Latest news with #NordSecurity
Forbes
27-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
94 Billion Stolen Browser Tracking Cookies Published To Dark Web
Billions of leaked browser tracking cookies are available on the dark web. Although you would be right to be concerned about the number of compromised credentials that have been published to the dark web, some 19 billion passwords alone, there's more to worry about than just the stolen password problem. Even as the FBI is recognized for having success as part of Operation RapTor, disrupting dark web marketplaces, and Microsoft's Digital Crimes Unit likewise for disrupting the Lumma Stealer password-compromising malware infrastructure, so the true scope of shadowy criminal hacker resource forums emerges. The latest research has confirmed the truly staggering number of stolen browser tracking cookies that have been published on the dark web, all 94 billion, along with the hacking threats that accompany them. Here's what you need to know. Nord Security's Aurelija Skebaite has revealed in a May 27 report how threat exposure researchers at NordStellar analyzed 93.7 stolen browser cookies found on the dark web. While most cookies can be thought of as harmless enough, in the overall scheme of life on the internet, once they get into the wrong hands, all bets are off. 'Even the smallest crumb can reveal a whole digital trail,' Skebaite warned, 'so accepting web cookies blindly can be a risky habit.' The newly published research reveals just how risky. The research revealed what NordVPN has called a massive malware operation. The total of 94 billion cookies stolen is bad enough, a 74% increase from the 2024 report totals from the same researchers, but more than 20% of them are currently active and pose a threat to user privacy and security, which is even worse. There are some 18 billion assigned IDs and 1.2 billion session IDs exposed, critical data types when it comes to identifying users and securing their online accounts. 'The stolen information often included full names, email addresses, cities, passwords, and physical addresses,' Skebaite said, 'key personal data that can be used for identity theft, fraud, and unauthorized account access.' Digging into the data, the researchers found that there were more than 4.5 billion cookies associated with Gmail, Google Drive and assorted Google services, with YouTube and Microsoft also accounting for more than a billion cookies each. 'Popular platforms make for tasty targets because you can scrape more information off of them,' Skebaite explained. Here's the kicker, though, using stolen session cookies could give hackers access to email, files, calendars, and accounts, 'with no need to guess passwords or trigger two-factor authentication.' Several mitigations can be considered, including blocking cookies and not accepting them initially. Rejecting unnecessary cookies is always a good move, and third-party ones that track you, especially so. You can always reject them, and if it impacts your use of a website, then you have the option to go back and accept. Whatever, I would recommend clearing your browser cookie cache, along with your browsing history, on a regular basis. If nothing else, as Skebaite said, 'it helps reduce the window of time during which your data can be hijacked.'
The Independent
15-05-2025
- The Independent
NordVPN vs Surfshark: I put price, features and streaming to the test
When choosing the best VPN, two names often rise to the top: NordVPN and Surfshark. Both offer powerful privacy tools, fast speeds and strong security, but which one is actually the best? At a glance, they seem almost identical. Each comes with thousands of servers, support for WireGuard and OpenVPN protocols, and features like split tunnelling, kill switches and ad blocking. But dig a little deeper, and there are a few key differences, particularly around pricing, device limits and advanced security extras that might make one a better fit for your setup. It's also worth noting that both VPNs are owned by the same parent company, Nord Security, after merging in 2022. That means they share similar infrastructure and privacy policies, but they're still operated independently. Below, we break down the pros and cons of NordVPN and Surfshark to help you decide which is the best VPN for you. How we tested Both of these VPNs were tested on multiple devices. We put them through their paces on an Android Nothing Phone (2a), an iPhone 15 Pro Max, a MacBook Pro laptop and a Windows laptop. We analysed each VPN's speed, measuring how quickly they connected, buffered and streamed, then compared them to each other. We also assessed security and privacy claims, and tested out bonus features like split tunnelling, kill switches, and double VPNs. All our recommended VPNs are tested under ideal conditions to keep tests fair, but we also try them in areas with poor wifi to see how they buffer under pressure. We've also tested them in public hotspots like cafes to