Sophos

Sophos

Type	Private
Industry	Computer Security
Founded	1985
Headquarters	Abingdon, Oxfordshire, England Burlington, Massachusetts, USA
Key people	Steve Munford, CEO
Products	List of products Sophos Endpoint Security & Control Sophos Anti-Virus Sophos PureMessage Sophos Client Firewall Sophos Email Appliance Sophos Web Appliance Sophos Control Center Sophos Enterprise Console Sophos Anti-Rootkit Sophos NAC Sophos SafeGuard Easy Sophos SafeGuard Enterprise Sophos SafeGuard LAN Crypt Sophos SafeGuard Mail Gateway Sophos SafeGuard Port Protector
Employees	1500+
Website	sophos.com

Sophos is a developer and vendor of security software and hardware, including anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-spam, network access control, encryption software and data loss prevention for desktops, servers, email systems and other network gateways.

SophosLabs is the company's global network of threat analysis centers.

Company profile

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 and branch offices in Australia, the Benelux, Canada, France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Japan, Singapore and Spain. The company employs approximately 1,800 staff worldwide.

Sophos's anti-virus engine and identities are now packaged into Webroot Spy Sweeper with Anti-Virus.

Company history

Screenshot of Sophos Endpoint Security v. 9.5

During the late 1980s and into the 1990s mainly sold a range of security technologies in the UK including encryption tools still used widely in the banking community. Late in the 1990s faced with slowing growth and a reducing profit Sophos concentrated its efforts onto sales of anti-virus technology and embarked on an a program of international expansion during which the subsidiary operations were formed and the transition to selling with partners was made. Rapid growth and healthy cash generation enabled Sophos to create a global brand as well as a maintain a headquarters in the UK.

In 2006, Steve Munford was named CEO of Sophos, and Hruska and Lammer announced they would remain as co-founders and members of the board of directors. Munford was the president of ActiveState prior to its acquisition by Sophos in 2003, and from 2003 to 2005 was president of Sophos's North American operations. In 2005, he became chief operating officer, responsible for the day-to-day running of the company and its senior management team.

In January 2009, Sophos announced job cuts of five per cent of their workforce, including 30 at the company's headquarters in Abingdon.

In October 2009, Sophos released Sophos Endpoint Security and Control 9, Sophos Enterprise Console 4, and Sophos Control Center 4.

Acquisitions and Partnerships

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.

In July 2009, Sophos completed integration of Utimaco Safeware AG.

In May 2010, Sophos reached a definitive agreement to sell a majority interest in the company to Apax Partners, a global private equity group.

In November 2010, Sophos announced job cuts of around seven percent of their workforce in response to poorer than expected growth in the first half of 2010.

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.

Products

• Sophos Endpoint Security and Data Protection
  • Sophos Anti-Virus
  • Sophos Client Firewall
  • Sophos Disk Encryption
  • Enterprise Console
• PureMessage (for UNIX, Microsoft Exchange, and Lotus Domino)
• Sophos Email Appliance
• Sophos Web Appliance and Security Management Appliance
• Sophos for Microsoft SharePoint
• Sophos Safeguard
  • Safeguard Enterprise
  • Safeguard Easy
  • Safeguard PrivateDisk
  • Safeguard RemoveableMedia
  • Safeguard LAN Crypt
• SAV Interface
• NAC Advanced
• Sophos Mobile Security
• Antivirus for Mac

In the media

• In 2007, Sophos threatened Edugeek with legal action due to the posts of one of its members. Shortly after, Sophos apologized for their actions, blaming it on a staff member convincing their legal team to send the threats, rather than a senior management decision.

Criticisms

• Sophos subsidiary Utimaco has been supplying data monitoring and tracking software to regimes such as Syria where such systems have been used to track down and persecute people uploading videos of demonstrations and atrocities to the Internet.

External links

• Official website