Your browser is an AI-enabled OS, so secure it like one

<p>From an application perspective, web browsers have become a sort of OS within an OS. With the introduction of agentic AI capabilities within the browser (just look at what <a href=”https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterpriseai/news/366629196/Perplexitys-Chrome-bid-shows-growing-competition-in-AI-search”>Perplexity</a>, Opera and, to some extent, Google and Microsoft are doing), they’re becoming more front and center to organizations. This isn’t new, of course. Browser-based app usage has been growing for years, and research I conducted a few years ago indicates that the average organization uses 87 browser-based apps.</p>
<p>That’s not to discount <a href=”https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterprisedesktop/opinion/Windows-apps-are-here-to-stay-and-thats-OK”>Windows apps</a> — that same research project measured the average number of Windows apps at 105 per organization. But it does show that the browser can no longer be treated as one Windows app. It’s an extensible operating environment that itself runs dozens of apps. It has hooks into the underlying OS, but for many users, the browser is the operating environment, and the OS is just the runtime needed to deliver the browser.</p>
<p>And that’s before we even consider extensions!</p>
<p>Over the years, browsers have opened up APIs that let developers build plugins and extensions to add functionality, automate tasks and connect web apps together. This has evolved into a parallel app ecosystem inside the browser. Each extension can carry its own set of permissions, integrations and data access. Some have full visibility into every page a user visits. Others can read and write clipboard data or interact with credentials. It’s powerful, but it’s also a messy patchwork of third-party code running alongside your corporate web apps with little central oversight.</p>
<section class=”section main-article-chapter” data-menu-title=”What this means for IT and security teams”>
<h2 class=”section-title”><i class=”icon” data-icon=”1″></i>What this means for IT and security teams</h2>
<p>This has major implications for IT and security teams, and we’ve chosen to deal with this in many ways over the years. Historically, the way to wrap security around the browser and specific applications was to use desktop virtualization that let the browser run in a remote location on a device that had tightly controll

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