Vade was recently named a cybersecurity 2023 Tech Ascension Award winner.
We sat down with Romain Basset, Director of Customer Services at Vade to discuss the company's Remote Browser Isolation (RBI), why it is differentiated in the market, and how it helps ISPs, telcos, SMBs, and enterprises around the world protect their most critical data and supply chains.
Vade has traditionally marketed itself as an email security company. Why add remote browser isolation (RBI) to the product mix?
Adding remote browser isolation (RBI) to our offerings was a natural next step for us. It starts with the fact that phishing and malware will continue to get past Microsoft’s defenses, and that’s where our flagship product, Vade for M365, steps in to analyze content and context of emails to fight off malware and phishing attacks. However, we started seeing an uptick in hackers launching browser-based attacks that originated from email. These included credential harvesting, drive-by downloads, cross-site scripting attacks and more. That’s why we created the RBI add-on to secure the browser and allow users to work safely and securely, regardless of their working environment setup.
How does Vade RBI work and how is it different from other RBI solutions on the market?
Vade RBI uses fast pixel technology to immediately launch a secure container once users click on a potentially malicious link. This virtualizes the web session via a remote server and enables users to browse the web with little-to-no latency, regardless of what device they’re on. Vade RBI also automates the whitelisting and blacklisting of websites, while allowing easy customization of those lists. Unlike other solutions on the market, Vade RBI relies on pixel pushing, an alternative to Document Object Model (DOM) reconstruction. The Fast Pixel Rendering (FPR) technology virtualizes browsing sessions in near-real-time to provide fast time-to-value and limit latency between click and action. This provides a low-touch alternative to the time-consuming responsibilities of network administration and doesn’t interfere with user experience.
How has the shift to remote and hybrid work impacted the demand for RBI solutions?
The shift to remote and hybrid work has drastically increased the demand for RBI solutions, especially those that are compatible with a mobile environment. When COVID-19 hit, hackers took advantage of the shift away from desktops and began bombarding mobile devices with cyber attacks. Verizon’s Mobile Security Index 2022 survey found that nearly one in every two organizations experienced a mobile device-related compromise. Of those that did, 73% described their compromise as major. On top of that, a global survey of executives by PwC found that senior leaders expressed more concern over mobile-based threats than any other attack vector. Many of the offerings on the market assume that users are on their desktops or laptops, and don’t extend protection to mobile…a safeguard that is absolutely crucial with the shift to remote and hybrid environments due to the pandemic.
Any threat landscape trends that have impacted demand for RBI solutions?
In addition to the shift to remote work, phishing websites, vulnerability exploits and malware distribution through web applications continue to make a strong case for the need for RBI solutions. In 2022, Vade detected nearly 275,000 phishing websites – just one of these sites could contain dozens or hundreds of unique phishing URLs. What makes these so dangerous is that hackers are hosting them on high-reputation domains that many email filters have marked as “safe,” so they’re given an added sense of legitimacy…even though they can be used for credential harvesting, malware distribution, account takeovers and more. Another attack method that’s becoming increasingly popular among hackers is vulnerability exploits. The 2023 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report found that exploiting vulnerabilities is the third most common attack vector, with hackers aiming to transform legitimate websites into ones that pose a major security risk. Not last and not least is malware distribution. Web applications are the third most common vector for malware distribution and web attacks accounted for 14% of malware exploits in 2022. There are many other reasons to invest in RBI solutions, but the protection they offer against phishing, vulnerability and malware threats by creating a sandboxed browsing environment is going to become even more crucial as web-based attacks increase.
How does Vade RBI fulfill Vade’s mission?
At the end of the day, Vade’s mission is to use our innovative approach to cybersecurity to help ISPs, telcos, SMBs, and enterprises around the world protect their most critical data and supply chains. We also pride ourselves on developing solutions that allow customers to rest easy at night, knowing that the business they’ve been working so hard to build and grow is protected from bad actors. Vade RBI improves security without limiting productivity and keeps our customers one step ahead of hackers, blocking them exactly where they’re looking to launch their most damaging attacks – the world wide web.