Forest Global Training Partners

Cyber Risks · Unit 42 Palo Alto Networks

The Browser Defense Playbook: Stopping the Attacks That Start on Your Screen

Summary: Unit 42's 2025 Global Incident Response Report found that nearly half of the incidents it investigated involved malicious activity launched or facilitated through employees' browsers, via tactics including phishing, URL redirect abuse and malware downloads. The report also cites a Stanford University study finding that 280 million Google Chrome users installed extensions containing malware over a three-year period.

Bottom line: Roughly 85% of daily work happens in the browser, yet many organizations do not treat it as part of the attack surface, leaving them without an inventory of permissible extensions or controls over insecure protocols. A single malicious extension or hijacked session token can bypass numerous other security controls.

Read the original at Unit 42 Palo Alto Networks ↗

Topics
Detection & Response
Related
YARA-X 1.23.0 Release, (Sun, Nov 15th) Cyber Risks · Nov 15, 2026