ensure that they can handle dodgy security setups and heavy traffic. We've even tried them on streaming sticks. Why trust us Senior tech critic Alex Lee has reviewed hundreds of different tech products, especially VPNs. Over his career, Alex has tested every major VPN service, assessing their budget and premium offerings to understand every inch of the market. NordVPN vs Surfshark: Price If you're looking for a VPN that won't break the bank, both NordVPN and Surfshark are reasonably priced. However, Surfshark is generally cheaper on long-term plans. NordVPN isn't exactly pricey, but it costs about £1 more per month than Surfshark when you commit to a longer subscription. That said, it's still more affordable than ExpressVPN, and for what you get, we'd say it's worth considering. NordVPN has three tiers – basic, plus and ultimate. The cheapest option is the two-year basic plan, which costs £62.16 up-front (about £2.59 per month). The one-year plan costs £45.48 (£3.79 per month), and if you don't want to be locked into a long contract, the monthly plan costs £10.09. The plus plan, which adds malware protection and a password manager, costs £81.36 for two years (£3.39 per month), £55.08 for one year (£4.59 per month) or £10.79 per month. The ultimate plan, which includes 1TB of secure cloud storage and cyber insurance covering up to £5,000 if you get scammed online, costs £126.96 over two years (£5.29 per month), £77.87 for one year (£6.49 per month), or £12.79 per month. All plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee, so if it's not for you, you can cancel within a month for a full refund. Surfshark also has three tiers – starter, one and Surfshark one+. Prices fluctuate due to promotions, but generally, a 24-month Starter plan is the cheapest, costing £45.63 upfront (about £1.69 per month). A 12-month plan costs £38.85 (£2.59 per month), while the monthly plan is a steep £12.29 – making it more expensive than NordVPN's equivalent monthly option. Surfshark offers a seven-day free trial on mobile, and like NordVPN, it has a 30-day money-back guarantee if you decide it's not for you. The biggest perk of Surfshark? Unlimited device connections. You don't need to worry about which devices are logged in – you can connect as many as you like. NordVPN recently upped its limit to 10, which is better than before, but still doesn't match Surfshark's unlimited number of devices. Also, one word of advice: If you go for a long-term NordVPN or Surfshark plan, set a reminder to cancel before it renews. Once the initial contract is up, the renewal price shoots up significantly, and you might not want to be locked into another two years at a much higher rate. We've seen customers locked in battles with VPN companies over unexpected auto-renewals, struggling to get refunds or cancel their plans. While both NordVPN and Surfshark allow cancellations, it's always better to be proactive than to deal with a frustrating back-and-forth with customer support. If you think you won't need it for that long, just go for the one-month option; it'll work out cheaper in the long run. Winner: Surfshark Surfshark takes this one. It's cheaper on long-term plans, lets you connect unlimited devices and offers the same 30-day money-back guarantee. But if you don't want to commit to a lengthy subscription, NordVPN's one-month plan is actually the better deal. NordVPN vs Surfshark: Privacy and features Both NordVPN and Surfshark come with all the security bells and whistles you'd expect from any bog-standard VPN. They both give you AES-256 encryption, support for WireGuard and OpenVPN protocols, a kill switch and split tunnelling support. They also both offer multi-hop connections – NordVPN calls it Double VPN, a feature that routes your traffic through two servers for extra security. But there are differences in the feature set. NordVPN throws in more security features up front, like Onion over VPN, which lets you route your traffic through the Tor network for extra anonymity. It also has dedicated P2P servers for torrenting, optimised for faster speeds. Another small but handy perk with NordVPN is its pause feature, which lets you temporarily turn off the VPN without fully disconnecting – something Surfshark doesn't offer. NordVPN wins here when it comes to features at the basic tier. If you upgrade to a higher tier, things start to even out. NordVPN's plus and ultimate plans include NordPass, a password manager, and a dark web monitoring tool, which scans for leaked credentials. Surfshark's one and one plus plans also include a password manager and data breach alerts, so neither has an edge. Both offer ad and malware blockers – NordVPN calls it Threat Protection Pro, while Surfshark calls it CleanWeb – but these are only available on paid plans above the base tier. We also found NordVPN's Threat Protection Pro better at filtering out ads and trackers than Surfshark's CleanWeb. Higher tiers of Surfshark also come with a handy search engine, a private search