The Rise of the Enterprise Browser: Securing the Web in a Zero Trust World

Browsers Are the New Battleground

In the modern enterprise, the web browser has quietly become both a workhorse and a weak link — simultaneously enabling productivity and exposing organizations to an outsized share of cyber risk while being an enabler to shadow IT.

As applications, data, and workflows have moved to the cloud, the browser has evolved into the de facto operating system of the enterprise. It’s the primary interface for everything from productivity suites and CRM platforms to internal dashboards and third-party portals. But with this centrality comes risk: browser-based malware was responsible for 70% of observed malware cases in 2024, and browser-based threats — from credential phishing to session hijacking and malicious extensions — are among the most common vectors for initial access.

Source: Infosecurity Magazine

Consider these supporting figures:

• Over 90% of phishing attacks are initiated via email, typically containing malicious attachments or links. (Deloitte)
• According to Proofpoint’s 2024 State of the Phish report and CrowdStrike’s 2023 Global Threat Report, email remains the dominant malware delivery vector. (Proofpoint, CrowdStrike)
• However, the browser remains a critical execution point for many of these threats — especially when users follow phishing links to credential-harvesting pages or malware-hosting sites. As a result, the browser is a dominant component in cybersecurity threats– either directly (web access) or indirectly (clicking malicious links in emails).
• 75% of enterprise work happens in browsers (Enterprise Strategy Group)
• Browsers consume upward of 90% of enterprise network traffic
• 82% of CISOs say that data loss stemming from insider incidents is a challenge for their organizations. (Cybersecurity Ventures)

Traditional security approaches like network segmentation, endpoint agents, and VPNs were never designed to control how users interact with SaaS apps and progressive web apps (PWAs) from within the browser itself — especially on unmanaged devices or over untrusted networks. And while security teams have long attempted to harden mainstream browsers using group policies, browser extensions, and third-party monitoring tools, these methods are piecemeal, easily circumvented, and often frustrating for users.

In response, a new strategic focus has emerged — one that treats the browser not as a passive utility, but as a control plane for enforcing security, visibility, and policy. While the term enterprise browser has been circulating for several years, it’s only recently that the category has matured, gaining serious traction among security-forward organizations and Zero Trust adopters.

What Is an Enterprise Browser?

An enterprise browser is a secure, policy-driven browsing environment designed specifically to address the security and operational needs of modern organizations. Unlike conventional browsers that are retrofitted with policies and plugins, enterprise browsers are purpose-built — or purpose-extended — to act as enforcement points at the application layer, where users, data, and SaaS platforms intersect.

They enable organizations to apply controls, monitor activity, and protect data directly within the browser session, without relying solely on endpoint agents, proxies, or network-level controls. Architecturally, enterprise browsers fall into a few categories: some are full browser replacements built on Chromium forks, while others function as browser overlays, delivered via extensions that can be deployed to existing browsers (e.g., Chrome, Edge) for lower friction and broader compatibility across managed and unmanaged endpoints.

Regardless of model, enterprise browsers typically deliver capabilities such as:

• 🔐 Granular Access Controls
  Access can be defined and enforced based on identity, role, device posture, location, risk level, and contextual signals. This enables precision control over which users can access what apps — and under what conditions.
• 🛡️ Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
  Integrated DLP policies allow organizations to control data egress by restricting or logging actions like copy/paste, downloads, uploads, screen captures, and printing.
• 🔍 Security Insights (Observability)
  Enterprise browsers provide deep visibility into user behaviour within browser sessions, including keystrokes, file movements, access patterns, and app usage, as well as content transfer events.
• 🌐 Zero Trust Access Control
  Enterprise browsers enforce Zero Trust principles by validating users and devices continuously based on context — including posture checks, risk signals, and geographic anomalies.
• 🦠 Threat Protection
  Many enterprise browsers include built-in URL filtering, anti-phishing, malware scanning, and integration with upstream threat intelligence to protect users from browser-based threats in real time.

By moving control to the browser layer, security teams gain the ability to protect data where it’s accessed, enforce consistent policies across varied environments, and extend secure access even to unmanaged or third-party devices.

How the Browser Became the New Endpoint

Over the past decade, the structure of enterprise IT has undergone a quiet but radical transformation. Applications that once lived in on-premises data centres — often as fat clients installed on corporate-managed endpoints — have steadily transitioned to web-based interfaces delivered via SaaS or private cloud. As this shift has accelerated, the browser has effectively become the application runtime environment. Whether it’s accessing ERP systems, productivity tools, CRM platforms, or internal web portals, users now rely on the browser as their primary conduit to business-critical apps — and their reliance on it has grown proportionally.

This trend is evident across nearly every industry: legacy CRM systems like Siebel have given way to Salesforce, ITSM platforms like Remedy have evolved into ServiceNow, Microsoft Office Suite evolved into Microsoft/Office 365 Online, and even traditionally desktop-heavy environments like healthcare have seen a shift from Epic Hyperspace to the browser-native Hyperdrive. The browser is no longer just for email and search — it’s where core business gets done.

