The sixth annual Sophos State of Ransomware report provides fresh insights into the factors that led organizations to fall victim to ransomware and the human and business impacts of an attack.

Based on insights from a vendor-agnostic survey of 3,400 IT and cybersecurity leaders across 17 countries whose organizations were hit by ransomware in the last year, the report combines year-on-year insights with brand new areas of study, including why ransom payments rarely match the initial demand, and the downstream impact of ransomware incidents on in-house teams.

Download the report to get the full findings and read on for a taste of some of the topics covered.

Why organizations fall victim to ransomware

It is rarely a single issue that leaves organizations exposed to ransomware; rather a combination of technological and operational factors contributes to organizations falling victim to attack.

Technical root causes

For the third year running, victims identified exploited vulnerabilities as the most common root cause of ransomware incidents, used to penetrate organizations in 32% of attacks overall. This finding highlights the importance of identifying and patching security gaps before adversaries can take advantage of them.

Compromised credentials remain the second most common perceived attack vector, although the percentage of attacks that used this approach dropped from 29% in 2024 to 23% in 2025. Email remains a major vector of attack, whether through malicious emails (19%) or phishing (18%).

Read the full report for insights into how attack vectors vary based on organization size.

Operational root causes

For the first time, this year’s report explores the organizational factors that left companies exposed to attacks. The findings reveal that victims are typically facing multiple operational challenges, with respondents citing 2.7 factors, on average, that contributed to them being hit by ransomware.

Overall, there is no single stand-out source, with the operational causes very evenly split across protection issues, resourcing issues, and security gaps.

Download the full report for a deeper dive, including insights into the individual factors behind these numbers, as well as a breakdown of operational challenges by company size and industry sector.

Recovery of encrypted data

The good news is that 97% of organizations that had data encrypted were able to recover it. Less encouraging is that data recovery through backups is at its lowest rate in six years.

Just under half (49%) paid the ransom and got their data back. While this represents a small reduction from last year’s 56%, it remains the second highest rate of ransom payments in the last six years.

Read the report to learn more about both data encryption rates and data recovery.

Ransoms: Demands and payments

There is good news on this front: both initial ransom demands and actual ransom payments dropped over the last year – largely driven by a reduction in the percentage of demands/payments of $5 million or more. While encouraging, it’s important to keep in mind that 57% of ransom demands and 52% of payments were for $1 million or more.

826 organizations that paid the ransom shared both the initial demand and their actual payment, revealing that they paid, on average, 85% of the initial ransom demand. Overall, 53% paid less than the initial ask, 18% paid more, and 29% matched the initial demand.

Read the full report to learn more, include details of why some organizations pay more than the demand and others are able to pay less.

The business and human consequences of ransomware

The data reveals that organizations are getting better at responding to attacks, reporting lower costs and faster recovery.

The average (mean) cost to recover from a ransomware attack (excluding any ransom payment) dropped by 44% over the last year, coming in at $1.53 million, down from $2.73 million in 2024. At the same time, over half of victims (53%) were recovered within a week, a significant jump from the 35% reported in 2024.

Having data encrypted in a ransomware attack has significant repercussions for the IT/cybersecurity team, with all respondents saying their team has been impacted in some way.

Read the report

Download the report to get the full findings together with recommendations on how to elevate your ransomware defenses based on the learnings from 3,400 organizations that fell victim in the last year. To learn more about how Sophos MDR and Sophos Endpoint Protection deliver world-leading ransomware protection, visit our website or speak with your Sophos adviser.

Source: Sophos

GigaOm, a renowned technology analyst firm, has recognized Keeper Security as the Overall Leader in Enterprise Password Management for the fourth year in a row. The GigaOm 2025 Radar Report for Enterprise Password Management highlights Keeper’s Privileged Access Management (PAM) solution, KeeperPAM®, which helps organizations secure passwords, credentials, secrets and connections to mitigate cyber risks and defend against internal and external threats. The report also highlights Keeper’s password protection capabilities and user-friendly software.

Report overview and key highlights

This GigaOm Radar report examines 15 of the top enterprise password management solutions and compares offerings against the capabilities (table stakes, key features and emerging features) and non-functional requirements (business criteria) outlined in the companion Key Criteria report. Together, these reports provide an overview of the market, identify leading enterprise password management offerings and help decision-makers evaluate these solutions so they can make a more informed investment decision.

This is the fourth year that GigaOm has evaluated the enterprise password management space, and it is also the fourth year that Keeper Security has been named the Overall Leader. The report builds on previous analysis while considering how the market has evolved over the past year.

What sets Keeper apart

Unlike fragmented tools or limited vault-only solutions, Keeper delivers a zero-trust, zero-knowledge security architecture that secures all credentials – user and machine – from a single platform. Key advantages include:

• Compliance-ready architecture with best-in-class security: FedRAMP and GovRAMP Authorized, FIPS 140-3 validated, with the longest-standing SOC 2 and ISO certifications in the industry.
• Cross-platform compatibility: Access Keeper on desktop, mobile and browsers from any location on any device.
• Fine-grained access controls and secure record sharing: Including time-limited access, one-time share and self-destructing record capabilities.
• Seamless security integrations: Keeper works out of the box with passwordless authentication, SSO, SIEM, SDK, MFA and CI/CD applications.

Since the release of last year’s GigaOm report, Keeper has introduced a series of updates and new features for its platform. These include features such as Remote Browser Isolation and the Risk Management Dashboard, along with the official release of KeeperPAM, the next generation of Keeper’s Privileged Access Management (PAM) platform.

Additionally, Keeper has expanded both passkey and passwordless authentication functionalities, along with continuous UI/UX improvements to provide a cleaner, more accessible experience designed to reduce friction and increase productivity. These innovations reflect Keeper’s commitment to user-centric security, combining usability with powerful administrative controls.

Keeper evolves with the cyber landscape, integrating solutions and adding capabilities based on customer feedback and questions. Whether deployed as a standalone enterprise password manager or as part of Keeper’s broader security suite, the KeeperPAM platform adapts to meet the growing needs of organizations of all sizes.

Why password management matters

GigaOm’s 2025 report makes it clear: Passwords remain a critical vulnerability in today’s cybersecurity landscape. With users and organizations managing thousands of credentials, the risk of compromise through weak or reused passwords continues to rise. A modern enterprise password management platform like Keeper addresses these challenges by:

• Enforcing strong password practices and visibility across the organization.
• Protecting machine identities and secrets in developer and DevOps environments.
• Enabling passwordless authentication to reduce risk and streamline access.
• Offering centralized management and auditing for compliance and security teams.

As organizations mature their security posture, password management becomes a pillar that supports zero-trust frameworks, regulatory compliance and proactive risk reduction. Enterprise password management is more than just storing passwords; it’s about protecting access at scale, on every device, in every location.

Try Keeper for free

Protect your organization’s passwords, credentials and secrets with zero-trust and zero-knowledge security. Sign up for a free 14-day trial or reach out to our team to learn more.

Looking to secure your organization beyond password management? Learn more about KeeperPAM®

Strengthen your organization’s security posture by investing in a privileged access management solution that supports a zero-trust strategy. KeeperPAM is both zero trust and zero knowledge, which helps prevent unauthorized access and ensures that only the right users have the appropriate level of access. With features like endpoint privilege management, role-based access control, Just-in-Time (JIT) access and detailed auditing, monitoring and session recording, KeeperPAM helps your organization secure critical data and maintain tight controls over all infrastructure.

To learn more about how KeeperPAM can secure your organization with its zero-trust strategy, request a demo today.

Source: Keeper Security

Threat actors remain on the offensive, constantly expanding how they infiltrate organizations’ environments and inflict financial, operational, and reputational harm. Turning to a proven incident response provider for emergency services is essential when a threat actor strikes your business.

Sophos and Secureworks have built industry-leading incident response services designed to help customers in their hour of need with a rapid response to cyberattacks.

We are delighted to announce the general availability of Sophos Emergency Incident Response, the first service to combine the strengths of these two robust incident response practices into one converged offering.

Rapid remote and onsite support

When a cyber emergency strikes, there isn’t time to waste. You need quick action by experienced incident response personnel to assess and contain the threat, specialized skills to neutralize and eject the adversary, and an understanding of what happened and how to prevent it moving forward.

