Industry
Manufacturing
Solutions
SaaS and Web Apps, Safe Browsing, Say Yes at Work, AI
Industry
Manufacturing
Solutions
SaaS and Web Apps, Safe Browsing, Say Yes at Work, AI
Security that fuels innovation
Island helps Ashland manage cyber risk while enabling employees to innovate at speed.
Safer access to SaaS applications
Island restricts SaaS access at the browser layer, reducing risk from compromised credentials.
Browser-level risk protection
Island adds controls and guidance at the browser layer, where many attacks begin.
Prepared for AI-powered threats
Island helps Ashland prepare for faster, AI-driven cyber attacks targeting enterprises.
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The Chief Information Security Officer of Ashland Inc. faced a double challenge: How to keep employees and corporate data safe and secure, yet not slow the company’s blazing pace of innovation. CISO Charles Holiday found the solution with Island’s enterprise browser. With Island’s help, Ashland now controls its cyber risk while also empowering speedy innovation.
The Challenge
That was the challenge facing Charles Holiday, the CISO at Ashland Inc. Ashland’s highly technical business demands of its employees constant and rapid innovation.
Yet Holiday was given the task of keeping those employees’ systems, along with corporate data, highly secure. “If I can implement secure technologies and enable my users to go as fast as they want,” he says, “that’s my best-case scenario.”
Unfortunately, many cybersecurity solutions require tedious and time-consuming steps that can slow innovation to a crawl. That would never do at Ashland, as innovation has long been one of the company’s hallmarks.
Founded over a century ago, Ashland today employs 3,000+ people including scientists, research chemists, and plant engineers. To serve both consumer and industrial customers in over 100 countries, Ashland offers highly technical products such as polymers for hair care, blood irradiation indicators, and cement slurries. These and many other Ashland products are used in markets that include automotive, building construction, energy, food and beverages, personal and home care, and pharmaceuticals.
It all adds up to a big business. Ashland’s shares are publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange, and in 2025 the company reported annual sales totaling $1.82 billion.
As CISO Holiday well knows, big businesses like Ashland are also big targets for cyber criminals, some of whom are alarmingly sophisticated. “Our adversaries are using AI as effectively as productivity users,” Holiday says. “Large-scale compromises that used to take weeks and months, our industry is now seeing in hours and days.”
The Solution
Holiday needed a security solution that would not only protect Ashland’s systems and data, but also empower its end users to keep innovating at a rapid pace. He found it in Island.
Browsers are a common target for attackers, and Island helps Holiday lower that risk by adding browser limits and guidance for safer usage. He’s also using Island to restrict access to Ashland’s Software as a Service (SaaS) applications. This way, even if the company were to suffer a credential compromise or session hijacking, the attackers would be unable to enter the SaaS environment.
“Island helps us to manage risk while fueling productivity for our end users,” Holiday says. “That gives them more options for tools, rather than limiting what they can use.”
Conclusion
Ashland was one of Island’s first customers, and the two companies continue to work closely on meeting new security needs.
“Island listens to us with technical ears—they understand what we’re asking,” Holiday says. “And Island’s development team uses remarkable skill to make a quick turnaround on the products.”
Looking ahead, Holiday plans to apply Island to AI technology. He expects cyber criminals will use AI to accelerate their attack chains. With Island, he says, “we’ll be able to mitigate that risk.”
Industry
Manufacturing
Solutions
SaaS and Web Apps, Safe Browsing, Say Yes at Work, AI
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