engine that delivers organic results without tracking or ads. It's nice and clean, and a nice perk over NordVPN. Where they really differ is in extra cybersecurity tools. NordVPN's ultimate plan includes 1TB of encrypted cloud storage and cyber insurance that covers up to £5,000 if you get scammed online. Surfshark doesn't offer those, but its top-tier plan includes Alternative ID, which generates a fake email address and phone number for extra privacy. Winner: NordVPN NordVPN gives you more security tools in its base plan without making you pay extra, making it better value for anyone serious about privacy. Surfshark is still a great option if you need unlimited devices, a private search tool or Alternative ID, but NordVPN includes more privacy features up-front without forcing an upgrade. NordVPN vs Surfshark: Logging and transparency Both NordVPN and Surfshark promise that they don't log user data, and both have been independently audited to prove it. NordVPN has had five separate audits – PWC checked its no-logs policy in 2018 and 2020, while Deloitte ran further audits in 2022, 2023 and the most recent one in late 2024, confirming it doesn't store user data. Surfshark has been audited fewer times, but it still passed its no-log audits. Cure53 assessed its browser extensions in 2018 and its server infrastructure in 2021, finding no major issue, and in late 2022, Deloitte verified Surfshark's no-logs claims, giving it the same kind of stamp of approval as NordVPN. Both VPNs also run on RAM-based servers, meaning no data is stored long-term, and everything is wiped on reboot. NordVPN operates out of Panama, a country with no mandatory data retention laws, while Surfshark is based in the Netherlands, which is part of the Nine Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance. Some privacy-conscious users might prefer NordVPN's location, but since neither VPN keeps logs, it shouldn't matter in practice. That said, NordVPN nor Surfshark have been completely free from security concerns. NordVPN suffered a server breach in 2018, where a hacker gained access to a third-party data centre in Finland. No user data was compromised, but NordVPN didn't disclose the breach until a year later, which understandably led to some trust issues. Surfshark hasn't had a breach like that, but in 2021, researchers found that some of its old Indian servers were still online after it claimed they had been shut down, so you might be concerned about how its infrastructure is managed. Winner: Draw Neither instance resulted in any leaked user data, and both VPNs have taken steps to improve their security since. Still, NordVPN has been more proactive with its third-party audits, and Surfshark has worked on improving its infrastructure. If complete transparency is a dealbreaker, NordVPN's delayed breach disclosure might give you pause, but if audit frequency matters, it's ahead of Surfshark. They're both trustworthy VPNs, so there's no real winner in terms of logging. NordVPN vs Surfshark: Performance and speed The NordVPN desktop app is a little cluttered, with a large interactive map that takes up more space than it probably needs to. Surfshark's simpler layout is easier to navigate, especially for beginners. That said, NordVPN gets a lot of things right. The pause button is easy to access, searching for specific servers is straightforward and useful settings like the kill switch are enabled by default, so you don't have to mess around with them. NordVPN's sidebar is also pretty handy, giving quick access to threat protection, dark web monitoring and usage stats. Mac users also get handy server presets for speed, downloads and browsing, and we could even create custom presets with our preferred settings. The one downside is that split tunnelling is only available on Windows. This split tuneling is flawed, too – we ran into occasional hiccups with certain streaming services detecting the VPN despite whitelisting them. Surfshark's interface is much more streamlined. Instead of a large map, it sticks to a simple alphabetical server list on the left, along with quick-connect buttons for static IP addresses and multi-hop servers. It feels more beginner-friendly while still giving advanced users plenty of options. Surfshark's browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox also work well, mirroring the desktop experience, though they lack access to features like the kill switch and Whitelister. If you can, the desktop app is the better option. In terms of speed, NordVPN remains one of the fastest VPNs we've tested. Using its quick-connect UK server, we saw only a four per cent drop in download speed on a 67 Mbps connection, while connecting to the US only slowed things down by about nine per cent. That's incredibly fast, making it a great option for streaming, gaming and downloading content. Surfshark has also improved massively in this area and now keeps up with NordVPN. On the WireGuard protocol, Surfshark's UK servers only dropped speeds by