It’s official: NordVPN has taken protection against malware and phishing to the next level
So it’s official: NordVPN is the best VPN we’ve tested when it comes to blocking malware and phishing. The recently launched Threat Protection Pro was the winner. Yes, you have to pay extra to use this tool, but our results clearly show that it is worth it for your online security.
This may not come as a surprise, as NordVPN recently revamped its tracker blocker offering to help users avoid falling victim to increasing phishing attempts and online scams. Nevertheless, we were very happy to see that Nord is delivering on its promises in this area.
All the best VPN services now have built-in tools for blocking ads, trackers, and malware. While the efficiency and convenience of these tools are taken for granted by many, Ny Breaking’s VPN reviews look at the root of the problem and how much protection they provide, and right now NordVPN comes out on top.
How does NordVPN protect you from malware, phishing, and intrusive ads?
In June, NordVPN revamped its tracker blocker offering and now offers two tools: Threat Protection Pro and Threat Protection.
Protection against threats is what used to be called Threat Protection Lite and works as a DNS filter. This means it blocks malicious websites, trackers and ads only at the domain level. Other VPN providers offer a similar service, including ExpressVPN and IPVanish. In all these cases, you must be connected to the VPN to benefit from this extra protection.
Threat Protection Pro promises to go even further and act more as an antivirus than an adblocker, and works even without an active VPN connection. The Pro version works at the URL and JavaScript level to help you avoid tracking, phishing, scams, malware and annoying ads. It also warns you about potentially dangerous sites and zero-day phishing attempts before you click on them, while blocking trackers and ads when you visit a web page.
The big difference between the two versions that you need to consider is availability. Threat Protection Pro is exclusive to Plus, Complete, Ultimate and Ultra subscribers on Windows and macOS. Although Threat Protection is available to all NordVPN customers using Android, iOS, Linux, Windows, macOS and browser extensions.
How well does NordVPN block malware, phishing, and intrusive ads?
In August, NordVPN became the first VPN provider to be among the best tools to prevent online shopping scams. The anti-phishing protection, Threat Protection Pro, was certified as the third best tool out of 35 by the independent top laboratory AV-Comparatives.
Nevertheless, we decided to run our own tests and tried to open 100 brand new malicious URLs from anti-phishing experts OpenPhish. The results were very positive, with Threat Protection Pro blocking 87% of our sample threats. Only Bitdefender was fractionally better, blocking 89% of URLs in its own tests. Surfshark antivirus also did very well, blocking 94% of phishing sites – but it is a standalone product and does not have a VPN feature, as is the case for Nord.
More importantly, “NordVPN Threat Protection Pro was the only one showing any real impact against new phishing sites” says Mike Williams, Ny Breaking’s Lead Security Reviewer. Most DNS-level blockers weren’t able to catch them until they were more than a week old. This is critical considering that phishing sites generally don’t last long , meaning most are new and may not last long enough to be picked up by other providers.
NordVPN was also the best against malware, dominating the results 79% of malware threats are blocked. Both Threat Protection and Threat Protection Pro were very efficient at blocking ads (84%)too, but the winner in this category was ExpressVPN with a stellar result of 90% blocked ads.
Phishing attacks, malvertising incidents and similar online scams are on the rise everywhere. According to NordVPN data, Threat Protection Pro has reportedly been blocked In May alone, there were over 5 billion intrusive ads, nearly 40 billion trackers, and 60 million malware infection attempts. People in Britain were the worst affected, with more than 18 million incidents since the start of the year. This is an average of 97 malware-related incidents per device per month, compared to the US average of 89 monthly attempts.
During the study period (January 1 and May 31), criminals impersonated popular brands to trick victims into clicking phishing links and downloading infected files. Malicious Office365 (86K spoofed URLs discovered), Gazprom (60K), AT&T (28K), Facebook (19K) and Bet365 (15K) were the most commonly used big names to spread malware.
You will have to pay an additional fee, but our results clearly show that it is worth it for your online security
What all these types of cyber attacks have in common is that people are tricked into clicking malicious links that allow criminals to inject malware software into their devices. Cybercriminals are increasingly running well-executed scams thanks to AI-powered tools, so spotting warning signs is now very difficult, even for experts.
All this shows the growing need for tools like NordVPN Threat Protection Pro. Considering how crucial it is to remain more anonymous online, a VPN (virtual private network) alone is not enough to combat all the modern threats you may face when surfing the Internet. This is exactly why many providers have a built-in blocking tool. Still, not many can offer antivirus-like protection like Nord Threat Protection Pro does without having to download additional software.
As we mentioned earlier, Threat Protection Pro is no longer a basic feature, as you’ll need to upgrade to a more expensive plan to take advantage of the protection. If you’re just looking for antivirus protection and don’t want to dig your hands into your wallet, I recommend trying Avast Free. However, keep in mind that if you do this, you will have no VPN protection.