MSP cloud marketplace Sherweb, which recently expanded into Europe, has introduced the DefensX offering to partners, to help block cybercriminals from exploiting users’ browsers as a path to infection.
Sherweb’s 7,500-plus MSPs can now access DefensX to secure users’ browsers across the more than 100,000 companies they serve. DefensX helps MSPs identify and block access to malicious domains before they’re opened on their personal and company devices.
Cyber threats are always evolving, but 80% of breaches still involve the place where users spend most of their time, their browsers, said Sherweb. This entry point has become even more attractive to threat actors as remote work has risen in popularity and made the use of personal devices for professional tasks mainstream. The resulting decentralised networks make it increasingly difficult for companies to monitor and isolate web threats, putting their MSPs under pressure to ensure safe work from anywhere in the world, on any device.
DefensX features include:
-Advanced identity and credential protection: Prevent phishing and credential theft with AI-driven tools that verify domain credibility and control user credential input
-Browser-based data loss prevention (DLP): Monitor and control how data is accessed and shared across web apps and SaaS platforms
-Remote browser isolation: Browsing sessions are run in a secure, cloud-hosted environment, shielding devices from malware, drive-by downloads, and zero-day exploits. No web content ever touches the local machine
-Automated human risk intelligence: Get real-time insights into user vulnerabilities with a built-in dashboard that helps MSPs assess and manage risk across the enterprise
-Secure Access from personal devices. Enable safe, flexible remote work with secure access to corporate resources
"The browser is a critical access point for business applications, yet it remains one of the most overlooked security gaps," said Benji Germain, vice president of product at Sherweb. "Adding DefensX to our marketplace gives MSP partners a way to safeguard their clients from modern web threats without adding complexity. As the work landscape changes, we know MSPs need to offer their clients security solutions that protect users where they work most.”
Halis Osman Erkan, founder and CEO of DefensX, added: “This partnership empowers MSPs to deliver enterprise-grade security with ease, boosting productivity while raising the bar for web protection across the board.”
At the recent IGEL Now & Next conference in Miami, Mark Templeton, ex-long-time Citrix CEO and serial technology industry director and mentor, outlined the threat to browsers.
“75% of enterprise work happens in browsers, while 80% of security incidents happen in web applications.
“The browser is now the new killer app, and also the new shadow IT platform. But while browsers consume 90% of enterprise network traffic, they get the least proactive security controls. Today, the existing security stack doesn’t see most browser-based attacks,” Templeton told us.
So, as increasingly mobile users continue to rely on their browsers to get them where they need to be on the network, what’s the solution to the increasing threats?
“We need unified browser security, including various elements,” said Templeton. These include zero trust security and safe browsing, SaaS and web content filtering, data loss prevention and generative AI prompt policy – anonymising sensitive data automatically, for instance.
Unified browser security also needs extension management, centralised browser configuration policy, and end-to-end visibility and access control, he added.
Sherweb competes against the likes of Pax8 in the MSP marketplace, which claims to have 39,000 MSP partners on its books, and which has also been expanding in multiple European countries.
At last week’s NerdioCon in Palm Springs, Pax8 VP of channel and community engagement, Eric Torres, told us it was a steady growing market. “We offer a highly curated MSP service offering to serve the needs of SMBs, are vendor agnostic, and the big cloud service providers like AWS and Microsoft Azure really want the revenue generated through us and the MSP community.”