around five per cent, while even more distant servers saw just an 11 per cent drop. Streaming on UK services like BBC iPlayer and ITVX was seamless, with no buffering or lag. Winner: NordVPN In terms of raw speed, NordVPN takes the edge, but Surfshark has closed the gap and is no longer as sluggish as in previous tests. Surfshark also has a more user-friendly interface, whereas NordVPN offers more customisation and additional features. If speed is your main concern, NordVPN is the faster option, but for ease of use, Surfshark is the simpler choice. NordVPN vs Surfshark: Streaming If you're travelling abroad and want to stream your favourite shows or catch up on sports from back home, both NordVPN and Surfshark make that possible. While using a VPN to access geo-restricted content isn't illegal, it does violate most streaming services' terms of service, so there's always a risk of platforms cracking down on VPN usage. That said, both let us stream Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Disney+ and more without running into annoying proxy errors. NordVPN is particularly good for streaming thanks to its obfuscated servers, which mask VPN usage so platforms couldn't detect we were using one. In our tests, streaming services never flagged the connection, and we were able to watch BBC iPlayer, Sky Go, ITVX, Channel 4 and Prime Video on an iPhone, Mac and Windows laptop without interruption. Speeds were fast enough that we didn't experience buffering, even when streaming live sports. Another big plus is that NordVPN rarely requires switching servers – it just works straight away, without the hassle of finding a working connection. Winner: Draw Surfshark performs just as well for Netflix, Disney+ and BBC iPlayer, and in our tests, we could stream on desktop, iOS and Android with no buffering issues. Prime Video worked fine, though it's worth noting that Amazon ties accounts to billing regions, so if you try to access Prime Video from another country, it might still flag you as travelling rather than fully changing your region. Ultimately, both VPNs let us stream BBC iPlayer, ITVX and Channel 4, with very little buffering or proxy errors.
The Independent
01-05-2025
- Business
- The Independent
NordVPN vs ExpressVPN, compared by a tech expert
When it comes to the best VPNs, NordVPN and ExpressVPN are right up there. They've got strong security credentials, speedy streaming performance and are dead easy to use, but which one is better? As with most things, it depends on what you want from your VPN – and how much you're willing to spend. Owned by Nord Security – a company that also operates Surfshark – NordVPN is extremely affordable and has a stacked feature list. ExpressVPN, meanwhile, is owned by Kape Technologies. It's simpler to use, especially for beginners – but it has a much more premium price tag in comparison. Below, we've compared the two to help you decide which is right for you. Whether you prioritise price and features or just want something fast, secure and simple to use, there's enough there to differentiate them, and it all depends on how you'll use a VPN or what you want it for. If you don't want to spend too much on a VPN, NordVPN is one of the cheapest around (if you opt for a longer-term plan). While ExpressVPN is one of the priciest options, it recently readjusted its subscription tiers, making it a lot cheaper than it was previously (if you opt for one of the longer-term plans), though still expensive in comparison to NordVPN. NordVPN has three tiers – basic, plus and ultimate. The cheapest option is the 27-month basic plan, which costs £64.53 up-front (about £2.39 per month). The one-year plan costs £46.68 (£3.89 per month), and if you don't want to be locked into a long contract, the monthly plan costs £10.19 per month. NordVPN is always running various different promotions, so the prices can fluctuate. Also, don't take too much notice of the 'three extra months' messaging underneath the two-year plans, those are usually rolled into the full price. But NordVPN has more than just one basic plan. You can also opt for the plus plan, which adds malware protection and a password manager. It costs £86.13 for 27 months (£3.19 per month), £56.28 for one year (£4.69 per month) or £10.99 if you'd prefer to pay monthly. The ultimate plan, which includes 1TB of secure cloud storage and cyber insurance covering up to £5,000 if you get scammed online, costs £137.43 for a 27-month plan (£5.09 per month), £80.28 for one year (£6.69 per month), or £12.09 if you'd prefer to pay on a monthly basis. All plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee, so if it's not for you, you can cancel within a month for a full refund. What's nice about ExpressVPN is that it keeps things simple with one standard tier – you don't need to upgrade to a plus or ultimate tier to get all of the features. Some might love this, but we can see why some might prefer NordVPN's pick-and-mix style pricing model. A 28-month plan costs £112.88, which works out to around £4.04 per month. A 15-month plan costs £80.75 (£5.39 per month) and if you prefer to pay for your VPN on a monthly basis, you'll pay £10.46 per month. Like NordVPN, ExpressVPN also has a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you can get a refund if you're not entirely satisfied. A word of advice: If you go for a long-term NordVPN or ExpressVPN plan, set a reminder to cancel before it renews. Once the initial contract is up, the renewal price shoots up significantly, and you might not want to be locked into another two-year subscription, billed at a much higher price. We've seen users charged hundreds of pounds because they forgot to cancel, so if you don't want to be locked into a lengthy back-and-forth with VPN companies, trying to secure a refund, we'd recommend either just being proactive with your cancellation, or opting for the (far safer) monthly option. In any case, NordVPN wins this battle. The basic plan costs less, no matter which subscription length you go for – even the monthly plan is cheaper. Both NordVPN and ExpressVPN come with the standard security basics you'd expect from any VPN provider. Classic AES-256 encryption is ticked off, there are kill switches, so your internet is cut off if your VPN connection drops, as well as split tunnelling (so you can split certain apps and websites off from the VPN) and DNS leak protection. NordVPN uses NordLynx, its custom version of WireGuard, while ExpressVPN uses Lightway, a protocol it built from the ground up to be fast and lightweight. NordVPN also includes a few more advanced features up front. Its Double VPN feature routes your traffic through two servers for extra anonymity, while Onion over VPN lets you route your traffic through the Tor network without using a separate browser. NordVPN also throws in Threat Protection Pro, a built-in tool that blocks malware, ads and trackers system-wide, even when you're not connected to a VPN server. ExpressVPN keeps things simpler. It doesn't offer double VPN or Onion integration, but it has recently introduced a password manager, a tracker-blocking Threat Manager tool and parallel connections, which help connect to servers faster. In early 2025, ExpressVPN also added Lightway Turbo and post-quantum encryption to future-proof its protocol against emerging security threats. One small difference is device support. NordVPN lets you connect up to 10 devices on one account. ExpressVPN has a limit of eight, which is still decent but might matter if you're juggling phones, laptops, tablets and smart TVs. NordVPN offers a bigger set of features at its base plan, including double VPN and Onion routing, without needing upgrades. ExpressVPN nails simplicity and speed, but NordVPN gives you more tools for a cheaper price. Both NordVPN and ExpressVPN state that they don't keep logs of your data, and both have had that claim independently audited multiple times. NordVPN has been through five no-logs audits since 2018, the latest was completed by Deloitte in February 2025. Deloitte looked at NordVPN's server setups and IT systems and confirmed there wasn't any data collection or retention. On top of that, NordVPN also had all its apps and extensions audited by Cure53 between June and August 2024. While it uncovered 31 minor security issues (some more serious than others), most were patched quickly, and no critical security issues were found. ExpressVPN has a longer track record of audits – more than 22 independent ones now, including a major audit by KPMG in May 2024, which signed off on its no-logs policy and TrustedServer tech. Plus, there's the real-world proof from 2017, when Turkish authorities seized an ExpressVPN server but found absolutely nothing, thanks to its RAM-only setup. NordVPN is based in Panama, which has no data retention laws, and ExpressVPN is based in the British Virgin Islands, which is also privacy-friendly. Ownership may also factor into your choice. NordVPN's parent company, Nord Security, is seen as a cybersecurity-first firm, and it doesn't have much of a shady past. ExpressVPN's owner, Kape Technologies' history is a little bit murkier, however. Kape used to distribute adware and malware before it bought a tranche of VPN providers, including ExpressVPN, CyberGhost and Private Internet Access. Kape has cleaned up its act since, but it's still something to be aware of. Both VPNs have been independently audited and boast RAM-only servers. While NordVPN has more frequent no-log audits, both are trustworthy providers who've been going for quite a while. NordVPN is one of the fastest VPNs we've tested. On a 67Mbps UK fibre connection, using NordLynx, download speeds only dropped by around four per cent. Even connecting to US servers only slowed things down by about nine per cent. ExpressVPN is close behind. Using its Lightway Turbo protocol, UK speeds dropped by about five per cent, and US connections saw about an eight per cent dip. Both VPNs kept streaming and gaming fast and