OXFORD, United Kingdom, April 21, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sophos, a global leader in next-generation cybersecurity, today unveiled new XGS Series firewall appliances with unrivaled performance and advanced protection against cyberattacks. The new appliances feature industry-best Transport Layer Security (TLS) inspection, including native support for TLS 1.3, that is up to five times faster than other models available on the market today.

Sophos Home Premium antivirus software is good and did well in our rating. Sophos Home Premium incorporates many of the protection technologies incorporated into Sophos Central, its enterprise. Sophos Home Premium Security Delivers Advanced, Real-Time Antivirus Protection from the Latest Ransomware, Hacking Attempts and More. Get Sophos Home Today. A default installation of Sophos Enterprise Console would have installed a version of SQL Express with a SQL instance labelled as Sophos. If this is not in use by other applications, and there is no intention to re-install SEC on this machine, uninstall it. Microsoft will release an update on March 10 that prevents Sophos Enterprise Console (SEC) versions 5.5.1, and 5.5.2 if downloaded before March 5, from opening. This does not affect protection capabilities. Endpoints and servers will continue to receive updates. No other products or services are affected.

“Sophos Firewall XGS Series appliances represent the most significant hardware upgrade that we have ever released and introduce unmatched detection, protection and speed,” said Dan Schiappa, chief product officer at Sophos. “Security teams can no longer afford to overlook encrypted traffic for fear of breaking something or hurting performance – there’s too much at risk. We’ve completely redesigned the Sophos Firewall hardware to handle the modern encrypted internet. Security teams now have the ability to easily inspect encrypted traffic and shine light on what was once a black hole, and they can confidently do so without compromising on performance.”

Cybercriminals Increasingly Using TLS to Avoid Detection
Sophos today also published new research, “Nearly Half of Malware Now Use TLS to Conceal Communications,” identifying a surge in cybercriminals using TLS in their attacks. The increasingly popular tactic is used by adversaries to encrypt and encapsulate the content of malicious communications to avoid detection as they carry out attacks.

Download apps for macbook air. In fact, 45% of malware detected by Sophos from January through March 2021 used TLS to conceal malicious communications. That’s a staggering rise from the 23% Sophos reported in early 2020. Sophos has also seen an increase in the use of TLS to carry out ransomware attacks in the past year, particularly with manually-deployed ransomware. The majority of malicious TLS traffic that Sophos has detected includes initial-compromise malware, such as loaders, droppers and document-based installers like BazarLoader, GoDrop and ZLoader.

“TLS has undoubtably changed the privacy of internet communications for the better, but for all the good it’s done, it’s also made it much easier for attackers to download and install malicious modules and exfiltrate stolen data – right under the noses of IT security teams and most security technologies,” said Schiappa. “Attackers are taking advantage of TLS-protected web and cloud services for malware delivery and for command and control. Their initial compromise malware is simply the advance guard for major attacks, as they’re setting up camp for the heavy artillery that follows, like ransomware.”

Accelerating Threat Protection
Powered by Sophos Firewall’s Xstream architecture, XGS Series appliances deliver the industry’s best zero-day threat protection, identifying and stopping the most advanced known and potential threats – including ransomware. Protection is fueled by powerful threat intelligence, available only through SophosLabs Intelix and based on petabytes of SophosLabs threat data. Suspicious files are safely detonated in SophosLabs Intelix virtual environments as well as subjected to in-depth static analysis for additional detection coverage and intelligence gathering.

New Xstream flow processors within the appliances automatically accelerate trusted traffic, such as software as a service (SaaS), software-defined wide-area network (SD-WAN) and cloud applications, providing maximum headroom for traffic requiring TLS and deep packet inspection. This greatly reduces latency and improves overall performance for important business applications, particularly those using real-time data. The Xstream flow processors are software programmable, allowing Sophos to offload additional traffic in the future. The flexibility to enhance and adapt connectivity on the hardware itself further protects customers’ hardware investment.

Sophos provides unique and intuitive dashboard visibility of TLS traffic and inspection issues, and security administrators can add exceptions for problematic streams with one click. Performance is also optimized out of the box with an extensive set of rules that are updated and maintained by SophosLabs to exclude safe traffic from inspection.

Sophos Firewall XGS Series appliances and firmware are easily managed on the cloud-based Sophos Central platform alongside Sophos’ entire portfolio of next-generation cybersecurity solutions. Solutions share threat intelligence and automatically respond to security incidents through Sophos’ unique synchronized security approach. Integration with Sophos Managed Threat Response (MTR) further boosts protection with human analysis for 24/7 fully managed threat detection and response.

Availability
Sophos Firewall XGS Series desktop and most 1U rackmount appliances are available for immediate purchase exclusively through Sophos’ global channel of partners and managed service providers (MSPs). These models are ideally suited for small, medium and distributed organizations as an all-in-one network security solution with a strong price to performance ratio and diverse add-on connectivity options. Additional models designed for enterprise edge environments requiring maximum throughput for more complex network configurations will be available in the coming weeks. Simplified licensing includes bundled protection with enhanced support.

