One of the best VPN services out there has just upgraded 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. That’s essentially a tracker, malware and ad blocker integrated directly into the virtual private network software. With online threats becoming more sophisticated, the team felt the need to give them a boost.
NordVPN Threat Protection Pro is currently only available on Windows and macOS, at the time of writing, and comes with all of the provider’s higher plans. This means that if you are a Basic subscriber, you will need to upgrade your subscription to use the new tool.
What is NordVPN Threat Protection Pro?
Phishing attacks, malvertising incidents and similar online scams are on the rise everywhere. 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. And while most of us may have learned to spot warning signs of scam messages, AI-powered tools are helping bad actors create increasingly convincing scams.
Let’s look at some data. In May alone, NordVPN’s Threat Protection Pro was reportedly blocked over 5 billion intrusive ads, nearly 40 billion trackers, and 60 million malware infection attempts. The British were hit hardest, 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.
These numbers are significant considering that during the study period between January 1 and May 31, criminals widely impersonated popular brands to trick victims into clicking phishing links and downloading infected files. Malicious Office365 (86,000 spoofed URLs discovered), Gazprom (60,000), AT&T (28,000), Facebook (19,000) and Bet365 (15,000) were the most commonly used to spread malware.
These results clearly show the need for better solutions to filter out these threats. That’s why Nord strives to continuously update its threat protection with new features.
“Most anti-malware features integrated into popular VPNs are usually limited to simple DNS filtering,” explains Adrianus Warmenhoven, cybersecurity advisor at NordVPN.
“NordVPN’s digital security tool has now been upgraded to Threat Protection Pro, helping users prevent 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 versions of NordVPN’s Threat Protection.
What was it called before Threat Protection Lite– from now on simply Threat Protection – is based on DNS filtering. This means that malicious websites, trackers and advertisements are only blocked 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 take advantage of this extra protection.
While that is still very useful to avoid some online risks, according to Nord, it is not sufficient to combat more advanced attacks. Threat Protection Pro promises to do this much more. “It works at the network layer and scans all traffic locally on the customer’s device, and is exactly what leading antivirus programs do,” the provider said. In fact, Pro even works without a VPN connection.
The big advantage here is that the Pro version works at the URL and JavaScript level to help you avoid tracking, phishing, scams, malware and annoying ads. Furthermore, it will inform customers about potentially dangerous sites and zero-day phishing attempts, while blocking trackers and ads by correcting the page layout when the ads are blocked at the same time.
A big difference between the two versions is also the availability. Threat Protection Pro is exclusive to Standard, Plus, Complete, Ultimate and Ultra subscribers on Windows and macOS. Threat Protection Lite, on the other hand, is available to all NordVPN customers using Android, iOS, Linux, Windows, macOS, and browser extensions.
Visit NordVPN’s blog post here for more information.