smooth. Where NordVPN edges ahead is server customisation. The desktop app lets you set server presets, monitor dark web breaches, and tweak connection types. ExpressVPN, in contrast, keeps things clean and simple – a big round button to connect, a collapsible server list and an easy interface. For beginners, ExpressVPN's interface might be more intuitive, but for those who want advanced options, NordVPN gives you more to play with. NordVPN is marginally faster and offers better customisation for power users. ExpressVPN is easier to navigate but can't match the same level of customisability. It's close though. If you're travelling abroad and want to stream shows from back home, both VPNs make it possible. They reliably gave us access to BBC iPlayer, Sky Go, Channel 4, ITVX, Disney+ and Netflix in our tests. NordVPN's obfuscated servers made it particularly good for streaming abroad. We didn't have to swap servers often to find one that worked, and streaming was consistently smooth across all platforms. ExpressVPN performed just as well. Whether on desktop, Android or iOS, we streamed The Apprentice and Race Across the World on BBC iPlayer and caught up with Celebrity Big Brother on ITVX without any buffering or proxy errors. It's worth noting that some streaming services, like Prime Video, may still flag your billing region rather than your streaming IP, no matter which VPN you use. But for simply accessing UK content, both VPNs worked perfectly. Winner: Draw Both VPNs are excellent for streaming, offering seamless playback and reliable access to your content, especially good for catching up on your favourite UK shows while travelling abroad. NordVPN and ExpressVPN are two of the best VPNs you can subscribe to, but they cater to slightly different needs. NordVPN is better for those who want top speeds, more privacy features and a cheaper price point. It's a fuller product, packed with extras like Double VPN, Onion over VPN and a better Threat Protection. ExpressVPN, on the other hand, is the best pick if you value simplicity and consistency. It's fast, easy to use and has one of the cleanest interfaces around. It's perfect for beginners who just want a VPN that works without the need to tweak settings. For most people, NordVPN takes the win by a hair – offering more for less. But if ease of use is your top priority, ExpressVPN remains an excellent choice.
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
From bootstrapped to billions: How Nord spent ‘hundreds of millions' minting VPN customers to become Lithuania's tech darling
Nord Security started as an obscure, bootstrapped company in a part of the world where tech champions are rare: Lithuania. But it didn't take long for it to become mainstream with its niche (and sometimes expensive) cyber security and virtual private network (VPN) products. Tomas Okmanas and Eimantas Sabaliauskas saw this opportunity in 2012 while pursuing careers in IT and decided it was worth exploring. Nord applied simple logic to help it grow: People rely on the internet for everything, which means the need for online security will only increase with time. Indeed, it did—Nord found a huge market among privacy-hungry internet surfers. Okmanas admits that when the company was founded, 'no one cared' outside of a few tech companies that took cybersecurity seriously. As they continued building Nord, the use cases and demand grew. That also meant the founding duo had to become adept at more than just engineering. 'I've now had to learn [about] finance, the legal world, corporate governance, and then how to run teams and companies,' Okmanas told Fortune last year. Best known for its VPN software, Nord allows users to use the Internet while protecting their data and IP addresses. That means more privacy for the average user when browsing the web—but the technology is also highly controversial. VPNs can be used to circumvent government restrictions on the web and have been attacked by Hollywood film studios for their use in piracy and copyright infringement. But Lithuania-based Nord isn't bogged down by these legal and ethical concerns. It focuses on bolstering its primary use case of securely using the web. The company's servers don't log user data—which is part of the privacy spiel. It has argued that ad nauseum, and told Fortune that people using VPN solely to access blocked or unavailable streaming services is 'outdated.' Okmanas says that Nord's tools are rarely used for illegal or wrongful purposes. The company also has systems in place to prevent security breaches and other online threats. 