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Sophos Expands Firewall Portfolio with Enterprise-Grade Appliances that Broaden Market Opportunities for Channel Partners

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Sophos Expands Firewall Portfolio

New XGS 7500 and 8500 Models Deliver Unrivaled Performance and Protection for Enterprises and Campus Deployments

Sophos, a global leader in innovating and delivering cybersecurity as a service, today announced the expansion of its next-generation firewall portfolio with two new high-end, enterprise-grade XGS Series appliances. The new XGS 7500 and 8500 models provide unrivaled performance and protection for large enterprise and campus deployments, broadening market opportunities for the channel partners that serve them.

 

“Large enterprises are under incredible pressure to support tens of thousands of users, all while protecting against complex cyberthreats and demonstrating clear return on IT infrastructure investments amidst today’s challenging economic climate,” said Daniel Cole, vice president of network security product management at Sophos. “Sophos is shaking up the competitive enterprise firewall landscape with these new high-performance appliances, providing best in class price per protected megabit per second (Mbps). Network performance, reliability and security are top of mind as customers grow and expand their infrastructure needs, and these platforms enable organizations to grow and scale without having to compromise on security, which is often the case in larger, more demanding environments. For our channel partners, we’re creating new opportunities to support distributed organizations needing everything from managing an office of one to the most complex environments protecting tens of thousands of distributed users.”

The new XGS 7500 and 8500 models deliver industry-best modular connectivity; highly scalable software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) features; trusted traffic and application acceleration; high performance Transport Layer Security (TLS) inspection; threat protection; and enterprise-grade, high-availability and redundancy capabilities. Featuring high performance Xstream flow processors and central processing units (CPUs) with enterprise-grade acceleration, the models offer roughly 50% faster throughput than industry averages in their class:

  • Up to 190 gigabits per second (Gbps) firewall throughput
  • Up to 141 Gbps Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) virtual private network (VPN) throughput
  • Up to 93 Gbps intrusion prevention system (IPS) throughput
  • Up to 76 Gbps next-generation firewall (NGFW) throughput
  • Up to 34 Gbps threat protection throughput
  • Up to 24 Gbps Xstream Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and TLS inspection
  • Support for up to 58 million concurrent connections
  • Support for up to 1.7 million new connections per second

Additional highlights include:

  • Up to two times better energy efficiency than the industry average when using IPsec VPN
  • High speed connectivity with two QSFP28 ports supporting speeds of up to 100 Gbps
  • High capacity, high-speed random access memory (RAM) and non-volatile memory express (NVMe) solid-state drives for improved compatibility and storage
  • Unique programmable Xstream architecture delivers unmatched levels of protection, performance and visibility
    • Intelligent TLS inspection guarantees industry leading performance, flexibility and transparency into all encrypted traffic
    • Deep packet inspection (DPI) engine delivers threat protection in a single streaming engine for antivirus, IPS, web, app control, and TLS inspection
    • Network FastPath technology ensures automatic and policy-based intelligent offloading of trusted traffic processing at wire speed

Sophos Firewall is a key pillar of Sophos’ SASE strategy. It provides a more simplified, scalable and secure solution over traditional remote access VPN, and integrates with Sophos ZTNA (zero trust network access) under one unified management plane. 

The network solution is part of the Sophos Adaptive Cybersecurity Ecosystem, which integrates Sophos’ anti-ransomware endpoint solutions, as well as its entire portfolio of products, services and Sophos X-Ops threat intelligence for faster and more contextual and synchronized detection, protection and response.

Availability

Sophos Firewall is available for immediate purchase exclusively through Sophos’ global channel of partners and managed service providers (MSPs). It is easily managed in the cloud-native Sophos Central platform alongside other solutions, where users can oversee installations, respond to alerts and track licenses and upcoming renewal dates via a single, intuitive interface.

Partners can also leverage Sophos Managed Detection and Response (MDR) as a comprehensive service to detect and respond to threats across customers’ existing security deployments, with integrated telemetry across endpoints, networks, firewalls, servers, cloud, identity, and email security technologies. The industry-leading service offering is trusted by more than 15,000 organizations for 24/7 threat hunting, detection and response with industry-first third-party integration capabilities and a $1 million Sophos Breach Protection Warranty that’s now available via Sophos’ MSP and reseller partner networks.

