What Is NordVPN CyberSec?
Over recent years, the use of the internet has exploded to hitherto unforeseen bounds. The number of people online has hugely increased and up to date is still rising at an alarming rate.
But this popularity of the ‘online world’ spells out a lot of cybersecurity concerns. Hackers and other malicious people have taken advantage of the increased use of the internet.
Using a VPN has therefore become essential. NordVPN is one such VPN.
NordVPN CyberSec is an advanced security feature provided by NordVPN. It takes security and privacy to the next level by blocking websites popular for hosting phishing scams and malware. This ensures you’re safe whenever you are online. It also rids you of annoying ads that throttle your speeds.
In this article, we’re going to discuss all matters of cybersecurity and the role that NordVPN’s CyberSec plays in achieving this. So sit tight and read on for more!
What Is NordVPN CyberSec?
To start, NordVPN is a popular VPN provider that is based in Panama. Over the years it has become an effective VPN service provider that has some of the best features in the market.
It has strong encryption technology that ensures the safety of users’ data. It has over 5500 servers in over 60 countries making it one of the largest VPN service providers.
So with that in mind, we can discuss what CyberSec is.
In 2017, NordVPN introduced a security feature called CyberSec. It blocks ads and filters out known harmful and malicious websites.
It consults already available website blacklists and prevents your device from connecting to these sites and loading them.
To best describe it, CyberSec is a traffic control mechanism. In all truth, in some ways, it resembles an ad blocker. The only difference is that it doesn’t run as a browser extension but on the system level.
NordVPN’s CyberSec can effectively block suspicious domains thus making sure no malware or any other cyber threats can infect your device.
It also blocks ads and hides unwanted pop-ups, auto-play video ads, and much more advertising content.
So how does it work? Whenever you want to access a certain site, your request goes through a channel. If you are connected to NordVPN, your request goes to their DNS servers.
These servers receive your DNS request to enter a particular site.
CyberSec will then check the name of the site against a vast list of possible threats and decide on whether to allow you access to the requested site.
If the site you are trying to reach is part of a harmful list of sites, then NordVPN CyberSec will block the contents and won’t be displayed. You will just see an error message instead.
Is CyberSec Good?
NordVPN has grown to be one of the most trustworthy VPN providers out there.
It offers a whole range of security features that are military-grade and quite effective at protecting their users’ privacy and security.
One of these security features is CyberSec. It has become quite effective at protecting users and what’s even better about it is that you require no technical knowledge to operate it.
Some of the benefits of using CyberSec include:
1. Blocking dangerous websites
One of the major tasks of CyberSec is to protect users from phishing scams and other online threats. For this reason, it compares the address of every website you visit against a database of ad blacklists.
So if you try to access a website that is known to host malware, spyware, and other malicious software, CyberSec will react immediately and block your access from said site.
This keeps you safe from all manner of threats.
2. Blocking ads
We’ve all been there at some point, right? Numerous ads on a website that are flashy and annoying, to say the least. This is where CyberSec comes in handy.
It blocks all unwanted pop-ups, auto-play ads, and other advert material when you enter a website.
Apart from doing this, it improves your browsing speeds and saves you precious data. So with CyberSec, you can experience an ad-free online experience.
3. Avoiding botnets
What CyberSec does is that it protects your device from participating in Distributed Denial-Of-Service attacks (DDoS). This also applies when your device has been affected by malware.
CyberSec detects and cuts-off communication between the device and the ‘command and control’ center of the botnet. This will prevent your computer from joining a ‘botnet zombie army’.
4. Protects against online tracking services-
CyberSec adds an element of anonymity whenever you are browsing thus ensuring your privacy and security.
So to answer the question, yes! CyberSec is good, in fact, it’s excellent. It enables you to safeguard your security and privacy whenever you are online.
Does NordVPN Have Malware?
Malicious + Software = Malware. Malware is a software designed by malicious people online to secretly work against the interests of the owner of a device or particular system.
Some types of malware can be planted onto your device while others can work their way into your device.
Malware can have effects that vary greatly in severity. Your device could be held at ransom, your data tracked, or your device destroyed.
Before answering the question, however, we should have a look at the different types of malware:
· Adware– This isn’t so much of harmful malware. Rather than harm your device, it focuses on making money. It’s aggressive advertising that supports software that displays banner advertisements on websites and windows.
· Spyware-Just like the name suggests, this malware is designed to spy on you. It hides in the background and monitors your computer usage and browsing activities. It has the potential to harvest passwords, change security settings, get bank, and email details among other things. Apart from this, it can download malicious applications and install them into your device without permission.
· Virus– This spreads from one device to another and tries to infect as many devices as possible. It can be spread through internet downloads, text messages, social media. Or emails when attached to files.
A virus can’t infect a device independently- it requires the user to run a program where it’s attached. It may cause problems such as system crashes and complete loss of data.
· Worm– They don’t cause damage to a system. Its purpose is copying itself and spreading across local networks or drives. When paired with “payloads” they can damage a system or extract information.
· Trojan– Like the Trojan horse of the Greek legend, it hides as an innocent-looking program and infiltrates computers. Once in, it can create backdoors that hackers can use to get into your system. They can then collect data or lock you out of your computer.
· Ransomware– This spreads quickly and causes extensive damage. It infects a machine through vulnerabilities in the system, encrypts all your data, and locks you out. It then asks you to pay ransom to decrypt the files.
· Rootkit– These gain admin privileges in your device and can do anything without detection or removal.
· Keylogger– This tracks the keys you type to discover things such as password and private communications.
VPNs prevent malware attacks to devices by providing strong encryption that closes all infiltration points for hackers and their malware. This protects your device from all malware attacks.
To answer the question, No! NordVPN doesn’t have malware. In fact, it’s one of the best VPNs adept at protecting your device from malware.
It has strong encryption technology to keep you safe when online. It also has a CyberSec feature that flags all malicious websites before they can infect your device.
How Does NordVPN Block Ads?
It can be quite frustrating to have video ads, pop-ups, and flashy banners and all in your face. They clog up your screen when you’re trying to do something online.
These ads can be really frustrating, but what most people don’t seem to know is that they can also compromise your security.
I’m quite sure I’m not the only one who has accidentally clicked on an ad and instantly redirected to a website!
And often if you aren’t protected, you open yourself up to online threats. This is because these ads can contain malware from hackers and trackers.
So how does NordVPN block ads?
We’ll start simply with the basics. Whenever you want to access a certain site, you type the domain name into your search bar and press enter. Behind the scenes, this journey may look like that.
But in reality, all your data is transported to NordVPN DNS servers and requests the IP address of that site. So if you accidentally clicked on an ad, the servers get this IP.
So when connected tom NordVPN, the CyberSec feature compares this IP address to a known list of ad hosting malware, spyware, trackers, among others.
If the IP address is considered safe, the DNS will accept the request and you will view the website. If not, the connection is closed and you won’t see any more ads.
So as you can see, NordVPN CyberSec is a pretty effective security feature that aims to protect users; privacy and security.
