Browser security solutions are on their way to becoming table stakes among organizations. According to the latest Gigaom Report “GigaOm Radar for Secure Enterprise Browsing”, “secure browsing solutions will likely become the standard for enterprise workers. With more real-world deployments, new use cases, and edge cases, the market will accumulate more information, crystallizing into a standardized and stable space.”
As the market matures and evolves, it can be difficult to cut through the marketing hype and understand which browser solutions offer comprehensive protection in a user-friendly manner. And with the growing adoption of GenAI, BYOD and WebView2, choosing a solution that addresses your IT and business requirements is becoming more important than ever.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through six essential questions to ask any potential browser security provider. These questions will help you:
- Separate real capabilities from buzzwords
- Identify gaps in protection and visibility
- Evaluate the tradeoffs between usability and security
- Ensure the solution can scale with your organization’s future needs
By the end, you’ll have a clear framework for assessing vendors and the confidence to choose a solution that keeps your workforce secure without slowing them down.
How to Use This Guide?
- If you’re currently assessing vendors – add this list of questions to your discovery process, evaluation criteria and POC.
- If you’re considering adding browser security to your stack – Review this list and add it to your preliminary research and ongoing discussions with vendors.
- If you have a browser security provider – Correlate their capabilities to the questions below, map out any gaps, discuss their future roadmaps and consider a complementary solution or transitioning to a more robust solution.
6 Browser Security Must-Haves: Questions to Ask Vendors
1. How Do You Secure AI-Powered Browsers?
Until recently, the browser landscape was fairly stable and predictable, dominated by just four major players: Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari. As GenAI becomes an important component in any software tool, new AI browsers are emerging and adoption rates are predicted to grow.
AI browsers introduce the risks “legacy” browsers introduce, along with GenAI-specific risks, like unmonitored sensitive data exfiltration, whether by users or automatically by the browser itself.
Ask your provider:
- Do you inspect AI-driven workflows for malicious or sensitive data exfiltration?
- Can you enforce safe prompts and control what data flows into or out of the AI browser?
- For enterprise browsers (proprietary security browsers): How do you control and limit use of AI browsers among users, without sacrificing organizational productivity?
- For secure browser extensions: How do you monitor and control data flows in cases where plugins aren’t enabled on browsers?
Pro tip: Choose a security solution that ensures complete session coverage, regardless of the type of browser in use. This can be achieved by enforcing security controls at the session level, rather than at the browser level.
2. What Protections Exist for WebView2 and Embedded Browsers?
WebView2 enables Windows apps to run embedded web content directly into native Windows applications. This enables richer user interfaces, interactive dashboards, or even full web apps to run inside traditional Windows applications. For example, WebView2 is used in Outlook, Teams, Visual Studio, Whatsapp, and third-party enterprise apps.
WebView2 is a “hidden” type of browser, which legacy security tools often lack visibility into.
Ask your provider:
While convenient, it often bypasses traditional network and endpoint controls. Ask:
- Can your platform monitor and secure traffic from embedded WebView2 instances?
- Do you provide the same policy enforcement in these containers as in standard browsers?
- How do you handle shadow applications that embed browsers invisibly?
Pro tip: Look for a security solution that ensures WebView2 users remain fully protected against phishing, malware, data leakage, and browser exploits, without disrupting the app experience.
3. How Do You Secure Browser Extensions?
Browser extensions are loved by users because they drive productivity, but they are an overlooked security risk. They run inside the user’s browser or embedded webview and can intercept, modify, or create web traffic. Many extensions request broad privileges (read/modify all sites, access to tabs, native messaging, file access) that, if misused or compromised, allow harvesting of sensitive data (credentials, session cookies, form inputs), injection of malicious scripts, or covert exfiltration via background requests.
Ask your provider:
- Do you provide visibility into which extensions users have installed?
- Can you enforce allowlists, block risky or unverified extensions, and detect malicious behavior in real time?
- How do you handle updates when a previously safe extension becomes compromised?
Pro tip: Find a solution that provides full and automated visibility and governance over every extension installed across your users’ devices and browsers.Opt for risk scoring, policy enforcement over extension use and traffic, and the ability to protect from malicious updates.
