Sophos
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| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Computer Security |
| Founded | 1985 |
| Founder(s) | Jan Hruska, Peter Lammer |
| Headquarters | Abingdon, Oxfordshire, England, UK Burlington, Massachusetts, USA |
| Key people | Kris Hagerman (CEO) Gerhard Eschelbeck (CTO) James Lyne (Director of Technology Strategy) |
| Products | |
| Employees | 1500+ |
| Website | sophos.com |
Sophos is a developer and vendor of security software and hardware, providing endpoint, encryption, email, web, mobile and network security as well as Unified Threat Management products. Sophos is largely focused on providing security to organizations and businesses.
SophosLabs is the company's global network of threat analysis centers.
Sophos competes in the antivirus industry against Avira, Comodo Group,BullGuard, F-Secure, Frisk, Kaspersky, McAfee, Symantec, Trend Micro among others.
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Company profile[edit]
The company employs more than 1,700 people worldwide. Sophos products protect over 100,000 businesses and 100 million users, in more than 150 countries.
Sophos was founded in 1985 by Dr. Peter Lammer and Dr. Jan Hruska.
Sophos is a privately owned company and is co-headquartered in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, England and Burlington, Massachusetts, USA. The company has subsidiaries in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Singapore and Spain.
Acquisitions and Partnerships[edit]
From September 2003 to February 2006, Sophos served as the parent company of ActiveState, a developer of programming tools for dynamic programming languages. In February 2006, ActiveState became an independent company when it was sold to Vancouver-based venture capitalist firm Pender Financial.
In 2007, Sophos acquired ENDFORCE, a company based in Ohio, USA which develops and sells security policy compliance and Network Access Control (NAC) software.
In July 2008, Sophos announced its intention to acquire Utimaco Safeware AG.[1]
In July 2009, Sophos completed integration of Utimaco Safeware AG.[2]
In May 2010, Sophos reached a definitive agreement to sell a majority interest in the company to Apax Partners, a global private equity group.[3]
In May 2011, Sophos announced it had entered into an agreement to acquire Astaro, a privately held provider of network security solutions, headquartered in Wilmington, Massachusetts, USA and Karlsruhe, Germany.[4]
In April 2012, Sophos acquired DIALOGS, a privately held provider of mobile management solutions, headquartered in Germany.
Company history[edit]
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This section appears to be written like an advertisement. (January 2011) |
During the late 1980s and into the 1990s, Sophos primarily sold a range of security technologies in the UK. This included encryption tools.
Late in the 1990s, Sophos concentrated its efforts onto sales of anti-virus technology and embarked on an a program of international expansion. Sophos opened subsidiary operations and moved to selling with channel partners.
2006:
- Steve Munford was named CEO of Sophos.
- Co-founders Dr Hruska and Dr Lammer remain as members of the board of directors.
- Peter Gyenes was named Sophos Chairman.[5]
2007:
- Sophos approaches Edugeek with legal action due to the posts of one of its members. Sophos apologized for their actions and blamed a rogue employee.[6]
2009:
- Sophos announced job cuts of five per cent of its workforce, including 30 at the company's headquarters in Abingdon.[7]
- Sophos released Sophos Endpoint Security and Control 9, Sophos Enterprise Console 4, and Sophos Control Center 4.
2010:
- Sophos releases Sophos Anti-Virus for Mac Home Edition. This software was made available free of charge.[8]
- Sophos announces job cuts of around seven percent of their workforce in response to poorer than expected growth in the first half of 2010.[9]
- Majority interest of Sophos is sold to Apax[10]>
- Nick Bray, formerly Group CFO at Micro Focus International, is named Sophos CFO.[11]
- Sophos launches Naked Security, a security blog that focuses on news, research, advice and opinion.[12]
2011
- Sophos releases Sophos Endpoint Protection 10, SafeGuard Enterprise 6, and Sophos Mobile Control 2.
