A user normally logs on to a distributed network, such as the user's Internet service, using the user's unique login name and password. The user must then be authorized to write to and read from encrypted information stored in the browser defined cache. The browser cache may be defined as either system memory or disk memory. The user might be required to enter a second password. Information requested by the user is then encrypted, either as a browser function or as an application function of the memory portion defined by the browser. Once authorized by the browser, the user can both read and write to the encrypted information in the cache. Thus, as the user browses network nodes or web pages on a network, the pages are encrypted by the browser before they are cached. Information requested by the user and stored in the cache is first decrypted by the browser and then displayed by the browser.