By Cat Yong
According to Sophos’ senior product marketing manager, Maxim Weinstein, attacks are getting bigger, broader and more sophisticated due to increasing cybercriminal resources, with attack surfaces increasing exponentially as well.
In contrast, the cyber security solutions to address them, are silo-ed off from each other. He admitted, “(Sophos) has been part of this as well, and came up with separate technologies needed to address cyberattacks.
“But it is becoming difficult to keep doing that, and keep adding one more piece of tech for every separate problem,” Weinstein explained.
While larger enterprises with huge IT teams may be able to cope, smaller ones would always have that one more technology to deploy as well as manage, rendering protection from cyberattacks, incomplete.
Project Galileo – evolving from just endpoint protection
This has led to Project Galileo, Sophos’ code name for a comprehensive, overarching security solution that comprises server protection, end user protection and next-gen network security.
It works on the premise that security must be comprehensive, simple (in terms of deployment and user experience), and that security is more effective as a system, not a collection of separate security products.
The end user protection portion of Sophos’s new security approach made some headway with the launch of its latest product called Next-Generation Enduser Protection. This comes with Malicious Traffic Detection (MTD), a new feature that works in tandem with other components like HIPS runtime protection, an updated endpoint agent architecture powered by Sophos System Protector.
Sophos System Protector, correlates information about attacks and offers a comprehensive view of activity across the IT environment.
Sophos’s core expertise in endpoint protection, also sees it able to run MTD on the endpoint device itself, instead of at the unified threat management (UTM) device. “Being able to do this, gives it more capabilities, like detecting the location of the malware or attack, and being able to do something about it,” said Weinstein.
There are also enhancements to Sophos Mobile Encryption 3 and SafeGuard Encryption 7, which now enables creating and editing encrypted documents, as well as managing multiple keys on the mobile device itself.
Weinstein shared, “Over time, SafeGuard Encryption can be managed via the Sophos Cloud besides just through its own management console.” The Sophos Cloud serves as a cloud-based security management platform that sets and manages policies, as well as provide reports.
Copernicus – next generation network security
This is another project that aims to bring the best of Sophos’ UTM tech with technologies from its Cyberroam acquisition. Weinstein described it as connecting the dots between endpoint and gateway/network security products.
“When perimeter defense and the gateway, can share information, you can easily do things like remediate connections, inform the administrator of breaches and lockdown the network and separate it; preventing data from leaving the network.
“With the same information being shared on a same platform like the cloud, many devices around the world can benefit from this information too,” he added.
The culmination of Sophos’s and Cyberroam’s UTM tech is expected to arrive by July this year.
Sophos’ Director of Sales in ASEAN, Sumit Bansal, shared that Sophos network security sales is growing at a rate of 40-percent year-on-year.
“Today we are number 3 from number 5 just two years ago We expect to be number 2 in the next 12 months,” he said.
Server protection
Project Galileo is meant to be a tech integration that enables complete, simple-to-manage security that works as a system.
But Weinstein admitted that the server protection portion of the Galileo vision, is farther behind endpoint and network protection in terms of integration. The Copernicus platform and endpoint protection solution are well in their way towards working together as a unit.
However he points out that in a matter of months, there would be a server protection product release with “cool capabilities.”
One such capability is a super simple way of managing and executing applications whitelisting.
