Sophos
Encyclopedia
Sophos is a developer and vendor of security software
Security software
Security software is a generic term referring to any computer program or library whose purpose is to secure a computer system or computer network. Types of security software include:* Antivirus software* Anti keylogger* Cryptographic software...

 and hardware, including anti-virus
Antivirus software
Antivirus or anti-virus software is used to prevent, detect, and remove malware, including but not limited to computer viruses, computer worm, trojan horses, spyware and adware...

, anti-spyware, anti-spam, network access control
Network Access Control
Network Access Control is an approach to computer network security that attempts to unify endpoint security technology , user or system authentication and network security enforcement.-Background:Network Access Control is a computer networking solution that uses a set of protocols to define and...

, encryption software
Encryption software
Encryption software is software whose main task is encryption and decryption of data, usually in the form of files on hard drives and removable media, email messages, or in the form of packets sent over computer networks.-Security:...

 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
Abingdon, Oxfordshire
Abingdon or archaically Abingdon-on-Thames is a market town and civil parish in Oxfordshire, England. It is the seat of the Vale of White Horse district. Previously the county town of Berkshire, Abingdon is one of several places that claim to be Britain's oldest continuously occupied town, with...

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 and Burlington, Massachusetts
Burlington, Massachusetts
Burlington is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 24,498 at the 2010 census.- History :It is believed that Burlington takes its name from the English town of Bridlington, however this has never been confirmed....

, USA. The company has subsidiaries and branch offices in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, the Benelux
Benelux
The Benelux is an economic union in Western Europe comprising three neighbouring countries, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. These countries are located in northwestern Europe between France and Germany...

, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

 and Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

. The company employs approximately 1,800 staff worldwide.

Sophos's anti-virus engine and identities are now packaged into Webroot Spy Sweeper
Spy Sweeper
Spy Sweeper is a software product that detects and removes spyware and viruses on personal computers that run Microsoft Windows...

 with Anti-Virus.

Company history

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
ActiveState
ActiveState is a Canadian software company headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia. It develops, sells, and supports cross-platform development tools for dynamic languages such as Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, and Tcl, as well as language distributions and enterprise services...

 prior to its acquisition by Sophos in 2003, and from 2003 to 2005 was president of Sophos's North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

n 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
ActiveState
ActiveState is a Canadian software company headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia. It develops, sells, and supports cross-platform development tools for dynamic languages such as Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, and Tcl, as well as language distributions and enterprise services...

, a developer of programming tools for dynamic programming language
Dynamic programming language
Dynamic programming language is a term used broadly in computer science to describe a class of high-level programming languages that execute at runtime many common behaviors that other languages might perform during compilation, if at all...

s. In February 2006, ActiveState became an independent company when it was sold to Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...

-based venture capitalist firm Pender Financial.

In 2007, Sophos acquired ENDFORCE, a company based in Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

, USA which develops and sells security policy compliance and Network Access Control
Network Access Control
Network Access Control is an approach to computer network security that attempts to unify endpoint security technology , user or system authentication and network security enforcement.-Background:Network Access Control is a computer networking solution that uses a set of protocols to define and...

 (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
Apax Partners
Apax Partners LLP is a global private equity and venture capital firm, headquartered in London. The company also operates out of eight other offices in New York, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Tel-Aviv, Madrid, Stockholm, Milan and Munich. The firm, including its various predecessors, have raised...

, 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.

Research

SophosLabs specialists analyzed the global spread of spam messages. As a part of the Sophos global spam monitoring network the company's spam filters, installed in different companies, were able to catch spam messages. Thus SophosLabs experts were able to discover that during the third quarter of 2007 the USA was at the top of the list among 12 countries from which spam was sent. The United States registered 28.4% of global spam. Second came South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...

, with 5.2% of global spam.

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
    Edugeek
    EduGeek.net is a British based online peer support community and information portal for IT professionals predominantly working in the field of education, operating primarily as an internet forum. Founded by Chris Byers and Ric Charlton in 2005, the site now has 2 full time paid employees the...

    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

  • Jobseekers at Jobfind have found that the Sophos Web Appliance blocks access to employment organizations with names similar to motor vehicle manufacturers.
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