A tiring bit of Internet security advice one often hears suggests using a separate and dedicated browser for sensitive transactions such as online banking or checking your medical data. In the past this meant sorting out which was the secure browser and then avoiding it for other purposes or even using a different computer altogether.

“Set up a separate, Java-free browser dedicated just to shopping and banking,” security software company F-Secure suggested in December ahead of the holidays. “Busy, distracted people doing their holiday shopping online may be more susceptible to falling into malware traps that attempt to steal credit card info or banking passwords.”

"Java-free what?" would be most people's response. Now several companies are making this process easier and ever safer through cloud-based browsers that store no data from each session and prevent any malware from interacting with your computer.

One such product is Authentic8’s Silo, a standalone browser that starts only after entering a password. It then executes on the cloud and calls up a list of links the user has previously entered, and can store passwords for those sites. All code executes on their remote servers, providing security against malware and privacy against tracking.


People are starting to realize the browser is a pretty insecure element ,” says Scott Petry, Authentic8’s co-founder and CEO. Now “literally Swiss banks are using us.”

At a consumer cost of $100 a year, the browser streams a copy of the web session to your computer without a noticeable lag. “It’s a hard technical problem to solve, the not least of which is that users expect real-time performance,” says Petry, whose track record includes founding the email filtering service Postini (now part of ) in 1999.

Authentic8 is not intended to serve as a full-service browser. It does not allow the importing of bookmarks from other browsers and it disables audio, which in effect hobbles video as well. The startup focuses mostly on business applications. including the ability to allow firms to limit what sites employees can visit using the browser. But it also has a strong use case for consumers. Authentic8 has raised more than $10 million in venture funding, and got its first customers in October.

Chart of how Authentic8 works

Chart of how Authentic8 works

Another company, Quarri, also focuses mostly on improving business security, especially for their public facing websites, and also provides a remote browser for consumers. That product, called myPOQ, is not prominently displayed on its site, but is a free service, which they consider a sort of promotion for their other products.

It launches from within an existing browser after logging in. and can serve as a more full-service browser as it does not limit audio or video streaming. Backed with nearly $8 million in venture capital, Quarri has about 5,000 people using myPOQ, says Mark Elliot, its founder and executive vice president of products.

Other companies with remote browsers include Maxthon, a product developed in China which emphasizes seamless browsing across the multiple devices, and Spikes Security which focuses on businesses.

Not everyone is convinced about the utility of such products. In a recent column, Forbes contributor Ben Kepes concluded that the “general lessening of the browser experience” would keep products such as Authentic8’s Silo from catching on.

It is true that products that increase security and privacy often involve additional effort and expense. Yet revelations about computer security over the past year, from the Snowden files to the Adobe and breaches, and growing media coverage including a segment on 60 Minutes on Sunday, highlight the need for consumers to take proactive measures to protect themselves. Given all that, remote security-enhanced browsers are likely to grow sharply in popularity in the coming years.