What Analysts and Channel Partners Say
“Firewall appliances are evolving to secure newer use cases, including cloud and the sudden shift to a growing remote workforce,” said Frank Dickson, program vice president at IDC. “The elegance of Sophos Firewall’s Xstream dual processor architecture approach is its ability to accelerate trusted traffic from so-called ‘elephant flows’— large media streams, VoIP traffic and even cloud applications — to then leverage the general purpose CPU to perform appropriate resource-intensive processes, such as deep packet inspection and TLS inspection. The result is an adaptable network appliance designed to provide protection while meeting changing and accelerating business demands across a variety of use cases.”

“The new XGS Series firewall appliances are screaming fast with rock solid, unbreakable stability. We captured an immediate increase in performance that doubled our throughput, which completely blew us away. Sophos Firewall has always been industry best, but the XGS Series appliances are revolutionary and beyond compare with cutting-edge innovation that’s years ahead of other offerings,” said Sam Heard, president at Data Integrity Services. “Sophos Firewall provides the protection our customers need as they increasingly move business critical applications to the cloud and adopt zero trust technologies. It’s a win-win for channel partners, who further benefit with tremendous growth opportunities to cross and up-sell across the entire suite of Sophos solutions and services.”

“Sophos is raising the bar and pushing the cybersecurity industry forward at warp speed with its new XGS Series appliances, which are nothing short of amazing,” said Karen Greer, CEO at Secure Content Technologies. “Appliance installation is incredibly simple, and within minutes I could hear our technician yelling through the wall, ‘wow, this is fast!’ Sophos Firewall is effortlessly managed on Sophos Central, making it exponentially easier to secure and manage diverse and complex customer environments. Knowing that Sophos Firewall automatically shares threat intelligence with other solutions on the platform through Sophos’ synchronized security heartbeat feature is game changing, giving us complete confidence and peace of mind that our customers are protected – even the most evasive threats don’t stand a chance at getting by.”

Additional Resources

• Read the Naked Security article, “When Cryptography Attacks – How TLS Helps Malware to Hide in Plain Sight”
• Watch the video, TLS Encryption Explained, to see how attackers are using TLS encryption to commit cybercrime
• Learn how SystemBC and Agent Tesla use TLS
• Learn how Sophos Firewall protects against Hafnium
• Read Sophos’ 2021 Threat Report to learn more about cybersecurity trends
• Read the latest security news and views on Sophos‘ award-winning news website Naked Security and on Sophos News
• Connect with Sophos on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Spiceworks, and YouTube

About Sophos
As a worldwide leader in next-generation cybersecurity, Sophos protects more than 400,000 organizations of all sizes in more than 150 countries from today’s most advanced cyber threats. App download mac. Powered by SophosLabs – a global threat intelligence and data science team – Sophos’ cloud-native and AI-powered solutions secure endpoints (laptops, servers and mobile devices) and networks against evolving cyberattack techniques, including ransomware, malware, exploits, data exfiltration, active-adversary breaches, phishing, and more. Sophos Central, a cloud-native management platform, integrates Sophos’ entire portfolio of next-generation products, including the Intercept X endpoint solution and the XG next-generation firewall, into a single “synchronized security” system accessible through a set of APIs. Sophos has been driving a transition to next-generation cybersecurity, leveraging advanced capabilities in cloud, machine learning, APIs, automation, managed threat response, and more, to deliver enterprise-grade protection to any size organization. Sophos sells its products and services exclusively through a global channel of more than 53,000 partners and managed service providers (MSPs). Sophos also makes its innovative commercial technologies available to consumers via Sophos Home. The company is headquartered in Oxford, U.K. More information is available at www.sophos.com.

Contact Information:
Hanah Johnson: sophos@marchcomms.com

Photos accompanying this announcement are available at
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/d584b28f-7216-48dd-a0ca-f93f49e1ed3b

Sophos Group plc is a British security software and hardware company. Sophos develops products for communication endpoint, encryption, network security, email security, mobile security and unified threat management. Sophos is primarily focused on providing security software to 100- to 5,000-seat organizations. While not a primary focus, Sophos also protects home users, through free and paid antivirus solutions (Sophos Home/Home Premium) intended to demonstrate product functionality. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange until it was acquired by Thoma Bravo in February 2020.

