jp1, that must be a Settings change. Through iOS 12, 13, and now 14, my App Store icon has always displayed updates (except for OS updates, which are displayed on Settings/General). You might want to go into Settings/Notifications and scroll down to App Store. Are Allow Notifications and Badges set to on?
As for computer security, I do have the free version of Avast running on my Mac and I occasionally run MalwareBytes to check on malware. I also do not run Adobe Acrobat or most Microsoft products, which eliminates a few common vectors for havoc. I run nothing on my iPhone and DW does not run any anti-virus software on her iPhone or iPad. She does run Windows Defender on her Windows laptop. And we do try to stay current on OS updates, though we are never on the bleeding edge of applying them on the day of release.