For over 20 years Sophos has been at the forefront of protection from ever-changing and ever-increasing levels of threat. They offer solutions for whole of your IT estate from laptops and mobile devices, to desktops, servers and gateways.
Sophos constantly enhances its products as new threats arise and user demands increase. You do not need to buy additional modules and products to benefit from these enhancements, they are delivered as part of an ongoing service and update program.
Integrated protection against multiple threats
From both technical and user positions the categorization of a specific threat as a virus, worm, spam, phish, spyware or adware is meaningless. The threat simply needs to be stopped, and needs to be stopped at all points of the enterprise: laptop, desktop, server, and gateway. Sophos's single integrated file analysis engine applies the same set of technologies and capabilities to all threats. Requiring a single agent on the desktop, and a single scan of any suspect file, this approach eliminates the inevitable overlaps and gaps in protection caused by treating viruses and spyware as separate problems, while simultaneously simplifying administration and minimising desktop load.
This integration of threat protection extends far beyond Sophos's software and hardware products and is reflected in SophosLabs™, Sophos's global network of integrated threat analysis labs, producing a single coherent threat data set. SophosLabs integrated capabilities further extend beyond malware to include email and spam analysis within those same facilities, providing a unique strength for gateway protection.
Delivering protection in a constantly accelerating world
As the number and range of types of threats has increased, so has the level of connectivity available to all IT users. This has lead to a rapid increase in the speed at which threats move. Today, an unprotected PC connected to the internet can be infected within 10 minutes.
In addition to innovating in the area of threat detection, Sophos has also focused on accelerating the delivery of that protection. Where once, monthly updates were sufficient, Sophos can now automatically and seamlessly update its product set against spam and virus threats every five minutes. Analysis and testing is increasingly automated. Investment has been made so that the update test cycle, which used to take up to 24 hours, can now be completed in 15 minutes, without compromising quality.
It is not enough simply to produce updates; they provide no protection until deployed to user machines. Sophos's integrated administration system delivers updates across even the largest corporate networks in minutes.
Advancing protection beyond the known – Zero Day and HIPS
This constant acceleration and diversification of the threat has lead to a growing need to detect and stop unknown threats. Terms like Zero Day and HIPS suggest that these new threats require standalone protection systems. Typical HIPS systems modify the OS kernel at multiple points in an attempt to track behavior in real-time and stop it before too much damage occurs. This approach risks compromising the stability and security of the very OS it is trying to secure, and can only detect malicious behavior after the event.
Sophos has avoided these dangers by addressing the unknown threat risk through extensions to our core expertise. Genotype and Behavioral Genotype Protection are unique pre-emptive technologies, identifying malicious behavior before any execution can occur, without the need for kernel modification.
Simplicity of management and deployment
Protection should be simple to configure and deploy, and alerts should be instantly visible. With Sophos they are. They operate via a single, simple management system. PCs can be grouped according to any requirement and managed by exception. Policies can be created independently and then simply 'drag and dropped' onto those groups. These Active Policies allow instant reconfiguration of large numbers of PCs, with simple policies that define all aspects of protection across a wide range of threat types. Sophos Client Firewall managed with similar policies within the same console.
Sophos products are updated automatically across the network, whether updates are a single virus signature, or an engine enhancement to deal with an anticipated new class of threat, ensuring that protection is always up-to-date.
Protection across heterogeneous networks
While there is no doubt that the main threat is to Windows platforms, Sophos provides protection across dozens of different platforms, and uniquely provides integrated management across Windows, Linux and Mac systems, providing the ability to write common policies across these platforms.
The risk to these other platforms may be lower, but it does exist. Additionally, malware may be stored on these systems, which will re-attack Windows systems if not removed. Sophos's unique approach to integrated protection means that the full range of known and unknown threat protection applies across all these platforms.
Extending control to unwanted software
Sophos is now taking those techniques developed for virus and malware protection, and extending them further to provide network administrators with more control of their environments. In addition to stopping malicious code, Sophos Anti-Virus can now block legitimate consumer applications (such as VOIP, instant messaging and peer-to-peer file-sharing) that can undermine productivity and network performance in a business environment.
To learn more about how Sophos can help your business and for advice on your licence strategies, call our security team on 0845 1 30308
Customers Say:
"INDECS got us out of a hole. Our servers crashed and we were struggling. These guys moved heaven and earth to get us back on track. Outstanding. We've been using them ever since... These guys really know their stuff."
Steve Gates, MD, Coopers
