Ransomware attacks are evolving faster than ever. For already stretched IT and security teams, staying ahead can feel impossible, but it doesn’t have to be.  

The right combination of firewall and endpoint security can stop ransomware before it spreads and restore confidence at the edge of your network. 

To help organizations navigate this shifting threat landscape, Chris McCormack, Sophos Network Security Specialist, presented how integrated defenses built on Sophos Firewall and Sophos Endpoint can reduce risk and rebuild trust. Here are five key takeaways from our recent webinar, “Rebuilding Trust at the Edge: A Smarter Approach to Firewall Security.”

Reduce your attack surface

Every exposed system is a potential entry point. Consolidating and securing infrastructure limits opportunities for attackers — and makes your defenses simpler and more effective.  

“The best practices to prevent being attacked or targeted in the first place are perhaps most important,” McCormack said during the webinar. “These reduce your surface area of attack or risk of being attacked, which is largely focused on things like minimizing exposed infrastructure and ensuring that what you do have that’s exposed is hardened so it’s not an attractive target — or at least not as attractive as the next vendor.” 

Start by identifying everything that is exposed to the internet and removing what’s unnecessary, and hardening what must remain. The fewer targets you present, the harder it is for attackers to get in, and the easier it is for your team to defend.

Design systems to be secure from the start

Security shouldn’t be bolted on — it should be built in. Systems exposed to the internet must be configured correctly, continuously updated, and hardened against attacks.  

“Make sure you look for a vendor that can provide automatic over-the-air updates or critical patches that don’t require you to lift a finger,” McCormack said. “You shouldn’t have to schedule a firmware upgrade or reboot your network every time there’s a new vulnerability discovered.” 

Sophos Firewall’s automated patching, strong default policies, and cloud-managed configuration through Sophos Central simplify security operations for even small IT teams. Enforcing strong passwords, enabling multi-factor authentication, and applying zero-trust principles are baseline controls that keep intruders out.

Adopt Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA)

Traditional VPNs assume trust once a connection is made. ZTNA flips that model — no user or device is trusted by default.  

Sophos ZTNA verifies identity and device health before granting access, dramatically reducing the risk of lateral movement if an attacker gets ahold of credentials. 

“I can’t stress enough the importance of utilizing [ZTNA], which is all about trusting nothing and verifying everything,” McCormack said. “Credential theft [is] a key root cause of ransomware attacks. That’s because many firewalls, many organizations, and network security are trusting that if you have those credentials, we trust you. ZTNA solves this problem.” 

Integrated through the Sophos Central platform, Sophos Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) offers unified visibility and control over users, devices, and applications — from a single pane of glass.  It is a smarter, more secure way to connect remote users and ensure every interaction with your network is legitimate.

Don’t let encrypted traffic hide threats

With most internet traffic now encrypted, attackers use it to mask their movements. 

Sophos Firewall uses intelligent TLS inspection and AI-powered analysts to reveal hidden threats — without compromising performance.  

“There are technologies out there now that you can use that leverage AI to discover encrypted threat communications and network traffic without you actually having to do the heavy lifting of decrypting that traffic,” he said. 

By combining deep packet inspection with insight from Sophos X-ops threat intelligence, Sophos Firewall detects and blocks malware, command and control traffic, and exploits within encrypted sessions — ensuring attackers cannot hide in plain sight.

Detect and respond to active threats — Fast

Even with strong defenses, incidents can still happen — and speed is everything.

Segment your network to contain threats, monitor east-west traffic with Sophos Network Detection and Response (NDR), and unify response through Sophos Extended Detection and Response (XDR).  

“Technologies like NDR are typically something you would only find in large enterprise networks, but we’re making it available to everyone and for free,” McCormack said. “So, if a threat is detected by any of our products or an analyst, that information is shared immediately with all other software, and the response kicks off automatically.” 

Sophos XDR and NDR work together to give complete visibility across endpoints, firewalls, and email by correlating data to spot suspicious behavior, isolating compromised devices, and stopping attackers in their tracks. This synchronized defense, powered by real-time intelligence, gives security teams enterprise-grade speed and confidence. 

Source: Sophos