Browser Isolation - Overview

This article describes how the Browser Isolation add-on can be used in conjunction with your email or web security subscription to minimize the risk of users accessing potentially suspicious websites.

The Issue: Uncategorized Sites

Recent research has highlighted that up to 70% of the 200,000 new domains created daily could be malicious. With some of these only being "live" for a short time frame, it is difficult for security personnel to set up adequate protection using standard web security functionality. Additionally, it isn't pragmatic for websites that haven't been categorized to be blocked, as users can benefit from browsing specific areas of content.

The Solution: Browser Isolation

Mimecast's Browser Isolation functionality provides a safe browser session located in one of our data centers for websites that are considered suspicious. This:

• • • Allows users to access certain websites (that are considered suspicious) in a safe environment.
    • Gives administrators and users peace of mind that when browsing or extracting information from a website that has not been blocked, any malicious activity resulting from the website's use doesn't impact the end user's device.
    • Allows administrators and security analysts to explore, investigate, and test the potentially harmful links in a safe, protected environment.
    • Creates a default policy that is applied to all users.

      This can be changed as required, but not deleted.

    • Allows administrators to create additional policies for websites to control:
      • The level of interaction users can have with the website. For example, administrators can control whether end users can enter data into a field (e.g., login credentials, bank account details) or whether copy/paste commands can be used.
      • Which user groups does the control apply to (e.g., finance department, high-risk users)?

The Browser Isolation Workflow

When a user tries to click on a suspicious link from an email or tries to access it from a web browser (applicable to Web Security subscriptions only):

1. You are given the opportunity to securely view the URL within an isolated container. The following 'Welcome' message appears, which commences your browser isolation session:

2. Click on the Continue button to open the link in a Browser Isolation session.
3. Optionally:

• • • Copy information from the website by:
      • • Selecting the text in the browser.
        • Press Ctrl + C on your keyboard.
        • Clicking the Get from Browser button.
    • Paste information into the website by:
      • • Clicking the Send to Browser button.
        • Select the field in the browser where the information is to be entered.
        • Press Ctrl + V on your keyboard.

4. Click on the End Session button to end the browser isolation session. All session data is destroyed, and you'll be unable to recover any changes/additions made.

Each Browser Isolation session lasts for a maximum of five minutes, and a warning is issued with one minute left. The remaining time of your session is displayed at the top of the browser.

You can only have one Browser Isolation session open per browser. This means that if you already have one Browser Isolation session open and you attempt to open another, the existing session will automatically end and close.

See Also...

• • • Browser Isolation: Configuring Policies
    • Mimecast Browser Support Matrix