IT security and control firm Sophos today announced Sophos Endpoint Security and Control 8.0, incorporating Network Access Control (NAC) technology to go beyond reactive and proactive anti-virus – offering businesses complete preventive computer protection.
Sophos’s first-to-market offering integrates anti-virus, anti-spyware, host intrusion prevention, application control, firewall and NAC to block viruses and spyware as well as ensure that computers are running authorised, up-to-date software and adhering to company policies.
Much like its previous version, Sophos Endpoint Security and Control 8.0 delivers cross-platform security and control for desktops, laptops, file servers and mobile devices. With Sophos Endpoint Security and Control 8.0, Sophos is broadening its offering to also include policy control and assessment in a simple, cost-effective manner.
This announcement coincides with preliminary research from Sophos, which reveals that an alarming two out of every three corporate computers are failing to meet standards because they are running out-of-date anti-virus, missing security patches or have a disabled firewall.
“Historically it’s been difficult for IT managers to know whether their users’ computers are safe, protected and compliant with corporate policies. NAC has been touted as the answer to this problem, but the technology has often been beyond the reach of most companies in terms of budget and resource,” said Jim Dowling, Director of Sales for Asia at Sophos.
“We are addressing this pain with Sophos Endpoint Security and Control 8.0 – delivering preventive protection, in a form that is simple to roll-out at no additional charge. Its integrated NAC and application control technology gives administrators the confidence that all the computers on their network are updated with the latest security patches and are only running authorised software.”
Sophos’s claims are backed up by a recent report from Forrester Research, which reveals that approximately 40 per cent of companies surveyed have tried to install NAC, but only four per cent were able to complete the implementation, blaming the excessive complexity of network-based models. By integrating NAC with endpoint security protection, the new Sophos offering simplifies implementation, at last enabling the mainstream adoption of the technology.
Peter Firstbrook, Research Director of Gartner comments that, “Enterprises need to evaluate how effective their current endpoint protection solution is at handling the changing requirements of endpoint security management.”
Since last year’s acquisition of Endforce, Sophos has seamlessly integrated the core policy control and assessment capabilities into its flagship endpoint solution without requiring a separate agent deployment or additional software license costs.
Sophos said it will also continue to offer Sophos NAC Advanced, its stand-alone NAC offering that provides customers with more policy flexibility and scalability. Sophos NAC Advanced is the proven solution for endpoint assessment and control supporting the largest and most demanding customer environments. |