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Only 26% of Surveyed Organizations Stopped Data Encryption by Cybercriminals – Sophos

Retail organizations attacked by ransomware increasingly unable to halt an attack in progress, Sophos Survey Finds, writes SANDRA ANI

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Sophos The State of Ransomware in Retail 2023
  • This Is the Lowest Rate of Disruption in 3 Years  

Sophos, a global leader in innovating and delivering cybersecurity as a service, today shared findings from its sector survey report, “The State of Ransomware in Retail 2023,” which found that only 26% of retail organizations this past year were able to disrupt a ransomware attack before their data was encrypted.

Sophos, a global leader in innovating and delivering cybersecurity as a service, today shared findings from its sector survey report, “The State of Ransomware in Retail 2023,” which found that only 26% of retail organizations this past year were able to disrupt a ransomware attack before their data was encrypted.

This is a three-year low for the sector—a decline from 34% in 2021 and 28% in 2022—suggesting the sector is increasingly unable to halt ransomware attacks already in progress.

“Retailers are losing ground in the battle against ransomware. Ransomware criminals have been encrypting increasingly greater percentages of their retail victims in the last three years, as evidenced by the steadily declining rate of retailers stopping cybercriminal attacks in progress. Retailers must up their defensive game by setting up security that detects and responds to intrusions earlier in the attack chain,” said Chester Wisniewski, director, global field CTO, Sophos.

In addition, the report found that, for those retail organizations that paid the ransom, their median recovery costs (not including the ransom payment) were four times the recovery costs of those that used backups to recover their data ($3,000,000 versus $750,000).

“Forty-three percent of retail victims paid the ransom according to our survey respondents, yet the median recovery cost to victims who paid the ransom was four times the cost to those who used backups and other recovery methods. There are no shortcuts in these situations and rebuilding systems is almost always required. It’s better to deprive the criminals of their spoils and build back better,” said Wisniewski.

Additional key findings from the report include:

  • In line with a broader, cross-sector trend, the retail sector experienced its highest rate of encryption over the past three years, with 71% of those organizations targeted by ransomware stating that attackers successfully encrypted their data
  • The percentage of retail organizations attacked by ransomware declined from 77% last year to 69% this year
  • The percentage of retail organizations that recovered in less than a day decreased from 15% to 9% this year, while the percentage of retail organizations that took more than a month to recover increased from 17% to 21%

Sophos recommends the following best practices to help defend against ransomware and other cyberattacks:

  • Strengthen defensive shields with:
    • Security tools that defend against the most common attack vectors, including endpoint protection with strong anti-ransomware and anti-exploit capabilities
    • Adaptive technologies that respond automatically to attacks, disrupting adversaries and buying defenders time to respond
  • Optimize attack preparation, including regularly backing up, practicing recovering data from backups and maintaining an up-to-date incident response plan
  • Maintain security hygiene, including timely patching and regularly reviewing security tool configurations

To learn more about the State of Ransomware in Retail 2023, download the full report from Sophos.com.

The State of Ransomware 2023 survey polled 3,000 IT/cybersecurity leaders in organizations with between 100 and 5,000 employees, including 355 from the retail sector, across 14 countries in the Americas, EMEA and Asia Pacific.

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IASP Luxembourg: Chinwe Okoli Speaks on Soludo’s Innovation Agenda

By SANDRA ANI

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SID In IASP Luxembourg
Chinwe Okoli speaking at IASP in Luxembourg

“We want Anambra to be known as a destination for innovation, the next Startup State, home for digital Talents, the home of the smart digital tribe”

Ms Chinwe Okoli, the Special Adviser to the Governor of Anambra State on Innovation and Business Incubation addressed the global innovation ecosystem leaders at the 40th IASP World Conference on Science Parks and Areas of Innovation took place at the European Convention Centre, Luxembourg.

SID In IASP Luxembourg
Chinwe Okoli and other world ecosystem leaders at IASP in Luxembourg

The conference with the theme, “𝐌𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐈𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐄𝐜𝐨𝐬𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐬: 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐒𝐓𝐏𝐬 & 𝐀𝐎𝐈𝐬?” was an exceptional gathering of global innovation stakeholders from over 55 countries. The three-day conference presented an opportunity for the best innovation districts, science parks and areas of innovation in the world to connect and exchange best practices.

