New Startup SquareX Targets Brower-Based Attacks

Startup SquareX emerges from stealth with plans for a “disposable browser” for users to access the Internet safely and privately.

The bulk of the user’s daily computer activity occurs within the web browser, whether that is playing games, looking up information on websites, communicating with other people, or accessing various applications for school or work. More than half of users in a recent Forrester Research survey are “doing all their work in the browser,” says Paddy Harrington, a senior analyst for security and risk at Forrester.

SquareX aims to protect these users from various browser-based attacks such as phishing, identity theft, and session hijacking by allowing users to open links and files in a cloud environment so that anything malicious would be contained and never reach the user’s actual device. SquareX is not creating a new browser, but rather an extension that will connect the user’s browser to the cloud service. The idea isn’t so different from other browser isolation technologies on the market, but geared towards the individual user.

SquareX tackles endpoint protection differently from most endpoint security products as it doesn’t try to block access to potentially malicious files or resources. Users often disable security products or otherwise bypass controls in order to access the flagged materials – thinking it may be the product’s error or that they need to still complete their tasks – so SquareX’s focus is to neutralize the threat by containing the malicious file and processes in the temporary “container sandboxes.”

SquareX is taking a “protection approach, where irrespective of how new and sophisticated the attack is, it has no chance to infect users,” Sequoia partner Anandamoy Rowchowdhary said in a statement. “This is the future we think all internet users deserve.”

The company announced $6 million in a seed round led by Sequoia Capital Southeast Asia. The founder, Vivek Ramashandran, was previously the founder of cybersecurity training startup Pentester Academy. SquareX is planning a beta version for later in the year.