Sophos delivers advanced threat protection for small and mid-market

Sophos has announced an extensive update to its Unified Threat Management solution, Sophos UTM. With more than 100 new features, the highlight of the new UTM platform is bringing advanced threat protection (ATP) to the small and mid-market, capabilities that were previously only available to large enterprises.

Developed by SophosLabs, the new Sophos UTM approach brings together multiple technologies to rapidly identify and isolate infected clients and prevent communication with malicious command and control hosts.

This latest version introduces botnet protection and cloud-based sandboxing to expand on the Sophos UTM's existing multi-layer firewall, Web, e-mail and endpoint protection. This extends the Sophos commitment to small and mid-market companies, delivering access to advanced protection without the complexity and cost normally associated with such functionality.

"The initial stages of targeted attacks can often go unnoticed by security systems that don't control incoming and outgoing traffic. For organisations with limited IT resources, investing time and money in a dedicated ATP solution to detect these early signs is simply not realistic, given how tricky, complex and fast moving this type of traffic is," says Brett Myroff, CEO of Sophos distributor, NetXactics.

"Now, with a few simple clicks, users get advanced protection without needing to be full-time security experts themselves," he adds.

This new release also enhances the speed of security scanning, with initial data showing the new performance-optimised IPS doubling throughput speed in test environments. The Email, Web, and Network Protection modules all experience significant enhancements, including:

* Simplified e-mail encryption and DLP - Sophos SPX technology eliminates the need for a separate public key infrastructure, and policy-based DLP can trigger automatic encryption;
* Smarter Web control - streamlined policy set-up enables granular user control and transparent Web filtering of https traffic provides seamless protection;
* Mobile access control - enhances WiFi and VPN security by combining Sophos UTM with mobile device management functionality in Sophos Mobile Control;
* Performance optimised IPS - intelligent processes and pattern management deliver enhanced scanning speeds to rapidly block network attacks and prevent breaches;
* Botnet/command and control protection - Sophos Advanced Threat Protection identifies and blocks infected machines communicating with malware command and control servers;

"The UTM market is one of the most competitive in security. Numerous features and applications have been added over the past few years, and we're increasingly seeing solutions are providing more effective security and better performance," says John Grady, Research Manager, Security Products and Services, IDC. "This latest release from Sophos continues to simplify complex technologies. SPX e-mail encryption is an example of that and is a differentiated approach among other UTM vendors."