Solution Innovation District, Anambra State was prominent in the conference as Ms Okoli addressed the conference on the topic: “𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐔𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐝 𝐏𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐨𝐟 𝐀𝐧𝐚𝐦𝐛𝐫𝐚 𝐃𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐓𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐞: 𝐀 𝐂𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐃𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬.”

She shared the transformative power of the Anambra State Government’s innovation program and highlighted the aspirations of Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo, the Governor, and efforts in nurturing a robust innovation ecosystem in the State to unlock new opportunities and drive technological progress towards making Anambra the digital and creative capital of Nigeria.

Solution Innovation District (SID) is driven by the Anambra State Government, dedicated to fostering the growth of technology, innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem.

Ms Okoli restated the commitment of the administration of Governor Soludo towards building the one -of -a kind district in Anambra State, stated the key and ambitious goals of grooming one million Anambra Digital Tribe, startups and digital entrepreneurs and in the end, she called for global partnership.

“Our Mantra in Anambra State is Everything Technology and Technology Everywhere

“At SID, we are activating and developing a dynamic and inclusive ecosystem of the future, Our focus is that in a very short time, Anambra becomes the go-to place for the supply of skills/talents on deep technology -Artificial Intelligence, cybersecurity, robotics, blockchain, Data science, Software Engineering, IoT, Cloud Computing etc.

“Let’s impact the world from the light of the nation, in the biggest country in Africa, let’s do digital magic with the Anambra Digital Tribe”.

SID In IASP Luxembourg (4)
SID In IASP Luxembourg

IASP, the International Association of Science Parks and Areas of Innovation, is the leading association of innovation ecosystems worldwide.

This organization actively unites and empowers a network of managers overseeing areas of innovation, science parks, research parks, innovation districts, knowledge cities, and various other innovation spaces. It’s the driving force behind the exchange of cutting-edge knowledge and best practices, propelling innovation on a global scale.

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Sophos Launches Wi-Fi 6 Access Points

Sophos supports shift to hybrid environments with new generation of remotely managed, reports SANDRA ANI

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Sophos wireless launch -

Sophos, a global leader in innovating and delivering cybersecurity as a service, today announced the Sophos AP6 Series to support the shift to hybrid environments with a new generation of remotely managed Wi-Fi 6 access points.

The new offering adds another component to Sophos’ secure access portfolio, which includes Sophos Firewall and Sophos Switch.

“With cloud-managed Wi-Fi, Sophos is addressing the need for more scalable, remote-managed Wi-Fi solutions that support the increasing number of connected devices and the proliferation of IoT systems,” said Daniel Cole, vice president of product management at Sophos. “This combination of our Sophos AP6 Series and Sophos Switches provides channel partners with a consolidated single vendor access solution strategy, easing the burden and overhead cost of managing multiple disparate systems from different vendors. Many access layer networks are still operating at 1 Gigabit speeds. With the significant performance enhancements in Wi-Fi 6, the industry has a great opportunity to review and modernize the network ecosystem that wireless is deployed into. Sophos’ solution dissolves a common bottleneck at the physical layer and can boost the total network performance of a company’s Wi-Fi infrastructure.”

Sophos AP6 models – including 420E, AP6 840, AP6 840E and the outdoor AP6 420X – have at least one built-in 2.5 Gigabit interface for faster LAN connectivity. 

When combined with the Sophos multi-Gigabit switches, which also support 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet, companies can unlock faster speeds across the entire network. With the AP6 420E and 840E devices, which support Wi-Fi 6E, companies can additionally use the 6 GHz band, which is a newer, less congested space, offering high performance for the latest devices. 

Sophos access points can be remotely managed in the cloud-based Sophos Central platform alongside a broader range of solutions than any other vendor.

This enables partners to oversee all customer installations, respond to alerts, and track licenses and upcoming renewal dates via a single, intuitive interface. Additionally, there is an on-premises interface administrators can take advantage of for on-AP settings.

Availability

The Sophos AP6 Series is available for immediate purchase exclusively through Sophos’ global channel of partners and managed service providers (MSPs). 

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