Sophos Introduces New and Enhanced Enterprise Products for Complete Protection Anywhere

BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - May 17, 2011) - IT security and data protection company Sophos today announced the availability of a number of new and enhanced enterprise product lines that together offer complete protection anywhere and on any device. The company's new offering Sophos Mobile Control provides lightweight device protection on a broad range of popular mobile platforms, including Apple iPhones and iPads, Google Android, and Windows Mobile devices; Sophos SafeGuard Enterprise, which provides encryption and data loss prevention (DLP) for desktops, laptops and removable media, now includes comprehensive management of all encryption options that fully supports hardware drives, including Opal, software-based encryption, and hardware encrypted USB; and enhancements to the latest version of Sophos Endpoint Security and Data Protection provide increased performance and protection features, keeping users and the network secure and data safe.

With continuous innovation and a steady increase in consumer smartphone and portable device adoption by today's workforce, organizations are faced with an unprecedented challenge of allowing consumer devices not owned by the company to access company data. Pat Patterson, Information Security Architect of Raymond James describes, "The explosion of smartphones and tablets, and especially the applications for these mobile devices, has pushed the presence of our corporate data even further out of the corporate data center. The ability to protect our clients by maintaining security controls around this data is critical for businesses, especially financial services companies."

IT administrators are looking for complete yet uncomplicated security and data protection that just works no matter where the user is or what device is being used. Sophos is focused on developing a broad range of advanced, comprehensive endpoint security and data protection solutions designed and optimized for today's tech savvy, diverse, and nomadic workforce and rapidly evolving IT environments.

Today's announcements include:

Sophos Mobile Control extends lightweight device protection to a broad range of popular mobile platforms, including Apple iPhones and iPads, Google Android, and Windows Mobile devices. Designed for IT administrators to simply and quickly secure, monitor, and control the configuration for smartphones running these operating systems, Sophos Mobile Control web-based console:

• Secures mobile devices by centrally configuring security settings, enabling lockdown of unwanted features; and remote over-the-air lock or wipe if device is lost or stolen
• Enables consistent security policy enforcement, strong password policy and lock period, control and installation of applications, blocking use of cameras, browsers, and sites such as YouTube
• Eliminates administrative burden with a self-service portal that allows end-users to register new devices and lock or wipe lost or stolen phones
• Controls the access to corporate email via a secure gate allowing only properly secured and registered devices to access email

Sophos SafeGuard Enterprise 5.60 (SGN) provides multi-layered, centrally managed endpoint data security combining encryption and data loss prevention (DLP) on laptops, desktops, and removable media. Its transparent data encryption enhances user productivity while preventing malicious users from reading lost or stolen information or media. SGN prevents endpoint data leakage by controlling access to both physical and wireless interfaces (e.g. USB, FireWire, Wi-Fi) and storage devices (e.g. MP3 players, removable media). The latest enhancements to Sophos SafeGuard Enterprise (5.60):

• Enables faster initial encryption with optimizations by providing up to 30 percent higher read/write throughput on solid state drives compared to the previous version
• SupportsOpal self encrypted hard drives managed by the SGN Management Console
• Reduces performance overhead with multiple central processing unit (CPU) processors running in parallel to minimize performance overhead of encryption and decryption
• Simplifies administration tasks enabling them to be easily completed without user interaction and/or the management center application being opened. It also includes active directory synchronization; automatic event log; deletion; and enables scheduling of custom scripts for reoccurring tasks

Sophos Endpoint Security and Data Protection 9.7 (Sophos ESDP) -- which just earned certification Q1200 AV-Test Certification from independent IT-security institute for having highly efficient zero-day protection, usability, and ability to clean or repair malware infected computers -- delivers advanced labs intelligence via a unique single agent that accelerates protection against zero-day and web-based threats along with real-time feedback to security and application policy settings via the cloud using Sophos Live Protection technologies. This active protection simplifies the rollout of proactive protection for employees inside and outside the office -- allowing them to get the protection they need against today's fast moving threats such as hijacked websites and targeted malware attacks -- without adding additional IT security management overhead. The latest upgrade to Sophos ESDP (9.7) also includes encryption, data loss prevention, network access control, device control, application control, management, and reporting. Furthermore, Sophos ESDP 9.7:

• Provides automatic location-aware intelligent updating for mobile workers - regardless of where they are with no need to configure. Updates are delivered up to 41 percent faster
• Extends tamper protection through additional device control and data loss prevention to help stop users from turning off key Sophos protection features, including anti-virus protection, updates, and client firewall
• Minimizes computer CPU and disk I/O usage during scans to keep end-users productive while optimizing performance when they are active or away, allowing IT to run scans at anytime

Quotes

SOPHOS:
Arabella Hallawell, Vice President of Corporate Strategy, Sophos
"IT organizations are facing unprecedented challenges securing their users, corporate data and infrastructure on consumer, mobile and cloud devices and platforms they do not own or control. It is incumbent upon security vendors to adapt and provide solutions that provide a full arsenal of protection against security threats and data loss, yet flexible and lightweight to protect users on any device, in any location."

Matthias Pankert, Head of Data Protection Product Management, Sophos
"Today, iPads, smartphones, and laptops are everywhere and connected to the web at all times. Mobile technology has allowed today's workforce to be far more productive but it has also opened up a new can of worms for IT teams as they must ensure that the data on those devices -- especially the non-company-issues ones -- are protected at all times no matter where the end user is. Sophos Mobile Control quickly and efficiently protects data on all iOS and Android mobile devices, giving those IT departments peace of mind that their end users' devices are fully protected."

CUSTOMER: Raymond James Financial

Sam Ghelfi, Chief Information Security Officer
"There are many vendors that provide protection from threats, however, Sophos has the ability to deliver quickly and change dynamically. This was a key differentiator, and a big reason why we chose Sophos."

About Sophos
More than 100 million users in 150 countries rely on Sophos as the best protection against complex threats and data loss. Sophos is committed to providing security and data protection solutions that are simple to manage, deploy and use and that deliver the industry's lowest total cost of ownership. Sophos offers award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, and network access control solutions backed by SophosLabs -- a global network of threat intelligence centers. With more than two decades of experience, Sophos is regarded as a leader in security and data protection by top analyst firms and has received many industry awards. Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK.