Imagine a single employee’s browser became the entry point for a malware attack that ultimately crippled your organization’s operations and cost millions. The culprit? Using one browser for both personal TikTok scrolling and accessing corporate systems. Sound familiar? Most businesses blur these lines daily, unwittingly exposing sensitive work to general work and/or personal activities. Web browsers are now a top attack vector—yet traditional tools like AV and EDR keep failing to stop the bleeding. Here’s a smarter way: use three separate browsers to compartmentalize risk, then use AppGuard to fortify that compartmentalization.

The Single-Browser Trap

A cybercriminal’s dream has employees mixing high-value workflows with other activities in one browser —it’s a disaster waiting to happen. Here are SOME examples: 

Increased Exposure: sensitive resources are exposed to high-risk activities.

Browser Credential Theft: passwords are cached locally for user convenience but can be stolen to impersonate them.

Session Cookie Theft: once logged in, a session cookie to the organization’s most sensitive resources that represents the user’s identity, can be stolen to impersonate the user. 

Session Hijacking: while browsers have increasingly implemented more internal compartmentalization, these compartments are compromised when the browser is compromised.

Data Leakage: personal sites and work apps share the same browser cache. One malicious ad from a personal tab can siphon off sensitive work data. 

Malware Spread: once in, malware can leap to other systems in seconds, bypassing detection. 

Detection-based Tools can’t Plug these Gaps 

Antivirus (AV) and Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) are stuck playing whack-a-mole with malware, stopping the familiar and sometimes the similar. But often failing when adversaries take the time to make their attack unfamiliar. And, any endpoint protection type struggles with mitigating risks occurring WITHIN web browsers, especially when the malice occurs in-memory only.

Web Browsing is Risky:

1. Change Healthcare Ransomware Attack (February 2024): UnitedHealth Group’s Change Healthcare unit suffered a ransomware attack by the BlackCat gang, disrupting prescription processing nationwide. Attackers gained access via stolen credentials, likely from a browser-based phishing attack or session hijacking, compromising 6TB of data. 

2. Snowflake Customer Data Breach (May-June 2024): a cloud storage breach at Snowflake affected clients like Ticketmaster and Santander. Hackers used credentials stolen via malware, possibly delivered through browser-based attacks, targeting users with single-factor authentication. The breach spiraled into “one of the largest data breaches ever,” exposing customer databases.

3. American Express Third-Party Merchant Breach (March 2024): unauthorized access to a third-party merchant processor exposed American Express customer data, including names and card details. The breach stemmed from credentials likely stolen via browser exploits (e.g., phishing or keylogging), which attackers used to infiltrate the processor’s systems.

One Simple Fix: Three Browsers 

Here’s the game plan: split your browsing into three buckets—one browser for personal use, one for sensitive work tasks, and one for general work (like email). It’s low-tech but high-impact: 

• Segregation: Keeps personal and work data apart, shrinking the attack surface. 
• Control: Use site-blocking and other settings to prevent users from mixing usage. 
• Clarity: ‘browser profiles’ are great conceptually, but many users get confused, resulting in work credentials also stored in personal browser profiles. 

AppGuard Reinforced Compartmentalization is Essential

But separation alone isn’t enough when malware can still run wild once inside the browsers or outside them. Unlike AV or EDR, which scramble to spot malware after it’s already active, AppGuard stops malware from doing what malware needs to do: copy a file with cached credentials, inject malicious code into the memory of an application, alter a registry key over blind detection telemetry, etc. 

Here’s how it supercharges your three-browser setup: 

Containment: each browser runs in its own “swim lanes”; if one gets compromised, it cannot touch the others—or your system. 

Isolation: Credential and session cookie storages of each web browser is isolated from the rest of the PC. 

Zero Trust: restrict what runs and what the running can do. 

Less Noise: Fewer EDR alerts from fewer allowed, potentially malicious actions, so less chaos. 

Think of it like a shark net: threats might swim nearby, but they can’t bite. That’s why AppGuard has been protecting endpoints for years while detection vendors scramble to catch up. Three browsers cut your risk; AppGuard further slashes it. 

In a world where breaches are everywhere and daily, most organizations lack the resources to defend themselves that large organizations employ. AppGuard’s Zero Trust approach keeps endpoints secure, protects web browsers from their PC, protects PCs from their web browsers, and protects web browsers from other web browsers. No malware detection required, just compartmentalization.