Guest writer Roddy Bergeron, Cybersecurity Technical Fellow, explores why most MSPs are losing security where it matters most: in the browser. Learn how strengthening browser security for MSPs can stop phishing attacks, protect client credentials, and prepare your cyber defenses for the next wave of threats.
Where breaches really begin
Cybersecurity doesn’t fail because a firewall misses traffic or an endpoint agent lags a signature update. Breaches happen quietly, in the milliseconds after a user clicks a link, long before traditional tools even register a threat. That moment doesn’t happen on your network. It doesn’t start with malware on a device. It happens in the browser session no one thought to secure.
Modern attacks don’t need to brute force their way past defenses anymore. Phishing pages harvest credentials in real time. Malicious scripts execute directly in SaaS applications. Hijacked tokens give attackers valid sessions without triggering alarms. These are not edge problems. They’re not endpoint problems. They’re browser problems and most MSPs are still pretending their layered stacks can handle them.
The truth is simple: if your security program can’t act inside the browser session, you’re not secure, you’re exposed.
The blind spot MSPs don’t want to see
Every major threat report tells the same story. Browser-based phishing is climbing at triple-digit rates. Nearly every identity attack now starts in-session, long before it’s visible to your SOC. AI-driven phishing pages appear and vanish faster than DNS filters can react.
Attackers figured this out years ago. They moved into browsers because that’s where users actually work. SaaS applications, client portals, collaboration tools, admin consoles, the list goes on. In 2025, web application attacks account for 26% of all breaches, ranking as the second most prevalent method of compromise. And Stolen credentials are involved in 88% of web application breaches, according to Verizon’s 2025 DBIR.
Meanwhile, security programs stayed focused on defending edges and endpoints that attackers barely touch anymore. This is why breaches keep repeating themselves. The tools didn’t fail. The security system never reached the environment where modern attacks actually happen.
Browsers aren’t windows. They’re endpoints.
MSPs still treat browsers like passive portals to the web, glass panes looking outward. That thinking is outdated. The browser is the endpoint now.
Every critical action your clients take—approving MFA prompts, accessing SaaS apps, entering credentials, handling sensitive data—happens inside a browser session. And that’s exactly where attackers move first.
But here’s the real problem: almost no one is hardening that space.
We’ve poured money into hardening networks and devices, but the moment a user launches Chrome or Edge, they’re stepping into an unarmored environment. Scripts run unchecked. Phishing pages harvest logins in real time. Session tokens are lifted before your EDR even twitches.
Securing the browser isn’t about stacking more agents. It’s about building defenses that act where the threat lives, inside the session itself.
- Isolation: Risky pages shouldn’t get to execute code in the first place.
- Credential control: Users shouldn’t be able to hand over passwords or tokens to fake sites.
- Threat intelligence: Domains and scripts should be inspected in real time, not hours later in an alert queue.
Hardening the browser isn’t a “nice to have.” It’s the difference between running a proactive security program and constantly cleaning up breaches that were preventable.
Are your layers doing anything inside the browser?
MSPs talk about layered security and zero trust like they’re bulletproof. Firewalls, EDR, DNS filtering, MFA…it looks solid on a slide. But layered tools and edge-based trust models all have the same blind spot: they stop working the moment users step inside a browser session.
Here’s what actually happens:
- Firewalls can’t see into encrypted browser traffic.
- Endpoint tools react only after malicious scripts execute.
- DNS filters miss phishing kits that launch thousands of fresh pages every day.
- MFA stops attackers at login but does nothing when sessions or tokens are hijacked afterward.
Attackers know this. They exploit sessions your stack fully trusts, moving laterally while your security layers wait for a human to react.
A truly resilient security system doesn’t pause there. It continuously validates identity and risk inside the browser session itself, stopping credential theft, blocking malicious scripts and revoking tokens in real time.
Until MSPs move protection into that active session, layered defenses and zero trust will remain just marketing slogans attackers can walk right past.
Why the gap persists
It’s not that MSPs don’t care. It’s that closing this gap means rethinking how security works and this industry isn’t known for adopting hard changes early.
Securing browsers isn’t as simple as deploying another point solution. It means automating containment, so phishing sessions isolate themselves instantly, without waiting for humans to click “quarantine.” It means monitoring session behavior in real time instead of waiting for downstream alerts. It means integrating session intelligence across the entire stack, so every layer reacts as one, without delays, without blind spots, without silos.
That’s not a feature you can buy, it’s a change in how your security system operates. Most MSPs haven’t made that shift yet. And until they do, they’ll keep discovering breaches in the same place: a browser session nobody secured.
Act before the next breach
Most MSPs only change direction after a breach forces their hand. By then, the damage is done and client trust is gone, cyber insurance premiums climb, remediation costs erase months of margin.
You don’t have to wait for that moment.
The future of security starts in the browser
Hardening browsers might sound like patching a blind spot. It’s not.
The web has become the workplace. SaaS replaced the desktop. Identity replaced the perimeter. Every critical client action now flows through browser sessions attackers know how to exploit.
MSPs who take this step today aren’t just blocking phishing pages or credential theft. They’re proving to clients, insurers, and regulators that their security program is built to stay ahead of threats.
And this is only the beginning. As cloud adoption deepens and AI-driven attacks evolve, the browser won’t just be where breaches start—it will be where entire security programs are run.
Closing this gap isn’t just prevention. It’s the first move in leading the next decade of security.
