Introduction
The Cloud-based threat scanner is a deep-scanning tool within NordVPN's Scam, phishing, and malware protection. It provides an additional layer of security by sending potentially suspicious files to a secure cloud server for in-depth analysis. This advanced process is designed to improve malware detection and protect your device from new, rare, and unknown threats that a standard scan might not catch.
Features of the Cloud-based threat scanner:
- Advanced sandboxing – Executes suspicious files in a controlled cloud environment to safely observe their behavior and identify malicious activity before it can reach your system.
- Enhanced threat detection – Specializes in identifying complex and zero-day threats that may not be flagged by conventional, signature-based scanning methods.
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Privacy-first design – Protects your privacy by only uploading specific executable files (like
.exeor.dll). Personal files such as images, PDFs, or text documents are never scanned in the cloud. - User-controlled – The feature is turned off by default to respect your privacy and requires separate consent to be enabled, giving you full control over whether your files undergo this deeper level of analysis.
Requirements
- Make sure you have the NordVPN Plus or Ultimate subscription active.
- The NordVPN application is installed on your macOS or Windows device.
- The main Scam, phishing, and malware protection feature must be turned on first.
- The Malware scanner must be turned on, as the Cloud-based threat scanner depends on it to function.
Here's what to do
- Open the NordVPN app.
- Click the shield icon on the left side of the NordVPN application to open Scam, phishing, and malware protection.
- Open Advanced settings (via the Protection preferences card).
- Under Anti-malware, click Malware scanner:
- Make sure the Malware scanner toggle is turned on (the Cloud-based threat scanner toggle is disabled while the Malware scanner is off).
- Turn on the Cloud-based threat scanner. This toggle is off by default to respect your privacy, so you'll need to enable it manually:
Additional tips
- This deep scan only applies to portable executable files (like
.exeand.dll) under 4 MB. Your personal data is always safe, as files like images, PDFs, and text documents will never be uploaded to the cloud for scanning. - Because this feature uploads and executes a file in the cloud, it can add a slight delay to the scanning process. This brief wait is a small trade-off for the significantly improved security and peace of mind it provides against advanced threats.
- If you turn the Malware scanner off, the Cloud-based threat scanner is automatically disabled along with it. Turn the malware scanner back on to use cloud-based scanning again.
