Posted in: Pop Culture, Technology | Tagged: NordVPN, Shaquille O’neal
NordVPN Teams With Shaquille O’Neal To Promote Online Protection
NordVPN held a special event recently with a very special guest, as Shaquille O’Neal showed up to help promote online protection
Article Summary
- NordVPN teamed with Shaquille O’Neal for a Times Square stunt highlighting why stronger online protection matters now.
- NordVPN says many Americans overestimate scam detection skills, with most failing to spot fake URLs and phishing traps.
- The survey found risky habits persist, including password reuse and heavy reliance on antivirus as cyber threats keep rising.
- Shaq and NordVPN urged people to stay alert, use smarter security tools, and take online protection more seriously.
In probably one of the strangest crossovers we’ve had in 2026, NordVPN launched a new promotion with Shaquille O’Neal in an effort to promote better online protection. The company held a basketball activation in Times Square in which Shaq showed up and chatted about online defense with a high-energy live stunt. It’s total publicity, but the company was attempting to get the word out about protecting yourself, which has become a major topic in recent months, with every single entity on the planet wanting your data. We have more details from the event and their promotion below.
NordVPN Pushes Efforts For People To Take More Protections With Shaq
NordVPN’s latest nationally representative survey backs up the message: American confidence in spotting online fraud far outpaces actual ability:
- Confidence doesn’t equal competence. Nearly half of Americans report high confidence in identifying fake emails, websites, and messages — yet 74% failed to recognize a “typosquatted” fake URL.
- Up to 82% failed to spot that a CAPTCHA pop-up was fake, and less than half correctly identified a phishing email disguised as a job recruitment message.
- Overconfidence drives risky behavior. 71% believe common sense alone is enough to protect them online, and half (51%) reuse the same or similar passwords across accounts — a habit most common among the most confident users.
- Antivirus over-reliance. Nearly half (47%) rely on antivirus software alone to protect them from most cyber threats.
- Scams are everywhere. Among Americans surveyed, 73% recently encountered a scam attempt. Of those, 13% lost or nearly lost money, and 6% suffered permanent unrecovered losses.
Image provided courtesy of NordVPN, picture by Alive Co.
Image provided courtesy of NordVPN, picture by Alive Co.
“I’ve always believed that if you’re in a position to help people, you should. That’s how I try to approach everything I do, and it’s why this partnership makes sense for me,” says Shaquille O’Neal. “You can’t assume something is safe just because it looks familiar. These scammers are getting smarter, and sometimes all it takes is one click or sharing one piece of information. You don’t have to be a cybersecurity expert. You just have to stay alert, make smart choices, and use the right tools to protect yourself. NordVPN helps make that simple.”
“We wanted to make online protection impossible to ignore — and there’s no better way than putting the unstoppable force of nature like Shaq in the middle of Times Square,” says Toma Sabaliauskienė, CMO at NordVPN. “But behind the entertainment is a real problem: Americans believe they can outsmart scammers, and the data proves most can’t. Cybersecurity doesn’t have to be intimidating or complicated. With Shaq’s help, we’re showing people that going big on your online protection is simple — and necessary.”
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