'Our goal is really to connect as much people as possible to this Nord cloud network, where people could use it in a very safe way,' he said. The broad strokes of Nord's growth are remarkable: in 2022, 10 years after its founding, it achieved unicorn status, has over 15 million users worldwide, and is one of Lithuania's most well-known companies (Vinted is another one). Okmanas said Nord has seen 'tremendous growth' over the years. In September 2023, the company raised $100 million at a $3 billion valuation, nearly double the amount it raised when it became a unicorn a year earlier. The company has been out shopping to help with its expansion. It announced a merger with Surfshark in 2022 and purchased competitor IronWall this year, helping Nord grow its clout in cybersecurity and beyond. Most of Nord's user base is centered in the U.S. and spans a wide age range, while the rest of its customers are a mixed bag of average internet users and small and medium-sized businesses. Nord has made its presence felt—it's not unusual to stumble on its ads while listening to a podcast or watching a YouTube or TikTok video (its VPN was spotted being used by rapper Drake, Bloomberg reported). Okmanas says this is a deliberate effort to educate more people on Nord's online tools. That's just one of the many ways the company spends to get new customers on board as online threats continue to loom. 'We spend hundreds of millions of dollars for our customer acquisition, and it works. Users see the value, and we're very happy,' Okmanas said. Nord has another building coming up in Vilnius as it continues to expand its business. For companies of a big enough scale as Nord, an IPO seems like the natural next step (at least that's what Airbnb and Uber did, and it's one of the avenues companies are lured to). But Nord doesn't see it that way. Their goal is IPO readiness but not necessarily to go public immediately, as it's a good barometer of where the company stands. 'We have big ambitions but don't need that to do an IPO,' Okmanas said. Nord may have started small, but it has been profitable on a cash flow basis since the beginning. It turned EBITDA-positive last year. He said Nord is under no deadline but wants to prepare it so that it's ready for an IPO at the 'press of a button.' 'But for sure, we don't need it, and we won't do it in the next six months or a year,' the co-CEO said. 'We're in a very lucky position where we're growing extremely fast, and we're very profitable.' A version of this story was originally published on on Sep. 30, 2024. This story was originally featured on Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
SentinelOne (NYSE:S) Unveils Purple AI 'Athena' To Revolutionize Cybersecurity With Advanced AI Capabilities
The recent 14% price increase for SentinelOne over the last week coincided with the unveiling of their next-gen Purple AI 'Athena' at RSA Conference 2025, featuring enhanced security capabilities that likely bolstered investor confidence. Additionally, a strategic collaboration with Nord Security aimed at enhancing cybersecurity for SMBs may have positively impacted sentiment. While these developments occurred amidst an overall market rise, the company's innovations in AI and security solutions contributed uniquely to its momentum. Broader market trends, such as investor optimism following solid earnings and a potential easing of tariff concerns, likely provided additional upward pressure. We've spotted 2 warning signs for SentinelOne you should be aware of. AI is about to change healthcare. These 26 stocks are working on everything from early diagnostics to drug discovery. The best part - they are all under $10b in market cap - there's still time to get in early. The unveiling of SentinelOne's Purple AI 'Athena' and collaboration with Nord Security are significant moves that could influence the company's trajectory in AI-native cybersecurity. These announcements could enhance revenue prospects by attracting clients seeking advanced security solutions, particularly among SMBs. However, despite these developments, SentinelOne's total return, including share price and dividends, was 14.93% lower over the past year. This contrasts sharply with the broader U.S. market's 7.7% increase and underperformance against the software industry, which grew by 7.6% over the same period. This recent price increase also places SentinelOne's shares in an interesting position concerning the analyst consensus price target of US$24.28. With the current share price at US$16.36, there's a 32.6% discount to the target, potentially indicating significant upside if revenue and earnings align with analyst expectations. The anticipated revenue growth of 15.89% annually and strategic alliances could drive fulfilment of these projections. Still, SentinelOne's forecasted unprofitability over the coming years suggests a cautious approach, keeping in mind the ongoing reliance on non-GAAP financial measures and economic uncertainties. Investors may view this news as a positive momentum catalyst, yet the company's path to profitability remains a critical consideration in future analyses. Review our growth performance report to gain insights into SentinelOne's future. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned. Companies discussed in this article include NYSE:S. Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@ Sign in to access your portfolio
