Shaquille O'Neal is pitching for NordVPN after being targeted by scammers who claimed he was buying a house and that they were handling the transaction. At a promotional event in Times Square, O'Neal said the incident pushed him to learn more about cybersecurity. "I was hacked for the first time, not a bad hack, and I didn't know what to do," he told reporters, adding that he now believes everyone needs control over their own information.
O'Neal acknowledged that his high profile makes him think about extra precautions for himself and his loved ones, but he tries not to let that worry take over. "You have to be able to have great reactionary skills if something happens," he said. NordVPN's chief technology officer, Marijus Briedis, pointed to a company poll showing that 73 percent of Americans are overconfident in traditional antivirus software. "The weakest link is between the computer and the chair," Briedis said, explaining that NordVPN is now focused on education.
This account is based on a single WIRED report from the promotional event, and the poll was commissioned by NordVPN itself, so the figures and quotes should be read with that context in mind. O'Neal's comments were made in his capacity as a brand ambassador, not as an independent security expert.