4. How Is BYOD Access Secured Without Agent Sprawl?
BYOD enables organizations to benefit from global talent, scale and innovation – both in-house and out-sourced, in a cost-effective manner. But those unmanaged devices pose security risks since they remain out of IT and security control.
Many organizations opt for VDI solutions, but the result is poor performance and user frustration with complex deployments.
Ask your vendor:
- Do you secure sessions in unmanaged environments without requiring heavy endpoint agents?
- Can you enforce sensitive content masking in browser sessions?
- How do you ensure a user friendly experience, both in terms of performance and setup?
Pro tip: Look for a solution that extends full web session security and data governance to unmanaged or personal devices without forcing users to install agents or alter their workflows. The solution should transparently enforce policies on browser and app traffic, regardless of device or browser in use.
5. How Is GenAI Usage Monitored and Controlled?
GenAI is in high use among employees, even if they don’t use an AI browser (see point #1). Employees often connect to GenAI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, or Copilot directly through the browser. This can lead to sensitive corporate data being copied into external systems by employees. For example, employees can share source code, customer information, PII, financial plans, and more.
Critical points to clarify with your vendor:
- Do you provide visibility into GenAI apps and activities?
- Can you apply DLP-like policies to AI usage, such as blocking uploads of customer data or source code?
- Do you support corporate use-only policy enforcement?
Pro tip: Don’t compromise on a solution that doesn’t discover which AI tools employees are using, monitors what prompts and data are submitted, blocks or masks sensitive information before it’s sent out, enforces use only through corporate / sanctioned accounts, governs AI extensions, and surfaces warnings or educational messages.
6. How Do You Handle Deployment at Scale?
Security teams often underestimate how critical ease of deployment is in adoption. If the rollout requires months of planning, heavy IT resources, complex user training, or even too many steps to take by users or IT, resistance quickly builds within the organization. End users may look for ways to bypass the security controls, and IT teams may delay updates or skip critical patches altogether. This can actively create new vulnerabilities, ironically making the organization less secure than before the deployment began.
Ask your vendor:
- Do users need to install browser extensions or endpoint agents?
- Does your platform integrate seamlessly with existing firewalls and network infrastructure?
- How do you handle version management and forced updates across a global workforce?
- Can policies be applied consistently across managed, unmanaged, and mobile devices?
- Will end users experience any disruptions during deployment or daily use?
Pro tip: Find a vendor that provides a browser security solution that is agentless, cloud-delivered, and simple to deploy and maintain. It should integrate seamlessly with existing firewalls and IT infrastructure, requiring no network overhauls, no browser extensions, and no endpoint agents. For IT teams, setup should be nearly effortless with one-line configuration, plus support for Intune, MDM, and GPO policies. For end users, it should be invisible. Finally, the platform should silently route traffic for inspection, apply policies through the cloud, and deliver consistent protection across all operating systems and browsers.
Final Thoughts
The modern browser is now the de facto enterprise workspace. AI-driven tools, embedded frameworks, and SaaS integrations make it both powerful and risky. When choosing a browser security provider, focus on whether they can enforce policies directly at the browser layer, adapt to new AI use cases, and scale across diverse devices and environments.
Asking these seven questions will quickly reveal whether a vendor is truly prepared for today’s browser-centric threat landscape or if they’re still anchored in yesterday’s network perimeter model.
Red Access is a cloud-native, agentless security platform that protects all web and SaaS activity, without requiring browser extensions or endpoint agents. It’s deployed in minutes via a simple configuration through tools like Intune, MDM, or GPO, silently routing browser and app traffic (including Browsers, Embedded browsers, Webview2, and other HTTP/S traffic) through its secure cloud for real-time inspection.
Unlike traditional proxies or heavyweight SSE solutions that introduce friction, latency, or require full redirection, Red Access uses selective, context-aware traffic routing, letting organizations “turn on” security exactly where they need it, without disrupting what doesn’t require control. Even when enabled, it runs silently, with no performance hit to users.
Red Access enforces deep security policies like DLP, phishing and malware protection, SaaS access control, and GenAI usage governance across any browser, device, or location. It integrates seamlessly with firewalls, identity providers, and SIEMs, giving security teams full visibility and control without disrupting users or overhauling infrastructure.
