Sophos’ new endpoint security innovation targets cyberthreat defense

Sophos, a global cybersecurity firm has introduced innovative advancements to its portfolio of endpoint security offerings.

The cybersecurity firm said the new endpoint was designed to improve protection and operational efficiency, as well as speed up detection and response

According to the firm, the new innovations include, Linux malware protection enhancement, Account health check capabilities, integrated Zero Trust Network (ZTNA) agent for Windows and macOS devices and more improved frontline defences against advanced cyberthreats and streamline endpoint security management.

Raja Patel, senior vice president of products, Sopho said “Ransomware remains one of the most prevalent and damaging cyberthreats to organisations, with Sophos incident responders still consistently remediating ransomware activity worldwide. Now isn’t the time for organisations to let their guard down because of any perceived reduction in attacks. In fact, they should be strengthening defenses as attacks are now more intricate and difficult to detect, requiring advanced security techniques that can sense and then quickly adapt to better protect themselves.”

“Sophos endpoint security is widely recognised as the industry gold standard, and we’re constantly innovating our market-leading, intelligent endpoint technologies to keep organizations ahead of unrelenting attackers.”

However, the firm explained most of the endpoint security innovations below.

Adaptive active adversary protection: A core part of Sophos’ “shields up” design methodology that provides defenders with additional time needed to respond to targeted attacks underway. Sophos Intercept X immediately enables heightened defenses as soon as it detects a “hands-on-keyboard” endpoint intrusion. This wide-reaching step up in defensive measures removes an attacker’s ability to take further actions by minimizing the attack surface, disrupting and containing the attack prior to response team engagement, and providing insights needed for complete remediation

Linux malware protection enhancements: On-access malware scanning and quarantine capabilities improve real-time prevention of security incidents within Linux operating environments. Added to the Sophos Intercept X Advanced for server offering, these new features complement existing functionality, including live runtime detections and response to container escapes, cryptominers, data destruction, and kernel exploits

Account health check: This is used for real-time health check monitoring of security configurations and policy settings with the ability to automatically return to recommended settings in a single click, optimizing security posture and enabling organizations to promptly re-establish security best practices. Assessments ensure devices are running the necessary security components, policies are following recommended settings, tamper protection is active, exclusions aren’t creating attack surface exposure, and more

Integrated ZTNA agent for Windows and macOS devices: Sophos Intercept X is one of the only endpoint protection solutions with a modular ZTNA agent, and organizations can now extend defenses to include Sophos ZTNA across entire estates without deploying an additional agent

Faster lightweight agent: This Reduces the Windows agent’s memory footprint by 40 percent and the number of processes by more than 30 percent, accelerating the performance of applications, workloads and devices. Sophos has also introduced a new extended detection and response (XDR) sensor deployment option that’s approximately 80 percent lighter than the previous full agent

Sophos endpoint solutions, according to the firm, provide deep learning malware detection, anti-ransomware technology, exploit prevention, and much more to prevent attackers from gaining a foothold in the first place. Sophos Intercept X, the endpoint security solution, protects more than 300,000 organizations against both known and unknown malware and exploits.