Sophos Emergency Incident Response delivers remote and onsite assistance to organizations experiencing a cyberattack or who believe they are a victim of threat actor activity. This service focuses on executing responses throughout all stages of the incident response lifecycle, from initial contact and investigation through iterative forensics and threat analysis, attack surface reduction, remediation activities, improvement recommendations, and detailed post-incident summary.

Fueled by threat intelligence and vast security expertise

Sophos Emergency Incident Response experts provide digital forensics, malware analysis, threat intelligence from the Counter Threat Unit research team – now part of Sophos X-Ops – and threat hunting to find and eliminate threats. We use cross-disciplinary subject matter experts (such as penetration testers and threat researchers) to ensure comprehensive risk mitigation and recovery, as well as fortification against future strikes.

Key features and benefits

• Deploy vast expertise: The combined power of the Sophos and Secureworks incident responders – now part of one team – provides you with seasoned and accredited global incident responders experienced in common and uncommon cyber threat scenarios.
• Reduce attack impact: Using our combined experience responding to attacks of all types, Sophos rapidly triages, contains, and neutralizes active threats and ejects adversaries from your environment to prevent additional damage.
• Holistic incident response capabilities: Emergency Incident Response engagements include a range of capabilities and options, including remote and onsite technical support, incident command and advisory leadership, expert ransom negotiations, incident-specific threat intelligence, and threat hunting to dig out hidden details of the attack.
• Understand the root cause and how to prevent it: You receive a detailed post-incident report that includes a root cause analysis, actions taken by our responders, an enriched summary of threat actor tactics, and recommendations to fortify resiliency, plus an executive summary for non-technical audiences.

Available now

Being able to respond to a cyberattack is critical. Sophos Emergency Incident Response replaces the existing Sophos Rapid Response service and is available now to help. Learn more at Sophos.com/Emergency-Response or contact the Sophos Emergency Incident Response team for immediate assistance.

Source: Sophos

Keeper Security, the leading cybersecurity provider of zero-trust and zero-knowledge Privileged Access Management (PAM) software protecting passwords, passkeys, privileged accounts, secrets and remote connections, today announces that its zero-trust and zero-knowledge PAM solution, KeeperPAM, has won the Fortress Cybersecurity Award in the zero-trust security architecture category.

Presented by the Business Intelligence Group, the Fortress Cybersecurity Awards program honors the industry’s leading companies and professionals who are going beyond compliance to build and maintain secure systems and processes. Winners are selected based on innovation, measurable impact and commitment to security best practices.

Keeper adopted zero trust and zero knowledge as foundational design and architecture principles from day one, ensuring all contents of a user’s vault are protected with multiple layers of safeguards and encryption. KeeperPAM unifies enterprise password, secrets and connections management with endpoint privileged management, zero-trust network access and remote browser isolation in one platform. By combining these critical identity and access management components, Keeper delivers unparalleled visibility, security and control, while ensuring that compliance and audit requirements are easily met.

“The volume and complexity of threats facing organizations today is growing by the minute,” said Russ Fordyce, CEO of the Business Intelligence Group. “The winners of this year’s Fortress Cybersecurity Awards are not only keeping up – they’re setting the pace. We’re proud to honor Keeper Security for providing a platform that makes us all more secure.”

Recent high-profile breaches have demonstrated the devastating consequences of compromised privileged access, with attackers using these accounts to infiltrate networks and steal sensitive data. KeeperPAM addresses this challenge head-on by incorporating a zero-trust approach to validate every access request, ensuring only those with explicit authorization can access critical systems and resources.

“This recognition from the Business Intelligence Group demonstrates our team’s dedication to providing best-in-class cybersecurity software that empowers our customers to stay ahead of modern threats,” said Darren Guccione, CEO and Co-founder of Keeper Security. “We are honored to receive this award and remain committed to leading the future of privileged access management – delivering superior visibility, security, compliance, reporting and control across the entire enterprise.”

Trusted by leading federal agencies and thousands of organizations of all sizes, KeeperPAM’s zero-trust and zero-knowledge security architecture is unmatched in safeguarding information and mitigating the risk of cyber attacks and data breaches. KeeperPAM is compliant with a broad range of industry standards and regulations, including FedRAMP and GovRAMP Authorization, SOC 2 Type I and Type II attestation, FIPS 140-3 validation, ISO 27001, 27017 and 27018 certifications, as well as HIPAA and PCI-DSS, reducing the administrative burden of audit tracking and access management.

To learn more about Keeper’s award-winning PAM platform, please visit: https://www.keepersecurity.com/.

Source: Keeper Security

Keeper Security, the leading cybersecurity provider of zero-trust and zero-knowledge Privileged Access Management (PAM) software protecting passwords, passkeys, privileged accounts, secrets and remote connections, today announces an update to its password management platform. Keeper’s upgraded One-Time Share feature enables bidirectional, single-use encrypted sharing between Keeper users and non-users, providing customers with a secure way of exchanging confidential information with their customers, vendors and partners.

The new bidirectional sharing feature builds upon the functionality of Keeper’s existing One-Time Share (OTS) feature. OTS is designed to securely share credentials and files with a selected recipient for one-time use. These shares are protected in transit by Keeper’s elliptic-curve and AES-256 cryptography and can only be decrypted locally on the recipient’s device. Once received, shared records automatically expire based on the sender’s specified time. Additionally, each share is restricted to a single device, allowing the recipient to access the shared data multiple times until it expires or the sender terminates the share — whichever occurs first.

“Bidirectional One-Time Share is the latest step in our commitment to ensuring that all customers can simply and securely exchange confidential information with end-to-end encryption,” said Craig Lurey, CTO and Co-Founder of Keeper Security. “By adding bidirectional editing support, we add yet another layer of security to our users’ cyber defenses. We’re proud to be the first in the industry to add this capability and continue supporting our customers, first and foremost.”

The bidirectional functionality update allows easier sharing between users and non-users of Keeper’s platform. Previously, users were able to send view-only external shares. Now, non-users can also exchange data with Keeper customers, offering end-to-end encryption for both parties. This powers the secure collection and exchange of confidential information such as documents and credentials – without having to use insecure email, text messages or instant messaging channels.

Users share records by selecting the desired record from their Keeper Vault and initiating a one-time share. The user can then customize the access settings and generate a secure, time-limited link. The recipient clicks the link to view the content, where they can upload, modify or comment as needed. Once the time limit is reached or access is revoked, the session ends permanently and the record is no longer accessible.

Organizations can use the bidirectional one-time share to facilitate operations such as:

• Collaboration: Securely collect signed documents, feedback or sensitive files from clients, contractors and partners without needing them to create an account.
• Vendor Requests: Request compliance documents or private credentials from third parties securely.
• Internal Audits: Temporarily share and retrieve information with auditors or legal teams.

To learn more about Keeper’s new One-Time Share functionality, please visit our documentation portal.

Source: Keeper Security

Delivering world-class security solutions is our top priority at Sophos. The true measure of our success is the satisfaction and feedback of the customers who rely on our products every day to protect their organizations. We are delighted that our user feedback led Sophos to be recognized as a Customers’ Choice vendor in the 2025 Gartner® Peer Insights™ Voice of the Customer Reports for Endpoint Protection Platforms and Extended Detection and Response. This makes Sophos the only vendor to be named a Customers’ Choice in both reports, highlighting the comprehensive, robust protection of the Sophos platform.

In the 2025 Voice of the Customer for Endpoint Protection Platforms, Sophos received a 4.8/5.0 rating based on 361 reviews, as of 31 Jan 2025. This marks the 4^th consecutive time customers have recognized Sophos as a Customers’ Choice vendor in this market.

The 2025 Voice of the Customer for Extended Detection and Response is this category’s inaugural report. Sophos is the highest-rated vendor with a 4.8/5.0 rating and has the most reviews in the report (257 reviews, as of 31 Jan 2025). Additionally, Sophos has the highest rating in all four categories covering specific aspects of the experience with the vendor – customers rated Sophos a 4.9/5.0 in Product Capabilities, Sales Experience, and Deployment Experience, and a 4.8/5.0 in Support Experience (based on 257 reviews as of 31 Jan 2025).

Customer reviews

Here are some examples of what customers had to say about Sophos Endpoint and XDR:

Sophos Endpoint offers robust protection with advanced threat detection leveraging AI and deep learning to identify and block malware, ransomware and other attacks.

