Why is a Browser-Native Security Solution Better than Cloud-based SWGs?

Over the last twenty years, corporate security strategies have merely shifted from on-premises Secure Web Gateways (SWGs) to cloud-based services, resulting in an increased dependence on data centers, primarily to support remote workers. This shift creates inefficiencies and security risks, as user traffic is rerouted through potentially distant data centers, affecting web browsing reliability, performance, and privacy.

In contrast, SquareX’s browser-native security solutions offer a more direct, context-aware, and efficient approach, adept at handling intricate web interactions and detecting multi-layered threats, thus presenting a compelling alternative to the outdated SWG model.

Let’s begin by understanding the limitations of Cloud based SWGs.

The above architecture leads to the following limitations:

• Single Chokepoint for Traffic: Traffic funnels through a centralized point, creating potential bottlenecks and inefficiencies.
• Data Center Outages: These can result in web pages failing to load, disrupting user access and productivity.
• Compromised Traffic Reputation: The perceived lower credibility of proxy-sourced traffic often results in blocks.
• Restrictions in Certain Locations: The use of proxies may be hindered in various regions or on certain networks.
• Vulnerability to Insider Attacks at the SWG provider: With all documents and data passing through a provider, there’s an increased risk of privacy breaches from insiders.

How does a browser-native solution overcome the above challenges and also give a force-multiplier in security and privacy?

Enhanced Web Application Context Awareness

Browser-native security solutions are better at grasping what happens in complex web applications as they reside in the browser. They can closely examine user interactions, the way website code and data are rendered, and how this complex interplay leads to higher order attacks. On the other hand, traditional server-side proxies can’t pick up on these subtle aspects, particularly in rich and client-side heavy web applications, which progressively fetch data from the server side and change client-side rendering. This makes it immensely difficult for them to recreate which requests are because of user interactions and which due to malicious scripts and attacks.

Take an example of a website infected with malicious JavaScript that can secretly read and send out clipboard information. A cloud-based proxy may not recognize this as unusual as it has no context on how the data was generated - was it due to user interaction or by a malicious script? This is compounded when the same data is encrypted or encoded. A browser-native solution can spot and flag this suspicious behavior because it understands that the clipboard was read without sufficient user interaction or approval.

Superior Detection of Multi-Layer Threats

Traditionally, multi-layer attacks have required sending signals to an SIEM where correlation and inference happens. Unfortunately, SIEMs are failing at finding the “malicious needle in a haystack” for a while and as cloud-based proxies only look at first order code and data, are unable to detect multi-layer attacks. Browser-native solutions with the help of locally running agents take into account the whole breadth of signals across layers making it smarter to detect threats locally as they happen.

Enhanced Upstream Threat Detection

Browser-native systems are great at catching threats early. They watch over data before it even downloads to your device storage, stopping harmful files from causing further harm. The alternative today, would be to hope the user has an Anti-Virus or other endpoint security solutions capable of detecting that the file is malicious.

Leveraging Machine Learning for User-Specific Protection

A browser-native security solution gathers detailed data on how users interact with the web and use machine learning models locally on the browser, in a privacy-safe way to provide personalized security. This allows the development of tailor-made models that can identify unusual activities for each user, offering a more targeted and effective security approach than general, cloud-based options which try a “one size fits all” approach.

Zero Lag Attack Mitigation

One of the biggest benefits of browser-native security is its immediate response to threats. While cloud-based solutions take time to process and analyze data elsewhere, causing delays, browser-native systems make quick decisions right where you are. This is especially important in places with slow or no internet, as it means faster and more effective responses to security risks.

In summary, browser-native security solutions offer a more nuanced and effective approach to cybersecurity. Their ability to understand complex web interactions, detect multi-layer threats, provide upstream threat detection, leverage user-specific machine learning models, and ensure zero lag in threat mitigation makes them a compelling choice over traditional cloud-based secure web gateways or proxies. As cyber threats become more sophisticated, the need for equally advanced security solutions becomes imperative, and browser-native solutions are well-positioned to meet these challenges.

At SquareX, we strongly believe the future of web browsing security will rely on the browser to natively take a more active role in detecting and mitigating threats. Try SquareX today.