The digital landscape today is ever changing, with threat vectors constantly emerging, so security should be a major concern for any organization. Others use them to run their business through web browsers. As the adoption of cloud technologies accelerates, modern browser attacks are increasingly prevalent, making it essential for businesses to address these vulnerabilities. Suresh Batchu, the COO and Co-founder of Seraphic Security, emphasizes that ensuring browser security must now be a priority for enterprises.
Organizations will need to undergo regular, quarterly browser audits just to catalogue plugins. This ongoing process allows them to find and root out any shadow software as a service (SaaS) and proactively fight against threats. Staff education on a continual basis is key. It educates them on the newest attack methods, from the risks of malicious extensions to the threats posed by phishing attacks.
Batchu co-founded MobileIron, and is an inventor on 46 different US patents on the subjects of networking, security, identity, and mobility. He stresses that legacy security approaches, including data loss prevention systems, next-generation firewalls and secure web gateways, no longer protect the fast-evolving, cloud-native ecosystems that today’s enterprises are built upon.
The Shift in Security Paradigms
The security landscape has changed completely, with today’s browsers becoming the new front lines in the battle against cybercriminals. Adversaries have caught up and changed their tactics to take advantage of zero-day vulnerabilities in rendering engines. Now they’re leveraging today’s sophisticated ad supply chains as new entry points for drive-by malware. This evolution requires a rethinking of the way organizations think about and approach cybersecurity.
In the past, signature-based, traditional endpoint detection and response solutions have been largely dependent on signature updates to detect attacks. This approach has been found wanting when faced with the advanced techniques used by today’s cyber enemies. The new exploitation playbook foreshadows urgent attack tactics that further highlights the need for an extensible browser security model.
Organizations must prioritize security at the board level, ensuring that browser security becomes an integral aspect of their overall cybersecurity strategy. By prioritizing and improving their real-time visibility, companies can navigate through this new era of cyber resilience. They need to correct for legacy blind spots and avoid adding user friction.
Educating Employees on Cyber Threats
A key part of any effective cybersecurity strategy is training employees on how to recognize dangerous threats such as phishing scams. Ongoing employee training reinforces their ability to identify phishing schemes and educates them on the consequences of not checking for harmful browser extensions. Recent advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) have enabled attackers to rapidly scrape data from social media. They have the capability of creating very credible spear-phishing attacks to impersonate a company employee or executive.
Batchu stresses that organizations must cultivate a culture of cybersecurity awareness among their workforce. By fostering an environment where employees are vigilant about potential threats and understand the importance of cybersecurity practices, organizations can significantly reduce their risk exposure.
Fostering an effective collaboration between security and IT teams is key for smooth coordination on patch enforcement and extension policies. Organizations should implement and enforce these policies on all company-owned devices. They need to take these measures and apply them to bring-your-own-device (BYOD) endpoints to continue a winning security strategy.
The Future of Cybersecurity in Browsers
As organizations continue to face the complexities of today’s cybersecurity challenges head on, it is imperative that they evolve their strategies to better address emerging threats. Batchu claims rigorous browser security will help businesses better weather future storms of new risk. By adding detailed browser audits to their cybersecurity arsenals, organizations can greatly bolster their protections against advanced attacks. Continuous employee education is integral to improving organizations’ security posture.
Seraphic Security is leading the charge on the cyber safari, pushing for more robust security from browsers. They have published a whitepaper titled “Secure Enterprise Browsers: The New Frontier of Cybersecurity,” which outlines actionable strategies for enhancing browser safety within organizations.