Email remains a primary delivery vector for cyberattacks, but it has also become one of the most heavily defended. As organizations continuously shore up their email defenses, attackers have begun shifting more attacks into the browser, where they can weaponize links after delivery, hide malicious content behind trusted authentication workflows, abuse OAuth permissions, hijack sessions, steal credentials, and use malicious browser extensions to evade defenses. The browser does not have dedicated protections, given that EDR or SWGs cannot see or stop what occurs in the browser.
Today, Proofpoint is introducing Advanced Browser Protection, expanding existing capabilities into a new, more comprehensive layer of collaboration security. Proofpoint is the first collaboration security vendor to unify industry-leading email threat intelligence with browser-native protection, extending continuous defense across the full attack chain. Built for all major browsers like Chrome, Safari, Edge, Firefox, or Brave, Advanced Browser Protection strengthens the browser as a critical collaboration security control point, complementing Proofpoint protections at the gateway and inbox.
Built in partnership with Push Security, these new capabilities combine Push’s browser-native protection technology with Proofpoint’s industry-leading threat intelligence and collaboration security platform. Browser telemetry is integrated into Threat Protection Workbench, the Proofpoint Security Graph, and the Investigation Agent, giving security teams a unified view of attacks from initial message delivery through browser activity and user interaction.
Extending Protection Across Security Control Points
Modern attacks are often multi-stage and increasingly extend into areas that cannot be viewed in email alone. Proofpoint helps organizations protect users across three critical collaboration security control points:
• Gateway: Block malicious messages before they are delivered, using the industry’s only Secure Email Gateway with intent-based detections.
• Inbox: Detect, remediate, and respond to threats with API-based email defenses that also provide unique visibility into east-west internal email traffic.
• Browser: Stop attacks that are weaponized after delivery or originate entirely in the browser.
Together, these layers provide continuous protection across the collaboration attack chain and close the gaps attackers increasingly exploit.
Defending Against Post-Click and Browser-Borne Attacks
Modern collaboration attacks increasingly extend beyond email—or begin outside it altogether. Phishing, malware, and other attacks can move across email, messaging applications, and the browser, making email visibility alone insufficient to understand and stop the full attack. For example, malicious URLs may evade inspection at delivery and become dangerous only after a user clicks, using delayed redirects, IP-based evasion, or conditional payloads to send users to phishing sites or credential-harvesting pages once the browser session begins.
Proofpoint Advanced Browser Protection validates clicked URLs in real time and blocks malicious destinations before users can interact with them. This helps stop sophisticated post-click phishing attacks that slip past email and web defenses.
But not all browser threats start with a malicious URL. Emerging browser-borne attacks abuse the browser itself as a control point, using trusted authentication workflows, OAuth consent pages, malicious extensions, adversary-in-the-middle techniques, credential theft, password reuse, session hijacking, and account takeover tactics.
OAuth phishing shows why browser-native controls are increasingly required. These attacks often do not rely on malware or stolen passwords. Instead, attackers convince users to authorize malicious applications that request permissions to access corporate data and services, such as email, files, calendars, or cloud applications. Once approved, these applications receive access tokens, allowing attackers to impersonate users, maintain persistent access, and move laterally across cloud environments. These attacks unfold in the browser, meaning organizations need controls that can detect and block malicious activity in real time.
Bringing Email and Browser Intelligence Together
The browser should not be another isolated security tool. It should extend the same intelligence that protects email.
Proofpoint brings email threat intelligence directly into the browser, so browser decisions can use the same continuously updated intelligence that protects inbound email. Security teams can investigate the complete attack path, from the original phishing email to browser activity and user interaction, within a single workflow.
The result is richer context, faster investigations, and more confident response decisions.
Securing the Modern Collaboration Attack Chain
Attackers no longer stop at the inbox, and security cannot either. With Proofpoint Advanced Browser Protection, organizations gain browser-native defenses, unified investigation workflows, and continuous protection across gateway, inbox, and browser, helping stop more attacks, reduce account compromise, and strengthen security operations.
To learn more about Proofpoint Advanced Browser Protection and how it can help extend protection into the browser, contact your Proofpoint account team.