Shaquille O'Neal and NordVPN Take Over Times Square to Spotlight Digital Threats

At the event, professional basketball players challenged members of the public to slam dunk, drawing a parallel to how NordVPN's Next Gen Antivirus intercepts and blocks malware and phishing attempts before they can reach a user's device. The audience was invited to try to score against experienced players, only to be blocked by professionals in a demonstration of what NordVPN described as real defense in action.

NordVPN says its Next Gen Antivirus scans 12 million unique URLs daily and blocks an average of 130,000 malicious pages. According to the company, it blocked nearly 5 million malware attempts in the United States in the first months of 2026. The provider has been moving beyond a simple VPN product toward an all-in-one security offering, and the Times Square event formed part of that broader campaign.

The basketball-themed promotion also followed NordVPN's recent warning that Americans are suffering from a 'delulu-clash' over their cybersecurity knowledge. Research by NordVPN found that 71 percent of respondents believe common sense is enough to navigate digital threats. Almost three-quarters of respondents believe they are perfectly capable of spotting online scams, despite evidence to the contrary.

The findings showed that 74 percent of Americans were unable to spot a fake URL and 82 percent failed to recognize a fake CAPTCHA. Fewer than half correctly identified a phishing email disguised as a job recruitment message. More than half, or 51 percent, reuse the same password or similar passwords across different accounts. NordVPN said the users most confident in their own abilities tend to be the ones who reuse passwords.

NordVPN also reported that 73 percent of Americans have already fallen victim to a scam recently, with nearly a quarter having suffered or being at risk of suffering a financial loss. At the event, O'Neal said, '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.'