• IT SAP Consultant in the Manufacturing industry, $50M-250M
• Review link

[Sophos Endpoint] is very mature and offers great protection against light and heavy security attacks on our infrastructure.

• IT Specialist in the Healthcare and Biotech industry, $500-1B
• Review link

[Sophos Endpoint] merges technologies such as deep learning, AI, and endpoint detection & response to provide a holistic endpoint security software.

• IT Associate in the Education industry, <5000 employees
• Review link

Sophos XDR is a next-generation endpoint protection software that uses a combination of advanced techniques to defend against a wide variety of cyber threats.

• IT Manager in the Retail industry, $500M-1B
• Review link

Sophos XDR makes detecting and responding to threats easy. It is AI-equipped and is fast and accurate and we no longer have to worry about endpoint threats.

• Structural Engineer in the Construction industry, $250M-500M
• Review link

The [Sophos XDR] platform employs cutting-edge machine learning models to identify and block even zero-day threats and advanced persistent threats that traditional signature-based systems might miss.

• IT Associate in the Retail industry, $50M-250M
• Review link

From fast detection to investigating threats and offering amazing threat response, Sophos XDR has it all. Its reliability has kept cyber threats at bay.

• IT Manager in the IT Services industry, $250M-500M
• Review link

Sophos XDR is an excellent product. This is not just an analytical tool that is helping us with enhancing our detection and response capabilities as a team but also helping us with day-to-day IT operations.

• Customer Service & Support Associate in the IT Services industry, $250M-500M
• Review link

Πηγή: Sophos

Keeper’s Enterprise Password Manager is the only solution that uses Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) in its encryption, making it the most secure password management solution available.

ECC is a public-key cryptography method based on the mathematics of elliptic curves. First proposed in 1985, it recently rose to prominence with modern cryptography as it provides a higher level of security compared to traditional encryption methods, such as RSA.

Considered by the InfoSec community to be the most secure level of encryption for information security, ECC provides many advantages including:

1. Best-in-Class Security: The difficulty of solving elliptic curves provides an added level of protection against complex cyber attacks such as quantum computing.

2. Efficiency: ECC uses smaller key sizes compared to other encryption algorithms, such as RSA. This makes it more efficient in terms of computation and storage requirements as it uses limited resources.

3. Fast Computation: ECC is faster than other encryption algorithms, making it an ideal choice for applications that require fast encryption and decryption.

Keeper’s encryption model documentation compares the strength of 256-bit elliptic curves against vaults encrypted with password-derived keys.

No Master Password Needed

The deployment of Keeper through a Single Sign-On (SSO) identity provider eliminates the need for a master password. Instead, Keeper uses ECC to encrypt and decrypt data, allowing for a seamless login experience with SSO and passwordless technology.

A local ECC-256 (secp256r1) private key is used to decrypt the Data Key at the device level, which unwraps the individual folder keys and record keys for the latter to decrypt each of the stored record contents.

The Encrypted Data Key is then transmitted between the devices through a push system or key exchange service called Device Approval, which is managed by the admin to preserve zero knowledge.

Without a master password to prey on, the threat of brute force attacks against stored data is eliminated.

Keeper Complements SSO to Cover Any Security Gaps

SSO’s ease-of-use and ease-of-access have made it a preferred solution to remedy password-related issues, but it still presents serious security gaps as a single point of failure.

For instance, users automatically get locked out of multiple sites and apps versus only one if they forget their password. Should a user’s account get hacked, cybercriminals would be able to gain access to all associated sites and apps, compromising the entire layer of security SSO was tasked with providing in the first place.

Even with SSO, privileged access users still need one secure location to safely store non-SSO passwords, SSH keys, API keys, etc. that – just like SSO assets – require role-based access, configurable control of policies and sharing capabilities.

Keeper integrates with all major SSO solutions and is a perfect complement for the legacy applications and other use cases that SSO doesn’t cover. IT Admins and IT Security professionals love using Keeper for its:

• Rapid Deployment: No upfront equipment or installation costs. Easy Active Directory and SSO integration.
• Ultimate Cybersecurity Protection: Zero-knowledge architecture means there is nothing to hack.
• Pervasive Employee Adoption: Intuitive UI, automated password generation and autofill makes the transition a breeze.
• Mitigate Password-Related Support: No more forgotten or lost passwords.

Request a demo of Keeper Enterprise Password Manager today to see how an elliptic curve level encryption can protect your organization’s passwords, credentials and secrets with zero-trust and zero-knowledge security.

Source: Keeper Security

Businesses of all sizes are increasingly reliant on productivity tools like Microsoft 365 — and attackers are using this to their advantage.

Business email compromise and account takeover attacks are prevalent, with adversaries accessing M365 environments using techniques that may evade detection by technology alone.

Organizations need 24/7 visibility and a fully staffed security operations center (SOC) to effectively defend against such attacks — which is a major challenge for many resource-constrained businesses.

Sophos MDR provides the people, processes, and technology to detect, investigate, and effectively respond to threats targeting Microsoft 365.

Our turnkey integrations and proprietary detection rules identified and thwarted almost 5,000 attacks on our customers’ Microsoft 365 environments last quarter alone.

We continually innovate and enhance Sophos MDR to extend and fortify your defenses. And now, the service is getting even stronger with the introduction of new response capabilities.

New analyst response actions for Microsoft 365

The ability to respond quickly to a cyber incident is crucial — the faster the attack can be detected, contained, and neutralized, the less damage the attacker can inflict.

This includes minimizing financial losses, reputational damage, and disruptions to business operations. A swift response can help prevent further data breaches and limit the exposure of sensitive information.

When an attack is detected in your Microsoft 365 environment, Sophos MDR analysts can now execute a range of response actions on your behalf — rapidly containing the threat and freeing up your team to focus on your business.

Microsoft 365 response actions now available

Block/enable user sign-in
Sophos MDR analysts can lock down a user’s account to prevent an adversary from accessing Microsoft 365 services and Azure resources using stolen credentials. Following clean-up, access to the user’s account can be restored in seconds.

Terminate current user sessions
By immediately revoking all currently active sessions for a specific user, Sophos MDR analysts can quickly eject an attacker who has already gained access to an account and remove their ability to reuse any stolen session tokens.

Disable suspicious inbox rules
Attackers routinely set up inbox rules in Microsoft 365 for business email compromise attacks in order to move, obfuscate, or delete emails that could otherwise alert the user. Sophos MDR analysts can disable specific inbox rules to regain control.

Easy setup and flexible response modes

The Sophos MDR service is customizable to meet your needs, with different service tiers and threat response modes. We can execute full-scale incident response on your behalf or collaborate with you to manage security incidents with detailed threat notifications and guidance.

The new response capabilities for Microsoft 365 are included with all Sophos MDR service tiers at no additional cost and enabled through a simple setup wizard in the Sophos Central cloud management console.

Choice of threat response modes

Sophos MDR lets you control how our team will interact with you when a cyber incident requires a response. Simply select your preferred threat response mode based on your organization’s needs and desires:

• “Authorize” mode: Our experts perform threat response on your behalf without your active involvement — and notify you of the actions taken. Once the new Microsoft 365 response actions integration is enabled, Sophos MDR analysts will immediately execute those actions when needed to provide the most efficient response.
• “Collaborate” mode: Our experts conduct investigations, but do not perform response actions without your prior consent or active involvement. Once the new Microsoft 365 response actions integration is enabled, Sophos MDR analysts will execute those actions on your behalf — once consent has been obtained. You can also choose to allow Sophos MDR to operate in “Authorize” mode if we are unable to reach you for consent.

The most robust MDR service for Microsoft environments

Sophos MDR services protect over 30,000 organizations worldwide – more than any other MDR service provider. In Gartner’s 2024 Voice of the Customer Report for Managed Detection and Response Services, Sophos once again had the highest number of reviews among all vendors and scored a 4.9/5.0 rating based on customer reviews.

Many of these businesses have also invested in Microsoft tools, leveraging Sophos MDR to defend against sophisticated attacks that technology alone can’t stop.

Get greater ROI from your Microsoft investment today with Sophos MDR:

Microsoft Certified experts
Extend your team with Microsoft Certified Security Operations Analysts specializing in detecting and responding to cyberattacks using custom Microsoft response playbooks.

