Browsers have become an endpoint, and have also become an attack vector and target for attackers. The problem is that your EDR isn’t keeping up. In this conversation with Vivek Ramachandran, founder and CEO of SquareX, we dive deep into the emerging world of Browser Detection and Response (BDR) and why it matters for modern security teams.
Drawing from his 24 years in cybersecurity, Ramachandran explains why traditional security approaches are failing to protect the browser. The browser has effectively become an application platform rather than just a simple web viewer, so it is important to protect it. “EDRs currently have zero visibility into the browser,” Ramachandran notes. “They primarily look at file and process, but by looking at a browser’s memory, it’s almost impossible to reconstruct what is happening at the application layer.”
This blind spot creates vulnerabilities as organizations move to cloud-native operations, Ramachandran says. While SASE and SSE solutions claim to secure browser traffic, they introduce latency and are easily circumvented by modern attack techniques like “last mile reassembly,” where attackers create malicious files entirely client-side, invisible to cloud inspection.
According to Ramachandran, Squarex takes a different approach from “enterprise browsers” that create user friction. Instead, BDR works with existing browsers through extensions, using WebAssembly to run detection algorithms at near-native speeds within the browser context. This provides complete visibility into attack chains and protects corporate identities, one of the primary targets nowadays.
Whether browser security emerges as a standalone category or becomes integrated into existing security tools, remains to be seen. Ramachandran is adamant that browsers represent an under-protected attack surface that needs immediate attention. Listen now to learn more about how “shifting up, not left” is necessary according to him and SquareX.
Techzine Talks on Tour: season two
We started Techzine Talks on Tour in May of 2024, with the goal of doing at least one episode every two weeks. After 25 episodes in 2024 we were close enough to that target for us to call the first season a good start. That’s what it is, a start, because we’re not done yet. We continue with a second season, with the goal of growing our reach even further.
A big thank you to the people who found us in 2024 already. We hope you continue to listen to Techzine Talks on Tour in 2025. If this is your first encounter with our podcast, there’s much more to come! We hope you enjoy this episode.
Where to find Techzine Talks on Tour?
Techzine Talks on Tour is available on all the well-known platforms. So you can find it on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube for example. Just search for Techzine Talks on Tour in your favorite podcast app.
Previous episodes of Techzine Talks on Tour:
- Slack is evolving into a work operating system
- Oracle Database@AWS: best of both worlds?
- Replatforming virtualized workloads: Do your VMs need a new home?
- Amazon S3: almost 20 years old, but still very modern
- A Ferrari needs brakes, innovation needs cybersecurity
Get in touch
We hope you like this podcast series. If so, please let us know. If you have suggestions on how we can improve, we would like to hear those too. We’re also open to suggestions around specific topics, or specific people that want to appear in an episode of Techzine Talks on Tour. You can find both Coen van Eenbergen and Sander Almekinders on LinkedIn, or you can send an email to info@techzine.eu.
Opening image created with ChatGPT