This shift has serious implications for security:

• Traditional endpoint tools (AV, EDR, DLP) are typically installed solely on managed devices, leaving BYOD and third-party contractor devices outside the scope of these tools.
• VPNs and VDI/Cloud PCs platforms restrict access paths, but don’t control what happens inside the browser.
• CASBs offer visibility into sanctioned apps, but struggle with granular, real-time enforcement.
• Group policies and MDM profiles can harden Chrome or Edge, but only on managed devices.

The result is a visibility and control gap at the exact layer where users interact with business-critical data. Enterprise browsers address this gap by bringing policy enforcement, data protection, and user visibility directly into the browser session itself, allowing controls to follow the user and the session — not just the device or network.

Enterprise Browsers vs. Traditional Controls

For years, organizations have relied on a layered security model to protect access to applications and data — one built around tools like VPNs, endpoint agents, mobile device management (MDM), CASBs, Secure Web Gateways (SWGs), and virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). While each of these technologies still has its place, none were designed to control what happens inside the browser, where today’s work — and risk — increasingly resides.

Traditional Controls at a Glance

The following table contrasts a general set of capabilities between different traditional control mechanisms. These are general statements with some vendors being stronger or weaker in different areas.

Legend:

• ✅ = Primary strength

• ⚠️ = Limited or variable depending on deployment

• ❌ = Not supported / Not its function

Enterprise Browser Capabilities

⚠️ Note: These capabilities are not always clear-cut or static. The security landscape is evolving rapidly. Many vendors are now incorporating AI and machine learning to enhance threat detection, session risk scoring, and real-time response within enterprise browsers, CASBs, and SWGs. Likewise, DEX support — the ability to measure and improve end-user experience — is becoming a critical differentiator in hybrid work environments.

What About Cloud PCs?

Cloud PC platforms like Windows 365 and Amazon WorkSpaces are gaining traction as modern alternatives to traditional VDI. By hosting persistent desktops in the cloud, they offer benefits like:

• ✅ Reduced infrastructure complexity
• ✅ Predictable per-user pricing
• ✅ Simplified provisioning and scaling

However, despite these advantages, Cloud PCs share many of the same limitations as traditional VDI:

• ⚠️ They don’t offer visibility or control inside browser sessions
• ⚠️ They require full desktop environments, which can be overkill for SaaS or web app access
• ⚠️ They don’t address BYOD and third-party access without provisioning a full virtual machine

Enterprise browsers are often a lighter-weight, more precise alternative for organizations looking to secure SaaS usage and browser activity directly, without managing full virtual desktops.

Enterprise Browsers vs. Remote Browser Isolation

As browsers have become central to enterprise workflows — and high-value targets for threat actors — two modern security technologies have emerged to protect this layer: enterprise browsers and Remote Browser Isolation (RBI). While they may appear similar on the surface, they are fundamentally different in design philosophy, user experience, and operational use cases.

What is RBI?

Remote Browser Isolation works by executing web sessions in a remote environment, away from the user’s local device. The user interacts with a visual representation of the session — typically through a streamed pixel view, DOM reconstruction, or sandboxed rendering engine. This means any malicious code encountered during a session is kept away from the endpoint.

RBI is highly effective at neutralizing drive-by downloads, browser exploits, and malware-laden websites because it assumes the web is inherently untrusted — and isolates all content by default. Sessions are typically ephemeral and are destroyed after use.

Where Enterprise Browsers Differ

Enterprise browsers, by contrast, do not isolate the session. Instead, they run natively on the user’s endpoint (or through a standard browser with a policy-enforcing extension) and inject controls directly into the live browser session. They focus less on isolation and more on visibility, policy enforcement, access control, and data protection — particularly within SaaS apps and web portals.

Where RBI tries to protect the endpoint from the web, enterprise browsers protect the apps and data from the user session.

Use Case Comparison

The following table contrasts a general set of features between enterprise browsers and RBI. These are general statements with some vendors being stronger or weaker in different areas.

RBI in High-Risk Environments: When Total Isolation Matters

RBI excels in scenarios where absolute separation between user activity and the endpoint is required. Two core use cases are ideal for RBI which we will highlight below.

🖥️🔐 Access to Sensitive Corporate Web Apps from Unmanaged Devices

• No data, DOM elements, or cached content reach the device
• Strong prevention of data exfiltration, malware injection, session hijacking
• Ideal for regulated industries or fully untrusted endpoints

🛡️🏢 Secure, Controlled Web Access in High-Security Settings

• Enables safe browsing of unknown or risky websites
• Keeps traffic and malware off the corporate network
• Allows looser policies without sacrificing isolation
• Ideal for sensitive work environments needing unrestricted web access without malware risk or exposing corporate IPs

When to Use What?

Many organizations deploy both technologies as complementary layers.