It’s important that organizations of all sizes have a robust security system in place to stop web based threats. Internet connected devices are extremely vulnerable, and businesses need to have comprehensive security in place to protect devices, employees, customers and data. A report from Accenture found that malware and web-based attacks are the two most costly for businesses, and Symantec found that they were also one of the most common, with 1 in 13 web requests leading to malware. Gartner has estimated that 98% of threats are carried out over the internet, and 80% of these are directed at end users as they use their browsers normally.
Browser Isolation is one of the growing solutions to these problems.
What is Browser Isolation?
Browser Isolation is a new approach to web security which focusses on isolating threats rather than blocking access to them. This means that employees can visit malicious websites, or click on a link within phishing emails, but don’t have to worry about malware downloads or viruses.
This works because web browsing doesn’t actually take place on the user device when utilizing Browser Isolation. All user sessions take place on a secure server, and a safe rendering is delivered to the user. The user themselves shouldn’t notice any difference, they should be able to log-on and visit Google for example, as normal, but they will be fully protected from malware, ransomware and any other malicious activity.
How Does Browser Isolation Work?
The best commercial browser isolation solutions are fully cloud based. They don’t require any additional clients, agents or browser plug-ins. Remote Browser Isolation technologies fetch and execute web based commands in secure servers. After every session, the user’s actions are erased, to maintain security and privacy. The server sessions are rendered on the end user device, which provides a native user experience, which works with any operating system or browser.
This means that the Remote Browser isolation can work on any device, and provides a seamless user experience, with no discernible difference between rendered browsing and browsing on the machine. It treats all web content the same, whether cloud Office documents, PDF downloads or SaaS applications such as Zoom and Slack, with little to no noticeable latency to the user.
The user should also be able to use all of their normal controls, such as ‘copy’, ‘paste’ and ‘print’. Essentially users themselves should have no idea that their browsing activity is being rendered rather than taking place locally. This greatly increases security, as all threats are isolated away from devices and users themselves, without impacting productivity.
Key Security Features
These are the key security features and benefits of Remote Browser Isolation:
Blocks Malware
Remote Browser Isolation stops all malware threats, as they are executed totally away from end user devices. This means employees can access all the sites they normally would, without having to worry about threats.
Protects Against Phishing Attacks
All links within emails are opened up in isolation, which prevents users from downloading malware or ransomware from phishing emails. This safeguards against spear-phishing and helps to mitigate the risks of harmful phishing attacks which are the largest type of threats facing organizations at the moment.
Read Only Modes and Data Loss Prevention
Admins can set read only modes to prevent data breaches. Alongside downloads from phishing emails, admins can set policies so that when they click on links admins can only view the web page rather than being able to edit it. This means they are unable to accidentally type in their password or account information.
In addition, admins can prevent data loss, by ensuring that when using isolation, users are unable to upload files to malicious websites.
Document Isolation
All documents are opened away from the endpoint itself. This helps to block the malware and ransomware attacks that can be delivered through malicious files, such as Microsoft Office and Google documents. Admins should however be able to set safe documents so that users can access and edit them offline.
Endpoint Protection
Browser Isolation should protect endpoints from web based threats. They should protect against dynamic content, Adobe Flash based malicious operations and all malicious internet based connections. This provides a safe, secure user experience without impacting on the user’s device performance.
Reporting and Forensics
Solutions should provide admins with logs and reports directly in the admin portal. This means that admins can analyse attacks that have been stopped. These reports should help admins see what threats they are facing and see what users are visiting malicious web pages.
Summary
By isolating browsing activity away from the endpoint, businesses can ensure complete safety from malware, phishing, ransomware and web based threats with reporting.