Microsoft-specific threat detections
Sophos uses proprietary threat detection rules and world-class intelligence to identify and stop threats that could bypass Microsoft security solutions. We can accurately identify suspicious inbox rules, unauthorized user access patterns, and more.

NEW Analyst response actions for Microsoft 365
Sophos MDR analysts can now execute a range of additional response actions on your behalf, enabling rapid containment of threats with no action required by you. Disable user sign-in, terminate active user sessions, and more.

Comprehensive support for Microsoft solutions
Included at no additional cost, our turnkey integrations support a broad range of Microsoft solutions. Data from Microsoft 365, Defender for Endpoint, Defender for Identity, Defender for Cloud Apps, and more, is collected, analyzed, correlated, and prioritized.

To learn more about Sophos MDR and how it can strengthen your Microsoft defenses, visit our website or speak with a security expert.

Source: Sophos

As with every Sophos Firewall release, v21.5 includes several quality-of-life enhancements that make day-to-day management easier.

Watch this video for an overview of what’s new or read on for more details:

VPN enhancements

User interface and usability enhancements: Connection types have been renamed from “site-to-site” to “policy-based,” and tunnel interfaces have been renamed to “route-based” to make these more intuitive.

Improved IP lease pool validation: Across SSLVPN, IPsec, L2TP, and PPTP remote access VPN to eliminate potential IP conflicts.

Strict profile enforcement: On IPsec profiles that exclude default values to ensure a successful handshake, eliminating potential packet fragmentation and tunnels failing to establish properly.

Route-based VPN and SD-RED scalability: Route-based VPN capacity is doubled with support for up to 3,000 tunnels. Sophos Firewalls now support up to 1,000 site-to-site RED tunnels and up to 650 SD-RED devices.

Other management enhancements

DHCP prefix delegation relaxation: Now supports /48 to /64 prefixes, improving interoperability with ISPs.

Router advertisements (RA) and the DHCPv6 server: Now enabled by default.

Resizable table columns: A long-requested feature, many firewall status and configuration screens now support resizable column widths that are retained in browser memory for subsequent visits. Many screens such as SD-WAN, NAT, SSL, Hosts and services, and site-to-site VPN, all benefit from this new feature.

Extended free text search: SD-WAN routes now enable searching by route name, ID, objects, and object values like IP addresses, domains, or other criteria. Local ACL rules also now support searching by object name and value, including content-based search.

Default configuration: By popular demand, the default firewall rules and rule group previously created when setting up a new firewall have been removed, with only the default network rule and MTA rules provided during initial setup. The default firewall rule group and the default gateway probing for custom gateways are both set to “None” by default.

New font: The Sophos Firewall user interface now sports a new lighter, cleaner, sharper, font for added readability and improved performance.

Get the What’s New Guide

Check out the What’s New Guide for a full overview of all the new enhancements in v21.5.

Get started today

Start taking advantage of this great new capability in Sophos Firewall v21.5 by participating in the early access program. Simply register for the program, click the link in your email to download the firmware update package, and install it on your Sophos Firewall.

Πηγή: Sophos

When it comes to password managers, there are a few common misconceptions, such as them being too risky to trust, vendors being unable to handle outages, the risk of device-side attacks and them being considered a single point of failure. High-profile security incidents have brought into question the security of using password managers; however, cybersecurity experts, organizations and government agencies continue to recommend them as a best practice.

In this article, we’ll debunk four common misconceptions about using password managers and share best practices to help you get the most security out of your password management solution.

Misconception 1: Password managers are too risky to trust

A common concern about password managers is that they are too risky to trust, particularly after the LastPass data breach. While it’s understandable to have these concerns, it’s important to remember that not all password managers are the same. In fact, password managers still provide far stronger security than traditional methods, like writing passwords down or reusing the same password across multiple accounts.

Debunked

The misconception that password managers are too risky to trust is based on isolated security incidents. When choosing a password manager, it’s important to thoroughly research its security and reputation to ensure you’re selecting the most secure solution to protect your data.

The best password managers are zero-knowledge, meaning no one but the user has access to their stored data – not even the vendor. Additionally, choosing a zero-trust solution will prioritize security by assuming no user or device is trustworthy. This means continuous verification is needed before granting access to your stored passwords. For example, Keeper has a feature called device-level approval. With device-level approval, each new device attempting to access your Keeper Vault must be explicitly approved before gaining access. If you or someone else attempts to access your vault on a new device, that device must be approved by either the account owner, an existing trusted device or an administrator (in enterprise environments). Features like Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) and biometric authentication further protect your vault from being compromised.

Misconception 2: Password manager vendors can’t handle outages

The misconception that password manager vendors can’t handle outages likely stems from a recent 12-hour outage experienced by LastPass. This raised concerns about service availability and the idea that if a cloud-based password manager goes down, users might be locked out of their accounts. While it’s true that many password managers are cloud-based, the best ones have built-in features to handle outages and ensure that users can still access their passwords.

Debunked

Reputable password manager vendors offer offline access mode, which enables users to access their vaults on any device during an outage or when they do not have internet access. Offline access works by creating an encrypted copy of your vault on your local device. Your vault data is stored in an encrypted format, so the only way to access your local backup is by providing your master password or using biometric authentication. While offline access provides a solid fallback, choosing a vendor with high service reliability is also important to minimize the need for it in the first place. For example, Keeper maintains 99.99% uptime, which can be verified on our status page.

Misconception 3: Password managers increase the risk of device-side attacks

There is a misconception that password managers increase the risk of device-side attacks because some, like LastPass, run device-side components, which increases the attack surface. However, it’s important to understand that not all password managers function this way.

Debunked

The best and most secure password managers are zero-knowledge and do not run device-side components that sync and store data locally, such as cached credentials. For example, Keeper prevents device-side attacks by using a zero-knowledge architecture, in which all data is encrypted locally on your device before being uploaded to the cloud. This ensures that even if a cybercriminal gains access to your device, they can’t access your stored data because it’s stored in an encrypted format. Keeper doesn’t store unencrypted data locally or sync cached credentials. By not relying on device-side components that could be exploited, Keeper significantly reduces the attack surface and keeps your data safe at all times.

Misconception 4: Password managers alone aren’t enough

Some critics argue that even when passwords are stored in password managers, it’s still not enough to keep your accounts protected. While it’s true that strong passwords can still be compromised, they remain important for account security. This is why it’s important to use strong, unique passwords for each of your accounts, enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) and switch to passkeys when given the option.

Debunked

We agree that passwords alone aren’t enough to protect your accounts, but this doesn’t mean using a password manager is insufficient to keep your accounts protected. Password managers like Keeper support phishing-resistant MFA and passkeys to further reduce reliance on passwords alone. While transitioning to passwordless authentication is ideal, password managers like Keeper still play a critical role in securely storing and managing credentials. They help ensure that even if passwords are compromised, they are used in combination with additional layers of security like MFA. Additionally, with passkey support, users can eliminate the risks of traditional password-based attacks altogether while still benefiting from the convenience and security of password management solutions.

Best practices for using password managers

To get the most security out of your password manager, it’s important to follow these best practices:

• Choose a password manager with strong encryption and a proven track record: Before choosing a password manager, research the kind of security and encryption the vendor uses to protect consumer data. Additionally, check whether the vendor has a proven track record of reliability and has not been hacked.
• Use a strong, unique master password and enable 2FA: When using a password manager, you’ll need to create a master password to protect your vault. Make sure your master password is strong and unique, and enable 2FA on your vault for an extra layer of security.
• Enable MFA whenever possible for accounts: While password managers help you create strong, unique passwords, it’s still important to enable MFA to further protect your accounts and prevent them from being compromised.

The bottom line

It’s completely understandable to be concerned about the security of your data. That’s why it’s important to research and choose the most reliable and secure password management solution. At Keeper, we prioritize transparency regarding our security model and the measures we take to secure our users’ data.

Curious why Keeper is the best and most secure password manager on the market? Start a free trial today.

Source: Keeper Security

Sophos is delighted to announce the launch of Sophos MSP Elevate, a new business-accelerating program for managed service providers (MSPs). With the new program, Sophos enables MSPs to expand their business with high-value, differentiated cybersecurity offerings that elevate their customers’ cyber defenses and rewards growth with additional investment to fuel further success.

