In today’s world, small and large organizations are finding it hard to continue using the traditional methods of securing their data on the internet. As more data breaches occur, business and organization owners realize the old way of keeping away cyber attacks is now proving ineffective.
So they are now embracing new web security methods such as browser agnostics, browser isolation, and enterprise browsers. This informative article will help you learn why traditional web security methods are unreliable and the alternatives to securing your organization’s data.
Table of Contents
Overview of Traditional Security Solutions
There was a time on the internet when an organization needed only anti-virus software on their browser to protect themselves from many cyber attacks. But we have grown beyond that age, as web browsing attacks have become more sophisticated than they used to be. In fact, using traditional security solutions such as lone anti-virus software is insufficient to provide the security an organization needs to run on the internet.
Now, organizations enable remote working for their employees, leading to increased data transfer. Cyber attackers know this, so they have created more complex methods of attacking web users, which anti-virus software or firewalls can’t prevent. In other words, the internet has grown to a stage where it is obvious that the old methods of keeping data safe on the internet are failing.
Traditional Security Methods Can’t Protect Data Anymore
The first thing to note about the old method of preventing cyber-attacks was that it was more defensive than offensive. In other words, these traditional security solutions used detection-based security techniques to prevent cyber attacks. This detection-based security technique is no longer as effective as it was ten years ago; its level of effectiveness is now close to zero.
Some of these detection-based security tools, such as firewalls, anti-virus software, and proxies, are visibly struggling to keep up with the sophisticated attacks on the internet. For instance, when a JavaScript attack is about to happen, firewalls or antivirus software don’t have enough capacity to protect an organization’s data from being affected. In fact, it is now getting incredibly difficult for these traditional web security tools to prevent attacks as simple as phishing.
When organizations saw these traditional security tools failing, they tried educating their employees on using the internet safely. While employee education is great for web security, it is simply not enough to keep off thousands of attacks that happen on the internet. This led to small and large organizations abandoning these traditional means of securing data and moving to more modern alternatives.
New Methods of Web Security
It takes integrating different high-end security technologies to prevent many attacks on the internet nowadays. With traditional methods of securing online data defeated, organizations have found newer and more reliable ways of securing their data. These new methods are majorly in three forms: enterprise browsers, browser isolation, and browser-agnostic platforms.
Enterprise Browsers
An enterprise browser is a type of browser that has the main feature of preventing cyber attackers from accessing an organization’s online data. This type of browser is built differently from normal browsers, and it integrates security technologies that prevent the success of any cyber-attacks. Enterprise browsers have a centralized control system where the administrators of an organization have an overview of what employees are doing with the browser. They also have policy enforcement rights that prevent employees from visiting certain websites and limit the number of data an employee can access.
The major benefit organizations get from using an enterprise browser is the all-in-one security package they get from using the browser. They have security features such as disabling copy and paste, anti-malware, anti-screen sharing, multi-factor authentication, visibility features, isolation capabilities, and many other needed features.
Apart from the customizations organizations get from an enterprise browser, its policy enforcement enables organizations to control their browser fully. Policy enforcement gives employees rights to what they can access and can’t, reducing potential risks created by employees.
Browser Isolation
Browser isolation is another modern and more reliable method of preventing an organization’s data overrun on the internet. Browser isolation works similarly to sandboxing as it isolates an organization’s browser from any other element on the internet. Browser isolation works by separating the loading of a web page on an isolated platform. Once the web page has been scanned of malicious elements and loaded, it is transmitted to the organization’s device for viewing.
In other words, browser isolation helps an organization not to do the actual browsing on their device, thereby preventing the success of any cyber attack. When browsing from a device, an organization can have its data corrupted. So, browser isolation is deployed to separate browsing activity from endpoints or devices that may corrupt an organization’s data. Organizations increasingly adopt browser isolation because of the security guarantee it provides for many enterprises.
Browser-agnostic Platforms
Browser-agnostic platforms like LayerX are one of the best methods of securing an organization’s data because of how advanced and simple its processes are. Unlike some modern methods of securing web browsers, browser-agnostic platforms don’t need an organization to live entirely to a new browser. It allows organizations to keep to normal or legacy browsers they used before while ensuring they have the best possible security.
Browser-agnostic platforms come in lightweight extensions programmed to monitor, alert, and prevent many types of web attacks from being successful. Like LayerX, browser-agnostic platforms start by monitoring the browsing activity of the organization and enforcing policies that will stop any cyber attacks. Other security integrations also help verify, authenticate, detect, and prevent advanced data breaches. A key selling point of browser-agnostic platforms is that they come with minimal challenges and do not disrupt the quality of user experience.
Conclusion
Right from time, organizations have always faced the problem of preventing cybercriminals from accessing their online data. Previously, most organizations used traditional methods of securing online data, such as installing firewalls and anti-virus software. But they soon discovered that traditional web security methods are getting overrun by sophisticated cyber attacks.
This is where the need for modern web security solutions came in, and organizations are now headed towards using these new online security methods. The major forms of contemporary web security methods are browser-agnostic platforms, enterprise browsers, and browser isolation.
