‘Geeks Love’ Our VPN, But We’re Built for Business Too: NordVPN Execs

In today’s threat environment, antivirus is not enough protection for end users, NordVPN executives say.



Most in IT have some familiarity with NordVPN as the VPN maker has been around since 2012. Now, on the heels of a $3 billion valuation, making it a unicorn company, NordVPN is releasing new products aimed at businesses and combating threats on the dark web.

The company also released a survey with data showing that end users put too much faith in traditional antivirus. NordVPN executives shared these survey results and offered a deep dive look into their business offerings at a two-day event this week in New York City. The event included a stunt in Times Square where the public had the opportunity to speak with ethical hackers via an interactive billboard screen.

While the company has enjoyed success in the consumer space, “a huge shift happened in 2019. That’s when we realized we wanted to make sure that we can protect businesses, not just individuals, and that’s when we launched exclusive products for businesses,” said Gerald Kasulis, cybersecurity advocate, NordVPN.

“Geeks love it,” said Marijus Briedis, chief technology officer at NordVPN, about the NordVPN offering. “It basically creates a VPN tunnel between you and your devices. I use it every day to connect to my home,” Briedis said.

NordVPN offers advanced features including Threat Protection Pro which provides protection against phishing, trackers, malware, ads and online scams. NordPass is a password manager. Saily is an eSIM app that offers mobile data plans in over 200 destinations and has a malicious website detector and ad blocker baked in.

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NordProtect offers identity theft and a dark web monitoring database. NordVPN executives demonstrated the dark web monitoring by asking reporters to input their email addresses and mobile phone numbers to see if any of their data was floating around on the dark web. Some indeed had data on the dark web, including this writer.

For those interested in finding out if their personal information is on the dark web, NordVPN is currently offering a free utility to find out.

VPN As Part Of A Security Stack

In this SaaS-dominated tech world, where almost all corporate apps reside in the cloud, one may be inclined to see the VPN as antiquated technology. Back in the day, VPNs were the way end users remotely connected to on-premise servers and machines back in the office.

Yet, NordVPN executives say that VPNs are a necessary part of a security stack. Today’s organization is typically protected with some sort of SASE (Secure Access Secure Edge) framework. Many midsized businesses are using the services of an MSSP (managed security service provider). They have firewalls. They have deployed endpoint protection on user devices.

So why need VPN?

“There’s another story: what people are doing when they are working at home, how they are using [devices], receiving devices,” said Briedis. “We see many infections on personal devices.”

And end users still pose the biggest risk of introducing threats, especially if they are working remotely from home machines that may have no more protection than a traditional antivirus.

Antivirus software can give end users false reassurance that they are secure “which it doesn’t,” said Kasulis.

In its survey conducted Sept. 2-10 this year among 1,005 people in the U.S.:

Perhaps more troubling, 73 percent of those surveyed believe an antivirus offers more protection than catching a virus, which is not true. And with 38 percent saying they use public Wi-Fi (presumably some of that activity involves work) providing end users with a security arsenal of tools like a VPN, could reduce some of the threats faced by organizations.

“People blindly put their trust into one tool,” Kasulis said.