With the increasing complexity and sophistication of today’s cyberattacks, organizations are increasingly turning to MSPs for 24/7, human-led monitoring and management of their cybersecurity environments. This has made Managed Detection and Response (MDR) a major focus for MSPs with 81% currently offering a MDR service, according to the Sophos MSP Perspectives 2024 report. MSP Elevate helps MSPs to differentiate themselves as a high-value provider to customers by delivering unique business-enhancing benefits, including an exclusive high-value Sophos MDR service offering.

Managing multiple cybersecurity platforms is a major overhead for MSPs and consumes valuable billable hours. MSPs estimate that consolidating on a single platform would slash their day-to-day management time by 48%*. MSP Elevate includes Network-in-a-Box bundles that enable MSPs to manage the full network stack through the unified Sophos Central platform, freeing-up staff for business generation activities. Furthermore, the single biggest perceived risk to MSP’s businesses is the shortage of in-house cybersecurity expertise*. Sophos’ network solutions respond automatically to threats across the customer environment, enabling MSPs to elevate their customers’ defenses without adding workload.

As Chris Bell, senior vice president of global channel, alliances and corporate development, Sophos, says:

“MSP Elevate is the first of many business-driving MSP programs following the powerhouse union of Sophos and Secureworks. As a channel-first organization that defends more than 250,000 customers of MSPs, we are constantly looking for opportunities to reward our partners and invest in their success when they grow their business with us. MSP Elevate fuels long-term growth for our partners by providing MSPs with exclusive solution access, discounts, rebates and training to deliver the best possible value to customers.”

Sophos MSP Elevate program benefits include:

• Exclusive Access to the Sophos MDR Bundle for MSP: Includes access to Sophos MDR Complete premium service tier with 24/7 incident response, 1 year data retention, Sophos Network Detection and Response (NDR), and all Sophos integration packs, enabling defenders to leverage all available telemetry from across the customer environment to accelerate threat detection and response.
• Simplified Sales Process: Speeds up time to deployment and reduces MSP overhead. With the new MDR Bundle for MSP, partners can quickly and easily allocate a single SKU to the customer for all their current and future MDR needs.
• Discounted Network-in-a-Box Hardware Bundle: Access to Sophos’ advanced network security solutions, including Sophos Firewall, Sophos Switch and Sophos Wireless Access Points at a significant discount. These products work together to automate threat response and are managed through Sophos Central.
• Growth-Based Rebates: As part of our commitment to grow with and invest in our partners, the program will recognize and reward MSPs that increase their Sophos MSP monthly billings.
• Architect-Level Training Courses: Equip MSPs to increase their in-house services delivery capabilities with trainings on Sophos Endpoint and Sophos Firewall.
• Invite-Only Access to Sophos Summits: Gain exclusive access to hands-on training and enablement, Ask the Experts sessions, attend exclusive Sophos events and meet with Sophos executive leadership to influence the Sophos roadmap and MSP strategy.
• Future benefits – Introduction of new program benefits to increase MSP’s profitability, customer defenses and overall value as a service provider.

MSP Elevate enables MSPs to quickly deploy a comprehensive MDR service that eliminates blind spots by leveraging all available telemetry from across the customers’ environment. This enhanced visibility accelerates threat detection and response while delivering improved return for customers on their existing technology investments. Furthermore, the service adapts seamlessly as the technology environment evolves over time, future-proofing customers’ defenses and providing both commercial and cybersecurity peace of mind.

MSP Elevate is a non-exclusive commitment to sell Sophos’ best-in-class cybersecurity solutions available on the Sophos Central platform, including Sophos MDR, Sophos Endpoint powered by Intercept X, and Sophos Firewall. To access the program benefits, MSPs need to commit to a minimum monthly spend for a 12-month period. As a pre-requisite to joining MSP Elevate, partners need to be part of the MSP Flex program, which enables MSPs to offer Sophos solutions on a monthly billing basis.

Feedback on the program from Sophos MSPs has been tremendous, with Craig Faiers, sales director, Arc, commenting:

“Joining MSP Elevate is a no-brainer. This new program adds further rocket fuel to the MSP growth trajectory we’ve enjoyed with Sophos over the last 17 years. Not all MDR offerings are the same, and I’m excited to be able to offer a superior service based around value and quality of outcomes that will elevate my customers’ defenses and differentiate my business in this increasingly crowded market.”

With 80% of MSPs offering MDR through a specialist vendor for delivery*, partners can choose to have Sophos fully deliver the MDR service or to use Sophos to augment in-house teams, including for the provision of out-of-hours coverage. This is particularly important considering 88% of ransomware attacks start outside of standard business hours, according to Sophos’ Active Adversary report.

Sophos MDR is the service most trusted by MSPs to secure their clients and currently defends more than 18,000 MSP-managed customer environments against advanced threats, including ransomware. This unmatched breadth of customer coverage delivers unparalleled insights into attacks on MSP-managed environments that are continually leveraged to update customers’ defenses in real-time, optimizing their protection from ever-evolving attacks.

To learn more about MSP Elevate, visit www.sophos.com/elevate. Sophos partners can sign up for the MSP Elevate Program on the Sophos Partner Portal at https://lp.sophos.com/msp-elevate.

Source: Sophos

Keeper Password Manager was rated as a leading enterprise, mid-market and small business password manager for Spring 2025 by users on G2, the world’s largest and most trusted software marketplace. Within the Spring 2025 report cycle, Keeper earned a G2 Milestone Badge, surpassing 1,000 reviews from a variety of customers, including Small Business, Mid-Market and Enterprise end users and admins alike. Keeper Security was also named a leader in password management globally, with distinctions in the Americas, Canada, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) regions, and named grid leader, high performer and momentum leader across nine cybersecurity categories, earning a total of 59 badges.

Keeper has been recognized as a leader in multiple cybersecurity categories on G2, including Password Managers, Passwordless Authentication, Single Sign-On (SSO), Dark Web Monitoring, Secrets Management Tools, Encryption, Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) and Data Security software. These distinctions are based on positive reviews from verified users, highlighting Keeper’s excellence compared to similar solutions.

The recognition is based on the responses of real users for each of the related questions featured in the G2 review form. Within the Password Managers category, 96% of users rated Keeper 4 or 5 stars, achieving an average rating of 4.6 out of 5. 91% of users believe it is headed in the right direction, and users said they would be likely to recommend Keeper Password Manager at a rate of 92%. Keeper’s intuitive user interface also received increased ratings, with 95% of users stating the solution meets requirements, along with a 92% satisfaction rating in regards to ease of use.

Password manager capabilities

To qualify as a solution in the Password Managers Software category, Keeper met the following capabilities with industry-leading features:

• Store and save passwords for websites — The Keeper Vault provides users with a secure repository to store passwords, passkeys, logins and other personal information with full end-to-end encryption.
• Automate the filling of password forms and logins — KeeperFill® autofills your login credentials so you don’t have to toggle back and forth between tabs or apps to retrieve passwords.
• Provide tools for securely sharing credentials — Keeper enables secure, vault-to-vault sharing, as well as one-time sharing with anybody (including non-Keeper users), allowing teams and organizations to securely collaborate on shared accounts. Keeper also offers enhanced password security features such as Time-Limited Access and Self-Destructing Records.
• Integrate with browsers or function atop applications — Keeper can be accessed via a browser extension on every major browser, a desktop app that enables autofilling credentials into native apps and on iOS and Android devices.
• Allow users to create, change or randomize passwords — Keeper makes it simple for users to identify and change weak passwords, create new strong passwords and generate unique passwords for accounts. Keeper also supports passkey and passphrase across all devices.

Strengthening cybersecurity beyond password management

In addition to earning leadership distinctions in the Password Managers and Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) categories, Keeper was also named a Momentum Leader in the Encryption category, a Leader in Data Security, a High-Performer and Leader in Single Sign-On, as well as a Leader in Secrets Management Tools.

Keeper received the highest User Satisfaction score among products in Secrets Management Tools. 97% of users believe it is headed in the right direction, and users said they would be likely to recommend Keeper Secrets Manager at a rate of 93%. Keeper is also included in the Data Security, Web Security, Passwordless Authentication, Dark Web Monitoring, Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) and Biometric Authentication categories on G2.

