One of the best VPN services out there just updated its malware protection and tracking to help you avoid falling victim to increasing phishing attempts and online scams.
NordVPN was the first to introduce the concept of threat protection to the VPN market, the provider claims. It is essentially a tracker, malware, and ad blocker built directly into the virtual private network software. With online threats becoming more sophisticated, the team felt the need to give it a boost.
NordVPN Threat Protection Pro is currently available only on Windows and macOS, at the time of writing, and comes with all of the provider's top-tier plans. This means that if you are a Basic subscriber, you will need to upgrade your plan to use the new tool.
What is NordVPN Threat Protection Pro?
Phishing attacks, malvertising incidents and similar online scams are increasing everywhere. What all of these types of cyberattacks have in common is tricking people into clicking on malicious links through which criminals can inject malicious software onto their devices. And while most of us may have learned to spot warning signs of fraudulent messages, AI-powered tools are helping criminals craft increasingly convincing scams.
Let's look at some data. In May alone, NordVPN's Threat Protection Pro was allegedly blocked over 5 billion intrusive ads, nearly 40 billion trackers, and 60 million malware infection attempts. The British were the worst affected, with more than 18 million incidents since the beginning of the year. This averages 97 malware-related incidents per device per month, compared to the US average of 89 attempts per month.
These figures are significant considering that, during the investigation period between January 1 and May 31, criminals posed as popular brands to trick victims into clicking on phishing links and downloading files. infected. Malicious Office365 (86,000 spoofed URLs discovered), Gazprom (60,000), AT&T (28,000), Facebook (19,000) and Bet365 (15,000) were the most used to spread malware.
These results clearly show the need for better solutions to filter these threats. Nord is therefore committed to constantly updating its threat protections with new features.
“Most anti-malware features built into popular VPNs are usually limited to simple DNS filtering,” explains Adrianus Warmenhoven, cybersecurity advisor at NordVPN.
“NordVPN's digital protection tool has now been upgraded to Threat Protection Pro and helps users avoid hacking, tracking, phishing, scams, malware, and annoying ads and cookies.”
Threat Protection Pro vs. Threat Protection Lite
At this point, you might be wondering what exactly the differences are between the two iterations of NordVPN's Threat Protection.
what was previously called Threat Protection Lite—from now on it will simply be Threat Protection—is based on DNS filtering. This means that harmful websites, trackers, and ads are blocked only at the domain level. This is what similar products, such as those integrated with ExpressVPN and IPVanish, currently do. You must be connected to the VPN to benefit from these additional protections.
While that is still very useful to avoid some online risks, according to Nord it is not enough to defend against more sophisticated attacks. Professional threat protection promises to do much more of this. “It works at the network layer and scans all traffic locally on the client's device, and this is exactly what the market-leading antiviruses do,” the vendor said. Better yet, Pro works even without a VPN connection.
The big takeaway here is that the Pro version works at the URL and Javascript levels to help you avoid tracking, phishing, scams, malware, and annoying ads. Additionally, it will inform customers about potentially dangerous sites and zero-day phishing attempts, while blocking trackers and ads by fixing the page layout when ads are blocked at the same time.
A big difference between the two versions is also availability. Threat Protection Pro is exclusive to Standard, Plus, Complete, Ultimate, and Ultra subscribers on Windows and macOS only. In contrast, Threat Protection Lite is available to all NordVPN customers using Android, iOS, Linux, Windows, macOS, and browser extensions.
For more information, visit NordVPN's blog post here.