- Utimaco are accused of supplying data monitoring and tracking software to partners that have sold to governments such as Syria. Sophos issued a statement apologizing and confirming that partner Area terminated their project in Syria and that the project did not result in an operational system.[13]
- Sophos releases Sophos Virus Removal Tool, a free tool that detects and removes viruses.[14]
2012
- Kris Hagerman, formerly CEO at Corel Corporation, was named Sophos CEO, joining the company’s board. Former CEO Steve Munford became non-executive chairman of the board.[15]
- A software update caused user machines to identify the update software itself as malware.[16]
- Sophos employees raised £25,862.62 for UK Charity Prince’s Trust, raising money with a sponsored palace-to-palace bike ride and a book-and-bake sales at UK headquarters in Abingdon, UK.[17]
2013
- Sophos launched four security suites: Sophos Complete Security Suite; Sophos UTM; Sophos EndUser Data Suite; and Sophos EndUser Web Suite.[18]
- Sophos employees raised £6910 ($10,450 USD) for Comic Relief's Red Nose Day[19]
Products[edit]
Network Protection
Sophos UTM protects organizations against threats from a single console using an intuitive browser-based GUI. It can be deployed as an appliance, on a server or virtualized with only the security software subscriptions needed.
Sophos UTM's next generation firewall protects against modern threats like drive-by downloads and botnets, and securely connects people and offices using flexible VPN options. It provides detailed reports to help improve network performance and protection.
Sophos Secure VPN provides remote access to all company applications through secure SSL or IPsec VPNs from Windows, Linux, Mac OS and UNIX-based systems. Secure VPN can be deployed at any time.
Sophos UTM acts as a wireless controller, centralizing your Wi-Fi management and security. Configuration, logging, and troubleshooting is done within the UTM appliance, and built-in reporting displays information about connected wireless clients.
Secure Web Gateway from Sophos prevents malware infections and grants the administrator control over their employees' web use. Spyware and viruses are stopped before they can enter the network, and policy creation manages how employees spend time online.
Secure Email Gateway from Sophos provides protection from spam and phishing attacks, as well as data loss prevention with the built-in encryption. Mail protection can be managed through the browser-based interface with built-in reporting on all models.
EndUser Protection
Sophos EndUser Protection secures users and data on phones, tablets, laptops and desktops. It includes endpoint security, mobile device management, web protection, data protection, network protection, email protection, and central management.
Sophos Endpoint Antivirus protects Windows, Linux, Mac, UNIX, Network Storage and SharePoint. Endpoint Antivirus offers essential threat protection, client firewall, and application control in one easy-to-use solution.
Sophos Mobile Control secures iOS, BlackBerry, Android and Windows devices with over-the-air control. Deployment options include on-premise or Software as a Service (SaaS).
SafeGuard Encryption provides industrial strength encryption for end users' computers, shared folders, removable media and the cloud, all from a single agent and management console.
Server Protection
Sophos Web Application Firewall identifies probes and attacks from hackers trying to silently test a site or application for security holes. It tracks over 350 behavioral patterns and provides real-time protection using Sophos Up2Date.
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ Sophos to launch €217 million offer for shares in Utimaco Safeware AG
- ^ "Sophos latest news".
- ^ "Apax Partners to acquire majority interest in Sophos Plc".
- ^ "Sophos acquires Astaro".
- ^ http://www.sophos.com/en-us/about-us/board-of-directors.aspx
- ^ Sophos apologises for going legal on school techies
- ^ "Sophos announces job cuts".
- ^ "Sophos Anti-Virus for Mac Home Edition".
- ^ "Reduced growth forces Sophos to shed 80 jobs".
- ^ "Apax Partners to acquire majority interest in Sophos Plc".
- ^ "Board of Directors".
- ^ "Naked Security website".
- ^ "The Bureau Investigates article".
- ^ "Sophos Virus Removal Tool".
- ^ "Sophos Board of Directors webpage".
- ^ "Sophos Anti-Virus Bug blamed on human error".
- ^ "Cycling success on track to raise £170,000".
- ^ "Sophos product page: Sophos UTM".
- ^ "Sophos CEO suffers from a watery end for #ComicRelief".