Secrets manager capabilities

To qualify as a solution in the Secrets Management Tools category, Keeper met the following capabilities with industry-leading features:

• Centrally manage keys and other secrets — Keeper Secrets Manager is a fully managed cloud-based, zero-knowledge platform for securing infrastructure secrets such as API keys, database passwords, access keys, certificates and any type of confidential data.
• Securely store secrets with encryption and tokenization — With Keeper’s zero-knowledge encryption, secrets can only be decrypted on the designated devices that you manage.
• Automate pushing secrets to applications and infrastructure — Keeper Secrets Manager seamlessly integrates with all popular CI/CD systems and SDKs for all major programming languages and supports any type of machine to protect your infrastructure.
• Create audit trail of secrets use and lifecycle — Keeper provides granular event reporting and alert capabilities with SIEM integration.

Why users prefer Keeper

Reviewers on G2 noted that Keeper meets their security requirements and indicated they are extremely satisfied with Keeper’s intuitive user interface. Product deployment, training, administration and end-user experience also stood out as compelling features.

Keeper leverages best-in-class security with a zero-trust and zero-knowledge security architecture to safeguard your information and mitigate the risk of a data breach. Keeper has the longest-standing SOC 2 attestation in the industry; is ISO 27001, 27017 and 27018 certified;  GDPR compliant; CCPA compliant; HIPAA compliant; and FedRAMP and StateRAMP Authorized. Furthermore, Keeper recently achieved FIPS 140-3 validation for its cryptographic module, reinforcing its dedication to exceeding federal security standards for protecting sensitive government data. Keeper makes the adoption of cybersecurity best practices easy for administrators and end users alike.

Keeper’s support team is available globally 24×7. On-demand resources, including the Keeper101 tutorial videos, the Documentation Portal and regular Training Webinars, guide new administrators and end users through product onboarding and utilization.

Reviewers favored the ease of doing business with Keeper and the strong return on investment. Keeper earned the “Best Relationship” for Mid-Market badge in the Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) category. In use by millions of end users and thousands of organizations around the globe, Keeper Password Manager supports all major platforms, devices and applications, seamlessly protecting any type of organization and in any industry, regardless of company size or technical expertise.

What customers are saying about Keeper

When asked, ‘What do you like best about Keeper Password Manager?’ an enterprise user stated:

«The user interface is very simple and user friendly which has helped drive user adoption. New features rolled out to the platform with no need for additional licensing. The recent addition of supporting MFA codes within the vault has been a huge benefit to us».

When asked, ‘What problems is Keeper Password Manager solving and how is that benefiting you?’ the enterprise user stated:

“Eliminating unsanctioned storage of company secrets, providing an audit trail on password utilization. Features such as Security Audit reports, helping the security team easily identify weak passwords, password reuse and password hygiene reports to better educate users. Secure file storage allowing the storage of certificates and keys within the vault.”

Learn more about what actual users have to say about Keeper, or leave your own review of Keeper Password Manager visiting this link!

Source: Keeper Security

Sophos Firewall v21.5 adds a top requested feature: Entra ID single sign-on (SSO) integration with Sophos Connect and the VPN portal.

SSO for Remote Access VPN

Adding single sign-on integration with Sophos Connect and the firewall VPN portal makes remote access VPN easier for end-users, enabling them to use their corporate network credentials with the Sophos Connect client and the firewall VPN portal when working remotely.

It provides cloud-native integration over the industry standard OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect protocols for a seamless experience. It fully supports Entra ID MFA to protect against identity theft and brute force hacks.

Demo Video

Watch this quick demo video for a look at how it works:

Helpful Documentation

Check out the online documentation for full details.

Get Started Today

Start taking advantage of this great new capability in Sophos Firewall v21.5 by participating in the Early Access Program. Simply register for the program, click the link in your email to download the firmware update package, and install it on your Sophos Firewall.

Source: Sophos

Sophos Firewall v21 offers an innovative industry first: Network Detection and Response (NDR) integrated with your firewall.

What is NDR?

Network Detection and Response (NDR) is a category of network security products designed to detect abnormal traffic behavior to help identify active adversaries operating on the network.

Skilled attackers are very effective at evading detection, but they ultimately need to move across or communicate out of the network to carry out an attack. NDR typically sits within the network, utilizing sensors that monitor and analyze network traffic to identify this kind of suspicious activity.

NDR products have been around for many years, and Sophos NDR has been part of our MDR/XDR portfolio of products since early 2023. However, with SFOS v21.5, we are integrating NDR with Sophos Firewall – an industry first – at no extra charge for Sophos Firewall customers with Xstream Protection.

Integrating NDR with a Next-Gen Firewall may seem like an obvious choice, but the challenge is doing it in a way that doesn’t impact the performance of the firewall since NDR traffic analysis requires significant processing power. As a result, we’ve taken the novel approach of deploying an NDR solution in the Sophos Cloud to offload the heavy lifting from the firewall.

Sophos NDR Essentials

Sophos Firewall v21.5 introduces our new NDR Essentials cloud-delivered Network Detection and Response platform. It utilizes the latest AI detections to help identify active adversaries and shares that information using the Sophos Firewall threat feeds API as part of Active Threat Response to keep you informed of any detections and their relative risks.

Watch this quick demo video for a look at how it works or read on for full details:

How it works

Sophos Firewall captures meta data from TLS-encrypted traffic and DNS queries and sends that information to NDR Essentials in the Sophos Cloud.

There, the data is analyzed using multiple AI engines. It can detect malicious encrypted payloads without performing TLS decryption as well as new and unusual domains generated through algorithms that are often a key indicator of compromise.

The meta data extraction is performed by a new lightweight engine implemented on the Xstream FastPath and, as a result, one caveat with this new capability is that it is only available on XGS Series hardware firewalls. Virtual, software, and cloud firewalls may get this NDR integration capability in the future, but not in v21.5.

NDR Essentials detections are scored on a range from 1 (low risk) to 10 (highest risk). You decide which risk score sets the threshold for an alert based on your particular environment. The recommended default is high-risk (9-10).

All detections that are scored greater than or equal to 6 are logged but only those meeting or exceeding your threshold trigger notifications and are shown as alerts on the new Control Center dashboard widget.

Detections scored less than 6 may be false positives and are not logged as a result. No NDR Essentials detections are blocked at this time, but this maybe an option in the future. All detections are fully accessible via the Active Threat Response report available both on-box and via Sophos Central Firewall Reporting.

How does NDR Essentials compare to Sophos NDR?

To put it simply, Sophos NDR Essentials is a “lite” version of Sophos NDR.

Sophos NDR is designed to sit deep inside the network so it can effectively monitor and detect suspicious activity and traffic flows heading both north-south (or inside-outside) as well as east-west flows that are traversing the LAN internally.

As you know, a firewall is designed to sit at the network gateway and inspect north-south traffic. Thus, NDR Essentials doesn’t have the same visibility at the network gateway as a full NDR solution sitting inside the network.

Our full Sophos NDR solution has five different AI detection engines. In this initial version of NDR Essentials, we’ve implemented the two engines that have the most relevance and impact at gateway traffic inspection: the Encrypted Payload Analysis engine, and the Domain Generation Algorithm engine. At this point, with its added engines, Sophos NDR provides deeper coverage and greater detection capabilities than NDR Essentials.

In summary, NDR Essentials provides an excellent additional layer of active threat detection to Sophos Firewall, and it does so at no extra charge and no performance impact. However, it is not a replacement for a full Sophos NDR implementation for any of our customers taking advantage of our XDR platform or MDR service.

If you want further detection insights and threat hunting capabilities, you are strongly encouraged to check out Sophos Extended Detection and Response (XDR) with the full implementation of Sophos NDR and the new NDR Investigation Console.

You may also wish to consider our full 24/7 Managed Detection and Response service. All of these products and services work better together with your Sophos Firewalls.

Get started today

Start taking advantage of this great new capability in Sophos Firewall v21.5 by participating in the early access program. Simply register for the program, click the link in your email to download the firmware update package, and install it on your Sophos Firewall.

Source: Sophos

We’re pleased to announce that the early access program (EAP) is now underway for the latest Sophos Firewall release. This update brings exciting industry-first enhancements and top-requested features, including…

Sophos NDR Essentials integration

Sophos Firewall customers with Xstream Protection now get Sophos NDR Essentials in the cloud, for no extra charge, significantly bolstering network protection:

Sophos NDR Essentials can detect active adversaries using encryption without using TLS decryption thanks to AI Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) analysis. Sophos NDR Essentials can also detect advanced domain generation algorithms that try to evade normal DNS and web filtering.

