According to Tom’s Guide, NordVPN has introduced a new email protection feature to its Threat Protection Pro security suite. The feature automatically scans all visible links in emails opened in a web browser, comparing them against a database of known malicious sites. If a dangerous link is found, it flags it with a red shield icon and displays a warning banner at the top of the email. Product director Domininkas Virbickas stated the tool is a proactive layer of defense against phishing, which remains the #1 tool for malicious actors. The feature is available now for Mac and Windows VPN users and works without needing special permissions to read email content, as it only analyzes links.
How it actually works
So here’s the basic idea: you open an email in Gmail or Outlook on your browser, and in the background, NordVPN‘s tool instantly parses every link it can see. It’s not reading your email’s text, which is a smart privacy move. It’s just grabbing those URLs and checking them against a known-bad list. If there’s a hit, you get that red shield. But here’s the thing—it only works on visible links in an open email. That means if a scammer hides a link behind an image or uses some clever formatting, the scanner might miss it. And you probably should wait a second after opening an email for the scan to complete. It’s a good, reactive shield against known threats, but it’s not a silver bullet for every sophisticated phishing attempt out there.
The bigger picture
Look, phishing is a massive problem. We’re talking about an estimated 3.4 billion spam emails daily, with breaches costing businesses millions. For a company like NordVPN, layering in these security features is a no-brainer. It makes their VPN subscription stickier. Why would you cancel if it’s also quietly protecting your inbox from scams? This follows their other 2025 additions like scam call protection. They’re building a whole security ecosystem, not just a tunnel for your internet traffic. It’s a smart business play in a crowded market. But does it replace a dedicated email security gateway for a business? Not a chance. This is very much a consumer-grade, post-delivery safety net.
Privacy and trade-offs
I think the most clever part of this is the privacy-preserving approach. They explicitly note the feature doesn’t require special email permissions because it’s not analyzing content. That’s crucial for a company whose brand is built on privacy. It scans locally on your machine, in the moment. But that local, real-time analysis has a limitation: it’s dependent on that database of known threats. A brand-new phishing site (a “zero-hour” threat) might slip through until it’s added to the list. So it’s excellent for blocking widespread, known campaigns, but it’s not an AI predicting new ones. Basically, it’s a very useful tool that should be part of a larger security habit—like still not clicking suspicious links from senders you don’t know.
