When should new browsers be adopted in an enterprise?

When should new browsers be adopted in an enterprise?

When should a security and operations team feel comfortable supporting an alternative browser?

    Requires Free Membership to View

    SearchSecurity.com members gain immediate and unlimited access to breaking industry news, virus alerts, new hacker threats, highly focused security newsletters, and more -- all at no cost. Join me on SearchSecurity.com today!

    Michael S. Mimoso, Editorial Director

    By submitting your registration information to SearchSecurity.com you agree to receive email communications from TechTarget and TechTarget partners. We encourage you to read our Privacy Policy which contains important disclosures about how we collect and use your registration and other information. If you reside outside of the United States, by submitting this registration information you consent to having your personal data transferred to and processed in the United States. Your use of SearchSecurity.com is governed by our Terms of Use. You may contact us at webmaster@TechTarget.com.

Many organizations jumped on with Firefox believing that it was vastly more secure then Internet Explorer. These supporters realized later, however, that they lacked the fundamental infrastructure to push out patches to the browser. I think that it is great for your team to look into other technologies, however, you must always be aware of complexity and its effect on your security architecture.

As a rule, complexity is the enemy of security. When more applications are introduced, the number of attack vectors increases, making the application infrastructure as a whole more difficult to secure. If, for example, your organization plans on supporting the Google Chrome browser, you now need to stay current with attacks against Firefox, Internet Explorer, Chrome and all the plug-ins that may possibly be installed in them.

If politically your organization has already made the commitment to multiple browsers, make sure that you have some mechanism or procedure to stay up to date on the risk vectors of all of your third-party applications, not just browsers.

This was first published in April 2009

Join the conversationComment

Share
Comments

    Results

    Contribute to the conversation

    All fields are required. Comments will appear at the bottom of the article.