• AV-Comparatives has awarded NordVPN’s Threat Protection Pro its Anti-Phishing Certificate
• NordVPN / Nord Security is a Lithuanian cybersecurity presenting a broad range of cybersecurity solutions against various threats
• Such a certificate from an independent evaluator serves as another proof of the product’s high effectiveness at securing against phishing attacks

NordVPN’s Threat Protection Pro has successfully obtained the Anti-Phishing Certificate from AV-Comparatives – an independent Austrian-based organization that tests and assesses cybersecurity product performance.

Founded a little over a decade ago by Tom Okman and Eimantas Sabaliauskas, Nord Security has grown into a global cybersecurity unicorn and their flagship product NordVPN into a household name. While VPN solutions were the company’s original focus, they eventually expanded their product offering by offering solutions to combat other cybersecurity threats, including phishing. Threat Protection and Threat Protection Pro are suites of features mitigating a number of cybersecurity risks, including phishing.

Regular and Sophisticated Phishing

To reiterate, phishing is a type of cyberattack where scammers impersonate legitimate entities, such as banks or websites, to trick individuals into revealing sensitive information like passwords or credit card numbers. They often use deceptive emails, messages, or websites that appear authentic. This is dangerous because once personal data is obtained, it can lead to identity theft, financial loss, and unauthorized access to accounts. Phishing attacks can also compromise business security, leading to larger breaches of data.

Apparently, while phishing attacks usually aren’t sophisticated, they make up for shoddy quality with sheer volume. According to Nord Security’s head of development at Threat Protection Domininkas Virbickas, sophisticated phishing attacks are more precisely crafted for a narrower audience or person (they’re also known as ‘spear-phishing’). These types of attacks involve less exposure, better timing, and better delivery methods, and they are harder to catch.

‘Recent reports from KnowBe4, particularly 2023’s Phishing by Industry Benchmark Report, confirm this tendency. The research covered 19 industries and over 12.5 million users from 35 600 organizations. It reveals that 33.2% of these organizations’ employees haven’t been specifically trained in cyber security and are subject to the risk of clicking a harmful link, i.e. can potentially fall victim to a phishing attack,’ Olga Voloshyna, Chairperson of the Committee on IT and Cyber Security of the German-Ukrainian Chamber of Industry and Commerce, reminds.

Anti-Phishing Defense, Its Development, and Recognition

In practice, Threat Protection is a feature within the NordVPN application. The Pro version is available on Windows and macOS, but Threat Protection is based on DNS (domain name server) filtering and is available to all NordVPN customers using Android, iOS, Linux, Windows, macOS, and browser extensions.To use Threat Protection Pro, users do not need to be connected to a VPN server. They can switch on Threat Protection Pro and use it separately from other NordVPN features.

‘Phishing is a constant cat-and-mouse game. Nobody knows all the existing phishing websites. But at NordVPN, we aim to catch as many as we can using multiple engines and algorithms. We start with trusted intelligence vendors, adding ML models that work in asynchronous mode and catch 0-day phishing – the one non-existent in feeds. On top of that, we run our internal proprietary algorithms that identify different features of suspicious websites,’ Mr Virbickas tells ITKeyMedia.

In 2024, NordVPN’s Threat Protection Pro became one of the top 8 most effective solutions among 15 tested phishing protection products. Receiving an Anti-Phishing Certificate from AV-Comparatives confirms the product’s high effectiveness at securing against phishing attacks aimed at stealing confidential information.

‘As an independent leader in the field of cybersecurity assessment, AV-Comparatives has been testing the perseverance of cybersecurity solutions against digital threats at scale for more than 20 years. Due to the open nature and diversity of their testing methods, AV-Comparatives has gained the reputation of one of the most recognized and reliable organizations globally,’ Ms Voloshyna explains.

‘Our primary goal was to build a solution that would protect people from malware, scams, and phishing attacks. However, recognition from AV-Comparatives as a proof of excellence is important both for our team and our users,’ Mr Virbickas continues.