocks unauthorized commands and software installations via the USB port, nor do I know if it contains the same protections such as zero-click attacks that Samsung’s Message Guard does.
So that’s my question, does Norton protect against the two aforementioned issues (blocking unauthorized commands/software installations via USB and protections that Message Guard offers)? Regardless, if I run Norton and Samsung’s options at the same time, will they conflict?
Here is a good article from Bleeping Computer on this new feature. https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/samsung-galaxy-gets-new-auto-blocker-anti-malware-feature/
Note the last paragraph of that article.....
Users needing strong security on their mobile devices shouldn't solely rely on built-in protection features but also use a third-party mobile security solution from a trustworthy vendor.
So it seems that it is advisable to keep Norton alongside this new feature.