NordVPN’s anti-phishing protection wins AV-Comparatives’ approval for the third year in a row

Phishing is one of the most common online threats that internet users face every day. A phishing attack can surface as something so banal as an email announcing sudden lottery winnings or a private message offering amazing crypto opportunities. It’s a type of social engineering scam where attackers lure people to fake websites and try to trick them into revealing sensitive information such as their credentials or financial details. And even if phishing attacks usually aren’t the most sophisticated, they make up for their shoddy quality with sheer volume.

To combat this deluge of phishing attempts, NordVPN developed a next-gen antivirus — a comprehensive digital threat protection tool that (among its many other cybersecurity capabilities) checks the authenticity of each link you click and blocks dangerous websites. AV-Comparatives has now tested it three times, and each time NordVPN cleared the approval threshold with zero false positives.

Please note that Threat Protection Pro™ is now referred to as a next-gen antivirus. Its capabilities and functionality have not been affected.

How AV-Comparatives tests anti-phishing protection

AV-Comparatives awards anti-phishing approval only to products that detect at least 85% of phishing URLs tested while producing zero false positives against legitimate websites. The bar is deliberately narrow — a single false alarm is enough to disqualify a product. NordVPN’s next-gen antivirus has cleared that threshold in every certification and comparative test it has been submitted to between 2024 and 2026.

Anti-Phishing Certification 2024

In June 2024, NordVPN became the first VPN provider to be approved by AV-Comparatives for anti-phishing protection. AV-Comparatives evaluated NordVPN’s next-gen antivirus against a mix of live phishing URLs and clean URLs to legitimate websites, judging detection rate and false positives. Of the 15 products submitted for assessment that year, only eight cleared the approval threshold.

Anti-Phishing Comparative Test

In January 2025, AV-Comparatives tested the anti-phishing capabilities of NordVPN’s next-gen antivirus in a comparative assessment spanning antivirus software, browsers, and VPNs. NordVPN placed third with a 93% phishing page detection rate and zero false alarms. AV-Comparatives used 250 live phishing URLs and 250 clean URLs to measure both detection accuracy and false positive rate.

Anti-Phishing Certification 2025

In June 2025, NordVPN’s next-gen antivirus received AV-Comparatives anti-phishing approval for the second consecutive year. AV-Comparatives tested 228 live phishing URLs targeting PayPal credentials and banking information as well as social media passwords. NordVPN blocked 90% of them without a single false positive, placing among the top security solutions in the assessment.

AV-Comparatives results from November 2025

In November 2025, AV-Comparatives published its anti-phishing comparison. NordVPN finished among the top four solutions tested. NordVPN’s next-gen antivirus blocked 89% of phishing pages and once again recorded zero false positives.

AV-Comparatives also released a full-year 2025 summary combining results from all anti-phishing tests conducted throughout the year. In this year-end assessment, NordVPN tied for third place among all security products tested, achieving a 90% phishing detection rate across 1,000 phishing URLs assessed in January, April, August, and November.

Latest AV-Comparatives results from January 2026

AV-Comparatives kicked off 2026 with a new anti-phishing comparison evaluating security products across both antivirus and VPN categories. In this assessment, NordVPN’s next-gen antivirus achieved a 92% block rate and zero false alarms, finishing in the top four security products tested in January 2026.

AV-Comparatives tested 250 valid phishing URLs alongside 250 clean URLs to measure detection accuracy and false positive rate.

Anti-Phishing Certification 2026

In May 2026, NordVPN’s next-gen antivirus underwent the AV-Comparatives anti-phishing test for the third time. Tested against 275 live phishing URLs and 200 clean URLs, NordVPN blocked 96% of phishing attempts with zero false positives. That is the highest detection rate NordVPN has achieved in any AV-Comparatives anti-phishing test to date.

The May 2026 result builds on a consistent track record, which is that NordVPN has cleared the AV-Comparatives approval threshold in every anti-phishing test it has entered since 2024, ranking competitively alongside other dedicated security solutions each time.

Independent testing like this helps put a number on what NordVPN’s anti-phishing protection actually does and shows just how effective it is against one of the most actively exploited attack vectors on the internet.

What NordVPN’s anti-phishing tests mean for you

Common sense and good cyber hygiene are your first line of defense against phishing scams, but one blunder is all it takes to put you in danger. An accidental misclick while you’re distracted may shunt you off to a compromised website that could deploy malware on your device. Remember — you have to be on guard all the time, but scammers only need to succeed once.

Reliable anti-phishing tools catch you when you slip and fall — and AV-Comparatives’ tests for anti-phishing capabilities are solid proof that NordVPN’s next-gen antivirus is more than a match for ever-so-prevalent phishing attacks. With a next-gen antivirus, a single misclick is much less likely to put your personal data or finances at risk.

More than just phishing protection

Phishing may be one of the most common cyber threats, but it is far from the only attack option cybercriminals use to scam you. Social engineering, fake shops, data leaks, malicious code inside files you are about to download, intrusive ads and web trackers — the list of ways in just goes on and on. The number of online threats people have to watch out for keeps growing, and human attention is limited in preventing attacks designed specifically to fly underneath it.

But vigilance doesn’t have to be the only thing standing between you and the ever-growing threat landscape. NordVPN integrates the most critical cybersecurity features into a single application. It uses a next-gen antivirus that blocks trackers, blocks ads, scams and phishing attempts, scans files for malware on download, and includes a URL cleaner and Dark Web Monitor. All of this capability is built on top of the most advanced VPN technology. 

For an internet where the threats arriving at your door are more varied than ever, NordVPN is an all-in-one digital security app¹ that puts the weight of that problem somewhere other than your shoulders.

¹ “All-in-one” refers to the VPN, next-gen antivirus, and other features available within the NordVPN app, depending on the plan you choose.