It has been 32 years since the world’s first browser — the “WorldWideWeb browser” — was created by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN, and yet the two most-used browsers have only been around for half that time! The world of browsers has evolved at a rapid pace, and it is time for the next phase in this evolution — enterprise browsing.
Changes in Work Apps
Organizations shifted to web-based apps to support ease of use and to gain broader adoption for their offerings. These apps provided a lot of advantages: no software updates, real-time collaboration, and familiarity for users who had personal experience with browser-based apps for social networking, search, games, and e-commerce. The shift has led to solutions like Office on the web, Google Workspaces, online web conferencing tools, web-based management software for HR, finance, and marketing organizations, and much more.
But while organizations were able to give employees new, powerful resources to help them get work done, the mode of access to these apps — the browser — stayed the same. Users leveraged the same browser to access social media, to surf the internet, and to play games as they did to create and manage sensitive work data. The boundary was weak between sensitive data and highly unsecure parts of the internet. This created challenges, even with managed devices, that became more pronounced in BYOD scenarios where there was no browser management by the enterprise.
Security Implications of Consumer Browsers
Your organization’s zero trust strategy is incomplete if you don’t secure the browser, which serves as the access mechanism to your SaaS and internal web apps. And the use of consumer browsers as your access method can put your organization at a significant risk of a cyberattack.
Recently, an employee’s credentials at a major technology vendor were compromised because they used a consumer browser that synchronized their personal account, which opened the door to an attack on corporate subsystems. The boundary had become invisible.
How Citrix’s Enterprise Browser and ZTNA Solution Can Help
As part of Citrix Secure Private Access, Citrix provides an enterprise browser — Citrix Enterprise Browser — to support secure access to your internal web and SaaS apps. This allows your IT admins to apply a multitude of security policies on each web or SaaS app and gives them control of the browser itself — even on unmanaged devices! The Citrix Enterprise Browser is the first of its kind to provide these controls and does it with an unparalleled level of granularity.
With Citrix’s Adaptive Authentication, a user can be restricted to logging in from trusted devices only. And with centralized log collection via Citrix Analytics service, admins gain complete insights into their activity and risk indicators.
The combination of Citrix Enterprise Browser and Citrix Secure Private Access also eliminates the need for VPNs, giving users seamless access to the internal web apps they are entitled to, not the entire network. This is key in reducing the blast radius of attempted attacks and is a key ingredient for any zero trust strategy.
Additionally, the browser itself is linked only to the user’s Workspace account, ensuring the enterprise apps are isolated from personal account-based synchronization that can increase security risk and lead to damaging cyberattacks.
Citrix’s remote browser isolation service — Citrix Secure Browser service — gives admins the ability to configure certain sensitive internal web or SaaS apps to always open in an isolated environment and has its own set of granular security controls. The app opens via a remote Citrix Enterprise Browser instance, ensuring there is an airgap between the application and the user’s endpoint to prevent the movement of sensitive corporate data and malicious external data.
Finally, Citrix Secure Private Access’ web filtering policy configuration empowers admins to restrict the parts of the internet the user can access via its strong app categories, allowed lists, and blocked lists. This makes it easy for admins to restrict access to just work apps, further isolating personal browsing via Citrix’s enterprise browsing application.
You can only get these functionalities via an enterprise browsing solution that provides secure access to your SaaS and internal web apps. And these capabilities are non-negotiable for enterprises in today’s world of work, where the security environment is always evolving.
Welcome to a new era of browsing!
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Learn more about Citrix Enterprise Browser, Citrix Secure Private Access, and new multifactor authentication requirements for Citrix products.