History[edit]

Sophos Enterprise Guard

Sophos was founded by Jan Hruska and Peter Lammer and began producing its first antivirus and encryption products in 1985.^[2] During the late 1980s and into the 1990s, Sophos primarily developed and sold a range of security technologies in the UK, including encryption tools available for most users (private or business). In the late 1990s, Sophos concentrated its efforts on the development and sale of antivirus technology, and embarked on a program of international expansion.^[3]

In 2003, Sophos acquired ActiveState, a North American software company that developed anti-spam software. At that time viruses were being spread primarily through email spam and this allowed Sophos to produce a combined anti-spam and antivirus solution.^[4] In 2006, Peter Gyenes and Steve Munford were named chairman and CEO of Sophos, respectively. Jan Hruska and Peter Lammer remain as members of the board of directors.^[5] In 2010, the majority interest of Sophos was sold to Apax.^[6] In 2010, Nick Bray, formerly Group CFO at Micro Focus International, was named CFO of Sophos.^[7]

In 2011, Utimaco Safeware AG (acquired by Sophos in 2008–9) were accused of supplying data monitoring and tracking software to partners that have sold to governments such as Syria: Sophos issued a statement of apology and confirmed that they had suspended their relationship with the partners in question and launched an investigation.^[8][9] In 2012, Kris Hagerman, formerly CEO at Corel Corporation, was named CEO of Sophos and joined the company's board. Former CEO Steve Munford became non-executive chairman of the board.^[10] In February 2014, Sophos announced that it had acquired Cyberoam Technologies, a provider of network security products.^[11] In June 2015, Sophos announced plans to raise $US100 million on the London Stock Exchange.^[12] Sophos was floated on the FTSE in September 2015.^[13]

On 14 October 2019 Sophos announced that Thoma Bravo, a US-based private equity firm, made an offer to acquire Sophos for US$7.40 per share, representing an enterprise value of approximately $3.9 billion. The board of directors of Sophos stated their intention to unanimously recommend the offer to the company's shareholders.^[14] On 2 March 2020 Sophos announced the completion of the acquisition.^[15]

Acquisitions and partnerships[edit]

From September 2003 to February 2006, Sophos served as the parent company of ActiveState, a developer of programming tools for dynamic programming languages: in February 2006, ActiveState became an independent company when it was sold to Vancouver-based venture capitalist firm Pender Financial.^[16] In 2007, Sophos acquired ENDFORCE, a company based in Ohio, United States, which developed and sold security policy compliance and Network Access Control (NAC) software.^[17][18] In November 2016, Sophos acquired Barricade, a pioneering start-up with a powerful behavior-based analytics engine built on machine learning techniques,^[19] to strengthen synchronized security capabilities and next-generation network and endpoint protection. Pycharm web scraping. In February 2017, Sophos acquired Invincea, a software company that provides malware threat detection, prevention, and pre-breach forensic intelligence.^[20][21][22]

In March 2020, Thoma Bravo acquired Sophos for $3.9 billion.^[23]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^ ^abcd'Annual Report 2018'(PDF). Sophos. Retrieved 20 March 2019.
2. ^'Sophos: the early years'. Naked Security.
3. ^'Exterminator Tools'. Windows IT Pro. 15 November 1999. Retrieved 24 April 2017.
4. ^'Sophos acquires anti-spam specialist ActiveState'. www.sophos.com. Retrieved 3 January 2016.
5. ^'Sophos Management Team | Global Leaders in IT Security'. sophos.com.
6. ^'Apax Partners to acquire majority stake in Sophos'.
7. ^'Board of Directors'.
8. ^'The Bureau Investigates article'. Archived from the original on 4 December 2011.
9. ^'Statement from Sophos on Recent Media Reports'.
10. ^'Sophos Board of Directors webpage'.
11. ^'Sophos Acquires Cyberoam to Boost Layered Defense Portfolio'. Infosecurity Magazine.
12. ^'Sophos Plans $100 Million London IPO'.
13. ^'Sophos joins the UK's top public companies in the FTSE 250'.
14. ^'Sophos founders exit before Thoma Bravo sale'. Global Capital. 5 December 2019. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
15. ^'Sophos opens new chapter with take-private acquisition'.
16. ^'ActiveState Acquired by Employees and Pender Financial Group; Company Renews Focus on Tools and Solutions for Dynamic Languages'. Business Wire. 22 February 2006. Retrieved 24 April 2017.
17. ^'Sophos buys Endforce for network access control'. Network World. 11 January 2007. Retrieved 24 April 2017.
18. ^Wauters, Robin. 'Sophos beefs up on online security, acquires Dutch security software firm SurfRight for $31.8 million'. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
19. ^https://www.sophos.com/en-us/press-office/press-releases/2016/11/sophos-acquires-security-analytics-start-up-in-ireland.aspx
20. ^'Sophos Adds Advanced Machine Learning to Its Next-Generation Endpoint Protection Portfolio with Acquisition of Invincea'. Sophos. 8 February 2017. Retrieved 11 February 2017.
21. ^'Sophos grows anti-malware ensemble with Invincea'. Sophos. 8 February 2017. Retrieved 11 February 2017. One may ask, if you already have great next-generation technology, why do you need Invincea’s technology?..Think of Invincea as the superhero that takes our ensemble to the next level – the entity that adds neural network-based machine learning to the team.
22. ^'Sophos to Acquire Invincea to Add Industry Leading Machine Learning to its Next Generation Endpoint Protection Portfolio'. Invincea. 8 February 2017. Retrieved 11 February 2017.
23. ^'Thoma Bravo completes $3.9B Sophos acquisition'. TechCrunch. Retrieved 7 April 2020.

External links[edit]

Sophos Enterprise Big Sur