Apple @ Work: Is Safari the biggest shadow IT blind spot in your enterprise?

Source: 9to5Mac

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Over the last few weeks, I have talked a lot about shadow IT and how it is evolving. I recently did a webinar on AI as the new shadow IT, but there is another area Apple IT administrators need to consider: the web browser. A new report from Omdia, commissioned by Parallels, surveyed 400 IT and cybersecurity professionals and found that 68 % of organizations are seeing an increase in browser‑based security incidents. Since most enterprise SaaS apps are browser‑based, it’s worth considering.

The Safari blind spot

When you look at how IT teams manage browsers, the data is fairly interesting. According to the report:

• Google Chrome is formally supported by 88 % of organizations.
• Microsoft Edge sits right behind it at 84 %.
• Safari is much lower at 46 %.

The interesting part: 27 % of organizations report that Safari is in use but informally supported. If your users are on Macs, they are likely using Safari. It is fast, battery‑efficient, and deeply integrated into macOS. If your IT team is not actively managing it using your device‑management platform, you have a massive shadow‑IT blind spot right on your users’ desktops.

The browser is the new endpoint

Why does an unmanaged browser matter? Because that is where the attacks are happening. The Omdia report notes that:

• 55 % of surveyed organizations said they had been the victim of a browser‑based attack—or could have been—in the last 12 months.
• 22 % experienced multiple successful attacks.
• Phishing leads the pack at 40 %, followed closely by data loss or leakage at 38 %.
• Malicious browser extensions account for 34 % of these incidents.

Island has become a popular choice for IT administrators looking to take browser security to the next level. Because it’s a Chromium‑based web browser designed specifically for enterprise security, it delivers the familiar, fast experience users expect on a Mac while integrating directly with existing IT and security infrastructure.

Wrap up

IT teams can’t just ignore unmanaged systems and hope users stick to managed ones. You have to actively manage the browser experience from both a user and a security perspective. Whether you decide to heavily lock down Safari using your device‑management platform, deploy a dedicated enterprise browser, or rely on secure cross‑platform extensions, you need to treat the browser with the same level of scrutiny that you treat macOS itself.

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