Sophos NDR Essentials delivers a new layer of protection, and since it’s cloud-hosted by Sophos, it doesn’t impact your firewall performance at all – further strengthening our industry leading performance and protection. Review the What’s New Guide for full details.

Entra ID (Azure AD) single sign-on for remote access VPN

One of your top requested features makes remote access VPN easier for end users, enabling them to use their corporate network credentials with the Sophos Connect client and the firewall VPN portal:

• Entra ID (Azure AD) single-sign on integration with Sophos Connect and the VPN portal is now included in SFOS v21.5
• It provides cloud-native integration over the industry standard OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect protocols for a seamless experience
• Supported with Sophos Connect client 2.4 (and later) on Microsoft Windows

Other VPN and scalability enhancements

• User interface and usability enhancements: Connection types have been renamed from “site-to-site” to “policy-based,” and tunnel interfaces have been renamed to “route-based” to make these more intuitive
• Improved IP lease pool validation: Across SSLVPN, IPsec, L2TP, and PPTP remote access VPN to eliminate potential IP conflicts
• Strict profile enforcement: On IPsec profiles that exclude default values to ensure a successful handshake, eliminating potential packet fragmentation and tunnels failing to establish properly
• Route-based VPN scalability: Route-based VPN capacity is doubled with support for up to 3,000 tunnels
• SD-RED scalability: Sophos Firewalls now support up to 1,000 site-to-site RED tunnels and up to 650 SD-RED devices.

Sophos DNS Protection

Last year, we launched our DNS Protection service and made it free for all Xstream Protection-licensed firewall customers. With this release, Sophos DNS Protection gets further integration with Sophos Firewall:

• New control center widget to indicate service status
• New troubleshooting insights via logging and notifications
• New guided tutorial on how to set up Sophos DNS Protection easily

Streamlined management and quality-of-life enhancements

As with every Sophos Firewall release, this version includes several quality-of-life enhancements that make day-to-day management easier:

• Resizable table columns: A long-requested feature, many firewall status and configuration screens now support resizable column widths that are retained in browser memory for subsequent visits. Many screens such as SD-WAN, NAT, SSL, Hosts and services, and site-to-site VPN, all benefit from this new feature.
• Extended free text search: SD-WAN routes now enable searching by route name, ID, objects, and object values like IP addresses, domains, or other criteria. Local ACL rules also now support searching by object name and value, including content-based search.
• Default configuration: By popular demand, the default firewall rules and rule group previously created when setting up a new firewall have been removed with only the default network rule and MTA rules provided during initial setup. The default firewall rule group and the default gateway probing for custom gateways are both set to “None” by default.
• New font: The Sophos Firewall user interface now sports a new lighter, cleaner, sharper font for added readability and improved performance

Other enhancements

• Virtual, software, cloud licensing: In case you missed it, all Sophos Firewall virtual, software, and cloud licenses (BYOL) no longer have RAM limits. Licenses are now strictly limited by core count and have no RAM restrictions.
• Larger file size limit in WAF: Supports a configurable request (upload) file size limit for Web Application Firewall (WAF), which can now scan files up to 1 GB
• Secure by design: We are continually improving the security of Sophos Firewall, and in this release are adding real-time telemetry gathering to flag any unexpected changes to core OS files using secure hash validation. This will enable our monitoring teams to proactively identify potential security incidents early before they can become a real problem.
• DHCP prefix delegation relaxation: Now supports /48 to /64 prefixes, improving interoperability with ISPs. Router advertisements (RA) and the DHCPv6 server are also now enabled by default.
• Path MTU discovery: This will resolve TLS decryption errors due to the latest ML-KEM (Kyber) key exchange support in browsers. The Sophos Firewall deep packet inspection engine will now automatically detect and adjust the MTU for each flow, ensuring optimal performance based on specific network conditions.
• NAT64 (IPv6 to IPv4 traffic): NAT64 is supported for IPv6 to IPv4 traffic in explicit proxy mode. In this mode, IPv6-only clients can access IPv4 websites. The firewall also supports IPv4 upstream proxy for IPv6-only clients.

Get the full details

Download the full What’s New Guide for a complete overview of all the great new features and enhancements in v21.5.

Get started today

You can download the upgrade package or installer for v21.5 from the Sophos Firewall v21.5 EAP Registration Page. Simply submit your details and the download links will be emailed to you straight away.

All support during the EAP will be through our forums on the Sophos Firewall Community.

Please provide feedback using the option at the top of every screen in your Sophos Firewall as shown below or via the Community Forums.

Source: Sophos

According to the 2024 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, 75% of cyber attacks involve exploiting compromised privileged credentials, making privileged access one of the most sought-after attack vectors. Additionally, 60% of organizations cite insider threats as the primary cause of data breaches (2023 Cybersecurity Insiders – Insider Threat Report), highlighting the critical need to secure privileged accounts against both external and internal threats.

However, a vast majority of organizations – both big and small – don’t have the platforms and processes in place to secure the privileged accounts of every user, on every device, from every location. That’s where a modern Privileged Access Management (PAM) solution comes into play.

The growing need for modern privileged access management

Organizations that fail to implement a robust PAM solution face significant financial and operational risks. The 2024 IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report found that the average cost of a breach rose to $4.88 million. However, 80% of organizations that have adopted a PAM solution report a significant reduction in cyber attack success related to credential theft and misuse.

With the increasing complexity of IT environments, including hybrid cloud infrastructures, passkey adoption, DevOps pipelines and remote workforces, legacy PAM solutions often fail to provide seamless security and usability. Today’s modern infrastructure needs to be accessible at all times, from anywhere in the world, while still maintaining Just-In-Time (JIT) access, zero trust and least privilege.

Introducing KeeperPAM: A groundbreaking approach to privileged access management

Keeper Security is pleased to announce the next generation of its privileged access management platform, KeeperPAM, a patented cloud-native, zero-knowledge platform. KeeperPAM enables seamless infrastructure access through a secure vault. Simply log in with Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for one-click, passwordless access to servers, databases, web apps and SaaS platforms.

Unlike legacy PAM solutions, KeeperPAM is zero-knowledge and zero-trust, meaning Keeper never has access to your network, infrastructure or secrets. With a lightweight, containerized gateway, Keeper eliminates agents and on-premises complexity while providing full auditing, session logging and flexible access through User Interface (UI), Command-Line Interface (CLI) or isolated web browsing.

Keeper’s engineers are the original creators of Apache Guacamole and experts in browser-based remote session protocols covering SSH, RDP, VNC, HTTPS, MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQL Server and more.

What makes KeeperPAM groundbreaking?

• Cloud-native, not cloud-adapted – Unlike legacy PAM providers that have adapted on-premises products to the cloud, KeeperPAM was built from the ground up to be cloud-native, scalable and easy to deploy across any environment.
• Multi-protocol access – Instant passwordless sessions to remote servers, databases and web-based applications – without exposing credentials or requiring firewall changes.
• Zero-trust and zero-knowledge security – With end-to-end zero-knowledge encryption, only you can decrypt your data and remote sessions, ensuring absolute privacy and security.
• Agentless, seamless deployment – Unlike legacy PAM solutions that require complex network configurations, Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) or on-prem appliances, KeeperPAM simplifies access by using a lightweight Keeper Gateway service, which eliminates network vulnerabilities and significantly reduces IT overhead.
• All-in-one platform – KeeperPAM integrates enterprise password management, secrets management, privileged session management, remote browser isolation and zero-trust network access into a single, unified solution. You can choose whether users have only an enterprise password manager license or a full PAM license.

With KeeperPAM, businesses no longer need various cybersecurity platforms cobbled together that leave them exposed. Everything is managed from a single pane of glass.

Core benefits and capabilities of KeeperPAM

KeeperPAM offers all of the functionality organizations need to prevent breaches, ensure compliance and enable easy and secure access to resources.

