By Byron V. Acohido

The open-source Chromium project seeded by Google more than a decade ago has triggered something of a web browser renaissance.

Related: Browser attacks mount

Browsers based on Chromium include Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge, which dominate in corporate settings – as well as popular upstarts Brave, Opera and Vivaldi. Together these browsers have given rise to a vast ecosystem of extensions – one that happens to align perfectly with a highly distributed work force and global supply chain.

Naturally, the flip side of cool, new browser capabilities is a yet another  expansion of the network attack surface. And this, in turn, has resulted in a surge of innovation in web browser security.

At RSAC 2024, I visited with  Vivek Ramachandran, founder of SquareX, a brand new start-up that’s in the thick of these developments. Google and Microsoft, he told me, are myopically focused on dealing with fresh coding vulnerabilities spinning out of Chrome and Edge and doing very little to stem live attacks.

Meanwhile, he argues, cloud-based security tools, namely secure web gateways (SWG) and security services edge (SSE) systems fall well short because of the wide open way extensions work in Chromium browsers.

SquareX uses a browser extension to granularly monitor user behavior and to detect and mitigate threats in real-time. Ramachandran described how a few months ago, SquareX rolled out a freemium version which attracted some 200,000 users. For a drill down on what they’re up to now, please give the accompanying podcast a listen.

Acohido

Pulitzer Prize-winning business journalist Byron V. Acohido is dedicated to fostering public awareness about how to make the Internet as private and secure as it ought to be.

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(LW provides consulting services to the vendors we cover.)

May 20th, 2024