With employees spending much of their time working within web browsers, enterprises need a new way to protect their data and systems. This new vulnerability point can introduce phishing, malware, malicious browser extensions, and data exfiltration, if not properly protected.
Enterprises can choose between two primary solutions for browser security: enterprise browsers or browser extensions. While both offer unique benefits, browser extensions present a more efficient, flexible, secure, and user-friendly option. Unlike enterprise browsers that require employees to switch platforms, browser extensions integrate seamlessly into existing browsers like Chrome or Edge, preserving the familiar user experience while providing real-time security controls. They also protect against browser extensions, which enterprise browsers do not.
In this article, we’ll explore four reasons why browser extensions are the ideal choice for enterprises looking to strengthen their web security without disrupting workflows.
Why Do Enterprises Need Browser Security?
Modern web browsers are a key point of interaction with the internet, with employees accessing web applications, cloud services, and other online resources through browsers. This makes them gateways to critical data and systems. They also store valuable information, like credentials. This makes them a new significant attack surface for cyber threats.
Browser security helps protect organizations from phishing attacks, drive-by downloads, malicious scripts, malicious extensions, data exfiltration to GenAI applications, account takeovers, and many other risks and threats. They can block malicious sites, ensure browsers are patched, prevent employees from pasting sensitive data in ChatGPT or reusing passwords, and more.
Browser Security Solutions Types
When choosing a browser security solution, there are two main types to choose from:
An Enterprise Browser Extension – Platforms that allow employees to keep using their preferred browsers by adding a lightweight extension to it. The extensions provide browsing security, threat prevention, data protection, and visibility into SaaS applications.
Enterprise Browsers – Dedicated browsers that are managed entirely by the enterprise. They were developed to secure work-related browsing, mainly for BYOD use cases.
Each solution has its pros and cons, and its fair share of marketing hype. So how can security and IT teams make the right choice, answering business needs and ensuring robust security?
4 Reasons to Choose a Browser Extension
Why is a secure enterprise browser extension the better choice for the enterprise? Four main reasons:
A security solution is only as good as its adoption rate. The best security solution will mitigate zero risks if it’s not in use. Therefore, one of the key considerations when choosing a browser security solution is its impact on the user experience.
Browser extensions integrate directly into popular browsers like Chrome, Firefox, or Edge, which users are already familiar with. This means there’s no learning curve and users continue with their preferred browsers, workflows, and webpages, without having to transition to a new platform.
As a result, browser extensions tend to see quicker adoption rates compared to enterprise browsers. Employees can start using the extensions almost immediately, since there is no disruption to their workflow – and businesses can achieve faster rollouts. This is particularly advantageous in businesses that need to be agile and productive.
On the other hand, adopting a new enterprise browser requires users to familiarize themselves with new interfaces, shortcuts, and potentially different behavior. This familiarity can significantly slow down the adoption process. It can also potentially create resistance and pushback among employees.
These result in IT overhead, potential security gaps, and an impaired employee experience, which dents the security-end-user relationship. From a productivity standpoint, expect a blow until users get up to speed with the new tool and overcome the watercooler chats about the new system.
Unlike enterprise browsers that require an ordeal process for their installation across the organization, browser extensions can be easily deployed through existing device management tools, like Google Workspace or Edge for Business. This process is usually straightforward and can be done by end users or pushed centrally via management tools in a one-click policy. No network architecture needs to be changed, either.
Once deployed, extensions are ready to use immediately. Ongoing management and policy updating is also centralized and simple, requiring minimal resources from IT and with no impact on the end user. After all, since extensions are designed to be compatible across multiple versions of a browser, there is no need for specific compatibility checks or extensive testing like in the case of enterprise browsers. This flexibility simplifies deployment across diverse environments.
Finally, training for browser extensions tends to be straightforward, focusing solely on the new functionalities provided by the extension rather than basic browser use. This reduces training time and support costs.
Overall, extension deployment is more cost-effective and efficient, reducing the time and resources required from IT teams.
Browser extensions enhance security by monitoring, controlling, and enforcing protective actions across web sessions in real time. They scan, detect, and prevent malicious activities on attacker-controlled web pages while ensuring that legitimate user interactions remain uninterrupted. In addition, extensions prevent users from sharing sensitive data externally and against malicious browser extensions.
Key capabilities include:
Protection against malicious web content and activities like phishing and malware
Protection against data exfiltration to GenAI applications like ChatGPT
Malicious browser extension protection
Maintaining browser hygiene
Secure third-party and BYOD browsing/remote access
Acting as an additional authentication layer
SaaS application visibility to prevent shadow SaaS
Enterprise browsers do not protect against malicious browser extensions. In addition, since the enterprise browser’s development team is focused both on developing a new browser and on security features, they cannot invest all resources in security features.
Browser extensions typically require less vendor investment in development and maintenance compared to full-fledged enterprise browsers. Extensions are built on top of existing browsers like Chrome, Firefox, or Edge, which means vendors don’t need to invest in building a browser from scratch or maintaining a complex browser environment. This reduces both upfront development costs and ongoing maintenance expenses, which in turn means lower costs for the vendor’s customers.
Enterprise browser vendors might claim they also offer productivity features, like built-in password managers or VDI clients, justifying the cost. However, many of the same productivity features can be found for free (or very low cost) from Google and Microsoft themselves, or other competitors. This means (a) that Enterprise Browsers are spending less on actual security, and (b) that customers are paying a lot for ancillary productivity features that they could get for much less.
In addition, using browser extensions with popular, widely supported browsers avoids vendor lock-in. Enterprise browser vendor lock-in can lead to dependency on a single vendor, making it hard to negotiate contracts and ensure their needs are met. Transitioning impacts business productivity. Both of these impact organizational productivity and revenue.
Finally, disrupting the user experience with enterprise browsers costs the business the time, resources, and employee disgruntling of switching to a new solution.
Which Browser Security Solution to Choose?
While both browser extensions and enterprise browsers offer viable solutions for securing web-based activities, browser extensions stand out as the superior option for most enterprises. They provide robust security measures without disrupting the user experience, allowing employees to continue using familiar browsers like Chrome or Edge. Extensions are easier to deploy, manage, and integrate into existing systems, ensuring quicker adoption and lower IT overhead. Additionally, they offer stronger protection against malicious browser extensions, a key vulnerability often overlooked by enterprise browsers. With lower costs, flexibility, and enhanced control, browser extensions represent a more efficient and cost-effective approach for organizations seeking to enhance their security without sacrificing productivity.
About LayerX
LayerX Enterprise Browser Extension natively integrates with any browser, turning it into the most secure and manageable workspace, with no impact on the user experience.
Enterprises leverage LayerX to secure their devices, identities, data, and SaaS apps from web-borne threats and browsing risks that endpoint and network solutions can’t protect against.
These include data leakage over the web, SaaS apps and GenAI tools, credential theft over phishing, account takeovers, discovery and disablement of malicious browser extensions, Shadow SaaS, and more.
LayerX Enterprise Browser Extension natively integrates with any browser, turning it into the most secure and manageable workspace. Enterprises use LayerX to secure their devices, identities, data, and SaaS apps from web-borne threats and browsing risks that endpoint and networks security solutions can’t protect from, such as:
