AlmightyJio wrote:
Can you elaborate on why it’s not needed? Also is it just Norton because I am having the same issue with Mcafee and I’ve never had a problem before today after sharing a video via air drop to my phone. Phone works fine and has Mcafee
Only you can determine the value of any individual App and/or security measure according to your needs. I have no intention here of engaging in any broad debate - and will confine comment to information that you can use to both seek corroboration elsewhere and make your own determination as to suitability of Norton, VPN or other Apps.
Due to a 5000 character limit for individual posts, in order to provide an objective reply, it is necessary to split this reply into two parts.
Part 1
In context of security measures, an understanding of the both the risk to the device and the capabilities/purpose of the security control (in this case, the Norton App) - will hopefully inform this assessment. For the majority of Users that lack a background in Information Technology and Information Security, trust is often and necessarily placed in the efficacy of commercial software products - of which Norton is but only one.
Much of the hype and negative comment that you will observe throughout the Apple Support Communities are derived from a bias against, or a fundamental misunderstanding of, VPN technologies and their uses/benefits - in addition to misguided faith in Apple products being immune to cyber-threat. In many cases, negative viewpoint will be based upon consumption of misinformed commentary of others; such commentary often reinforces preconceived faith in both invulnerability and perceived immutable truth.
Be wary of the often perpetuated myth that Apple devices are immune to malware in its many forms; those that perpetuate this untruth do not fully comprehend the wider threat landscape. Consider that if the myth (and over-generalisation) were true, Apple would not expend considerable technical and financial resources in developing and issuing regular security updates and patches for their products.
Returning now to Norton; Norton offer a suite of security and anti-malware products for various computing systems. In its latest iteration, a subscription licence can be used across a multitude of devices and operating systems. However, the actual protective measures, software and defensive capabilities, will substantially differ between computing systems. As an example, for PC/Windows, Norton is well known for its Antivirus capabilities in protecting from (or removing) malware infection, and in blocking malicious code from execution. This specific protection is not available to iOS/iPadOS devices. Norton’s defensive technologies do, however, include other threat mitigation techniques and technologies.
Be aware that there are no Antivirus products available for iOS/iPadOS. Due to the sandboxed security architecture, in broad terms confining any single App to own private memory space and file storage, Antivirus products cannot operate; each App cannot access the files and system resources of other Apps. Products and Apps that claim to provide on-device AV protection are nothing more than “snake oil” and should be avoided.
At this point it is perhaps worthwhile to highlight that sandboxing not only inhibits running of Antivirus scans, it also limits the ability of malware to execute, infect or spread within a host system. In this context, Apple devices are less susceptible (but not immune) to malware.
NB: While your iPad is unlikely to be directly infected by malware, it is still possible to easily download an “infected” file to the iPad - which if transferred elsewhere still has the capacity to infect other computer systems with malware. AV products can block this type of malware transmission - but as this defence is not available to iOS/iPadOS devices, these devices can become a repository for malware-infected files.
