Google announces new Chrome Web Store for enterprise browser extension control – News

Chrome extension management can burden many security teams when employees install them on their computers. To lighten that burden, Google LLC today announced a new curated Chrome Web Store for enterprise businesses that will give them greater control and visibility over browser extensions.

The new Chrome Web Store, part of Chrome Enterprise Core, allows employees a simple landing page where they can discover and choose extensions pre-approved by information technology staff. This allows the security and IT departments to vet extensions to prevent users from grabbing their own from the web.

Administrators can also promote recommended apps that the company wants users to install on the store page using its familiar look to get them to pick and install them first.

To keep the interface with company standards, look and feel, Google has updated the web store with greater customization. Admins can now tailor the experience with company logos, custom imagery and announcements. They can also place curated collections and category controls in the store to help employees more easily find extensions that fit their needs.

Coming soon, admins will be able to create custom block messages on extension detail pages to explain to employees why they can’t install a particular add-on. This might head off requests to the IT department to add popular but problematic extensions.

Administrators can already remotely install, allow or block extensions, but later this year Google will empower them to remove extensions with a click. This will make it possible to immediately resolve problems with out-of-date extensions without needing to have employees uninstall them and also block them from the web store.

Detecting issues in extensions is also made easy for security teams through third-party risk assessments provided by Spin.AI in the Extension Usage Report. This report allows admins to discover extensions with potential problems and block them proactively. Security and IT departments can now export scores for use in other tools to maintain a better view of their internal security posture.

Image: Google