Some of the core capabilities include:

• Password Management – Protect and manage passwords, passkeys and confidential files in a zero-knowledge vault.
• Secrets Management – Protect API keys, CI/CD pipelines and developer tools, while eliminating secrets sprawl, by removing hard-coded credentials from source code.
• Session Management – Provide passwordless remote access to any resource using a web browser.
• Database Management – Control access to databases, either on-prem or cloud, using interactive UI sessions, CLI sessions or tunneling with your favorite front-end tools.
• Remote Browser Isolation – Lock down internal web-based apps, cloud apps and admin panels, while preventing data exfiltration and controlling browsing sessions, with auditing, session recording and password autofill.
• Admin Console – Manage and deploy Keeper to users, integrate with identity providers, monitor activity and establish role-based enforcement policies.
• Control Plane – Orchestrate and monitor the various components and activities related to privileged access, session management, policies and workflow.

How is KeeperPAM deployed?

KeeperPAM uses a zero-trust gateway service to access each environment. No firewall updates or ingress changes are needed, thereby enabling seamless, secure access without complexity.

There are three simple steps to deploy KeeperPAM, which will take under an hour to complete:

1. Deploy the vault with your SSO and provision through SCIM, SAML or AD
2. Set policy
3. Install a Keeper Gateway in the target environments

Deploying KeeperPAM is fast, flexible and designed to scale with your organization’s needs. Whether you’re a small business or a global enterprise, Keeper’s innovative cloud-native architecture ensures rapid implementation with minimal IT overhead. Professional services are never required, unlike legacy PAM platforms.

The future of PAM is here

As cyber threats continue to escalate and regulatory requirements become more stringent, businesses need a modern PAM solution that is secure, scalable and simple to deploy. KeeperPAM redefines privileged access security by eliminating outdated architectures, reducing complexity and delivering an all-in-one, zero-trust security platform.

By combining enterprise password management, secrets management, connection management, zero-trust network access and remote browser isolation into a single, easy-to-use interface, KeeperPAM empowers businesses of all sizes to proactively prevent breaches, streamline compliance and simplify security.

Ready to take control of privileged access and eliminate standing privilege? Request a KeeperPAM demo today.

Source: Keeper Security

Sophos, a global leader of innovative security solutions for defeating cyberattacks, today released the 2025 Sophos Active Adversary Report, which details attacker behavior and techniques from over 400 Managed Detection and Response (MDR) and Incident Response (IR) cases in 2024. The report found that the primary way attackers gained initial access to networks (56% of all cases across MDR and IR) was by exploiting external remote services, which includes edge devices such as firewalls and VPNs, by leveraging valid accounts.

The combination of external remote services and valid accounts aligns with the top root causes of attacks. For the second year in row, compromised credentials were the number one root cause of attacks (41% of cases). This was followed by exploited vulnerabilities (21.79%) and brute force attacks (21.07%).

Understanding The Speed of Attacks

When analyzing MDR and IR investigations, the Sophos X-Ops team looked specifically at ransomware, data exfiltration, and data extortion cases to identify how fast attackers progressed through the stages of an attack within an organization. In those three types of cases, the median time between the start of an attack and exfiltration was only 72.98 hours (3.04 days). Furthermore, there was only a median of 2.7 hours from exfiltration to attack detection.

“Passive security is no longer enough. While prevention is essential, rapid response is critical. Organizations must actively monitor networks and act swiftly against observed telemetry. Coordinated attacks by motivated adversaries require a coordinated defense. For many organizations, that means combining business-specific knowledge with expert-led detection and response. Our report confirms that organizations with proactive monitoring detect attacks faster and experience better outcomes,” said John Shier, field CISO.

Other Key Findings from the 2025 Sophos Active Adversary Report:

• Attackers Can Take Control of a System in Just 11 Hours: The median time between attackers’ initial action and their first (often successful) attempt to breach Active Directory (AD) – arguably one of the most important assets in any Windows network – was just 11 hours. If successful, attackers can more easily take control of the organization.
• Top Ransomware Groups in Sophos Cases: Akira was the most frequently encountered ransomware group in 2024, followed by Fog and LockBit (despite a multi-government takedown of LockBit earlier in the year).
• Dwell Time is Down to Just 2 Days: Overall, dwell time – the time from the start of an attack to when it is detected – decreased from 4 days to just 2 in 2024, largely due to the addition of MDR cases to the dataset.
• Dwell Time in IR Cases: Dwell time remained stable at 4 days for ransomware attacks and 11.5 days for non-ransomware cases.
• Dwell Time in MDR Cases: In MDR investigations, dwell time was only 3 days for ransomware cases and just 1 day for non-ransomware cases, suggesting MDR teams are able to more quickly detect and respond to attacks.
• Ransomware Groups Work Overnight: In 2024, 83% of ransomware binaries were dropped outside of the targets’ local business hours.
• Remote Desktop Protocol Continues to Dominate: RDP was involved in 84% of MDR/IR cases, making it the most frequently abused Microsoft tool.

To shore up their defenses, Sophos recommends that companies do the following:

• Close exposed RDP ports
• Use phishing-resistant multifactor authentication (MFA) wherever possible
• Patch vulnerable systems in a timely manner, with a particular focus on internet-facing devices and services
• Deploy EDR or MDR and ensure it is proactively monitored 24/7
• Establish a comprehensive incident response plan and test it regularly through simulations or tabletop exercises

Read the full It Takes Two: The 2025 Sophos Active Adversary Report on Sophos.com.

Source: Sophos

Customers have spoken, and the results are in. G2, a major technology user review platform, has just released its Spring 2025 Reports, where users rated Sophos as the #1 overall Firewall, MDR, and EDR solution.

Recognizing the power of our platform, Sophos is – once again – the only vendor named a Leader across the G2 Overall Grid® Reports for Endpoint Protection Suites, Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR), Extended Detection and Response (XDR), Firewall Software, and Managed Detection and Response (MDR). Based on user feedback, Sophos was also ranked the #1 solution in 53 individual reports spanning the Antivirus, EDR, Endpoint Protection Suites, XDR, Firewall, and MDR markets.

Managed Detection and Response

In addition to the #1 overall ranking among MDR solutions, Sophos MDR is also rated the top solution in four additional report segments for the category, including the Enterprise and Mid-Market Grids, and earning the Best Results and Best Usability distinctions among Enterprise customers.

We continue to extend Sophos MDR to support the more than 29,000 organizations that use our service. Recent updates include enhanced ability to fortify Microsoft defenses with new Sophos-proprietary detections for Office 365, an expanded ecosystem of turnkey integrations with third-party cybersecurity and IT tools includes a new Backup and Recovery integration category, and new AI-powered workflows to streamline the operational processes and drive better security outcomes for our customers.

Endpoint Detection and Response/Extended Detection and Response

Sophos EDR/XDR was named a Leader across nine different segments in the Spring 2025 Reports, including the Overall, Enterprise, Mid-Market, and Small Business Grids. The Sophos XDR platform was rated #1 for Best Usability and Best Relationship across all four segments (Overall, Enterprise, Mid-Market, and Small Business), reinforcing why it is the overall top-rated XDR solution.

Firewall

In addition to being named the #1 Overall Firewall solution, Sophos Firewall was also rated as the #1 firewall solution by Mid-Market and Enterprise users. All four user segments (Overall, Small Business, Mid-Market, and Enterprise) named Sophos Firewall a Leader in their respective G2 Grid Reports. For usability, Sophos Firewall is the top-rated solution in the Overall, Enterprise, and Mid-market segments in the Usability Index.

What Sophos customers are saying

“Sophos MDR: 360 degree MDR solution for endpoint security” said a user in the Enterprise segment

“Sophos MDR helps us sleep at night knowing our environment is monitored 24/7” said a user in the Mid-Market segment

“Sophos Firewall is a robust and user-friendly security solution that provides comprehensive protection through advanced threat detection, deep packet inspection, and synchronized security with other Sophos products” said a Head of IT in the Mid-Market segment

“Sophos Firewall automatically identifies and blocks active threats, prevents the lateral movement of attacks, and delivers immediate insights into compromised devices, users and application” said a user in the Small Business segment

“What stands out the most is how effortlessly Sophos Firewall streamlines security tasks, allowing users to focus on protecting their networks without getting bogged down in complex configurations” said a user in the Mid-Market segment

“We can rest easy knowing that Sophos Intercept X is continuously guarding our endpoints from ransomware assaults, which are the kind of thing that keep IT administrators up at night” said a SOC Analyst in the Mid-Market segment

For more information on our services and products, speak to your Sophos partner or representative and visit our website.

Source: Sophos