With version 6.1 we’re addressing the two biggest issues in encryption – performance and usability – by leveraging native operating system (OS) encryption for better performance; and delivering multi-platform management across all devices and cloud environments.

SafeGuard Enterprise also solves the major challenge of managing encryption across multiple platforms, devices, and cloud environments. Users and IT staff are now able to share data safely between Windows, Mac and mobile devices – securing data wherever it lives and wherever it is sent.

Managing multiple devices no longer means managing multiple consoles, so IT can fully embrace encryption to support their users. The Sophos encryption approach enables users to safely work the way they need to – sharing files between users, partners and customers via the cloud and the devices they use.

Sophos is the only vendor to offer native device encryption, cloud, mobile, removable and file share encryption in one centrally managed solution, providing unmatched security, performance, and an intuitive user experience.

What’s New in SafeGuard Enterprise 6.1

• With SafeGuard Enterprise you can manage Microsoft BitLocker for Windows or Mac FileVault 2.
• Now with support for Windows 8, and file and disk encryption on Macs, SafeGuard covers more operating systems and platforms.
• Simplified keyring creation grants you seamless, centralized management. With this newest release, you can save time with our keyring creation that requires no repeat login.
• Use a single console to manage full-disk, removable media, file-share, and cloud storage encryption
• Get up-to-date security status for all your devices with reporting and auditing that lets you monitor and enforce compliance with internal policies and external regulations.

You can sign-up for a free 30-day trial here.

You can read the original article here and here.

The current total of 650,000+ pieces of Android malware is up by approximately 600% from last January. Check out our mobile malware timeline below for our picks for the most important developments of the past decade, from the birth of mobile malware to today.

Mobile Security Threat Report

It’s been 10 years since the first mobile malware appeared. To mark this dubious anniversary, we’ve produced our first Mobile Security Threat Report. Download the report at sophos.com/mobilethreatreport to see how mobile threats have evolved, and to learn how best to protect yourself and your organization.

Get the free app: Sophos Mobile Security for Android

Sophos Mobile Security is a robust yet lightweight app that protects your Android devices without compromising performance or battery life. Using up-to-the-minute intelligence from SophosLabs, it automatically scans apps as you install them. Other features include a privacy advisor, encryption, and per-app password protection that you can set up for sensitive apps like your email. We’ve received several awards and many great reviews for Sophos Mobile Security, which has been downloaded more than 100,000 times from Google Play.

You can read the original article here.

One area that is becoming increasingly popular with many users is Security. The equipment in Data Centres and Server Rooms is extremely valuable, and that information stored within those environments is often priceless. Jacarta’s solutions can monitor security in a number of ways using various sensors and products:

Security Sensor – The standard Security Sensor is a magnetic reed type sensor that can be used to send an alarm in the event of a door or window being opened.

Vibration Sensor – The Vibration Sensor is often fitted to glass panels and doors where forced entry is possible. As soon as vibration is detected – the sensor will trigger an alert.

PIR Sensor – Using Infra-Red technology, the PIR sensor will alert users to movement within the monitored environment.

The security sensor, vibration sensor and PIR sensor are all part of Jacarta’s Go-Probe sensor range and are therefore compatible with all of the company’s monitoring devices. To view the Go-Probe Sensor literature click here.

JCAM IR IP Camera – Installing a surveillance system can be beneficial in a number of ways. As well as providing a visual deterrent Jacarta’s IP Camera can also be used to monitor staff activity and provide evidence in the case of criminal activity. JCAM IR has a range of key features including night vision and motion sensing. View the product literature here.

The survey was organised by the University of Kent’s Interdisciplinary Research Centre in Cyber Security, by a team composed of both computer scientists and psychologists, and conducted using Google’s Consumer Surveys platform. As the authors of the report caution their readers, the survey covered a relatively small number of people – just over 1,500 UK adults. That leaves it open to inaccuracies for all sorts of reasons, including sampling bias due to the kinds of people drawn to responding to online surveys, but the results seem dramatic enough to be more than just an anomaly. Other data picked up by the survey seems fairly predictable. Around two-thirds of us feel at risk from cybercrime, just over 1 in 4 have been the victim of some sort of “cyber-dependent crime” in the last year, with malware (11.9%) and phishing (7.3%) the main culprits. 1 in 10 has been exposed to online bullying, harassment or stalking.

If the rate of malware infections seems a little higher than we normally see in surveys of this nature, that could well be down to the high levels of CryptoLocker and other ransomware included in those figures. 9.7% of people claimed they had been infected by ransomware of some kind, with CryptoLocker specifically named in the survey question and making up around a third of all reported infections.

Survey data always has a problem in that it’s only as accurate as the knowledge (and honesty) of the people being surveyed. Malware, for the most part, aims to avoid revealing its presence to its victims, sometimes going to great lengths to do so. So when you ask someone if they have ever been hit by malware, and their response is a strong and definite “no”, that answer should always be viewed sceptically. How can they possibly know? Proving a negative is not easy in the best of circumstances, and being certain something hasn’t happened simply because you haven’t noticed it happen is particularly difficult when the thing you haven’t noticed is specifically designed to be secretive and stealthy. Have you ever been spied on from a distant rooftop? No? Can you really be sure of that?

Unlike most malware though, CryptoLocker and other ransomware attacks make no secret of their presence, indeed their main intention is to make it very plain to their victims that they have been infected. So it could be that what we’re seeing here is not a change in the total level of malware going around, simply a change in the visibility of it to the general public.

Only a third have firewalls, and perhaps that is no bad thing. Other details emerging from this same survey include less than half of respondents using up-to-date anti-malware, just over a third implementing firewalls, and a little less than that exercising sensible password hygiene. Maybe a little more visibility will finally make the general public start sitting up and paying more attention to the risks of malware and other online threats. At the moment, it seems like we’re still mostly either ignorant or in denial, right up until something nasty infects our machine and nabs our data, or encrypts it and demands a ransom. That so many people pay up is not much of a surprise either. Like other security basics, it looks like proper backing up of sensitive or precious files is a rare thing.

Victims forced to pay up include police departments and law firms, with ransomware threats clearly targeting small businesses where proper security practices such as backups are more likely to be lacking. These shortcomings may have been hidden in the past, but now they are being forced into the spotlight, and the shock may just jolt people into giving the right priority to their security needs.

Here are five “top tips” for keeping safe against malware in general, and cyberblackmailers in particular:

• Keep regular backups of your important files.
• Use an anti-virus, and keep it up to date.
• Keep your operating system and software up to date with patches.
• Review the access control settings on any network shares you have.
• Don’t give administrative privileges to your user accounts.

You can read the original article here. More information about CryptoLocker here.

In the spirit of sharing our knowledge, we’d like to show you a pretty great infographic that explains in visual format how a web attack works. As you can see in the infographic below, a web attack happens in five stages, and this whole process takes less than a second. The web is the number one source of malware (a term that combines “malicious” and “software”), and the majority of these malware threats come from what is called a drive-by download.

5 Stages of a Web Attack

The term drive-by download describes how malware can infect your computer simply by visiting a website that is running malicious code (Stage 1: entry point).

Most of the time, these are legitimate websites that have been compromised to redirect you to another site controlled by the hackers (Stage 2: distribution).

Today’s cybercriminals use sophisticated malware packaged in an “exploit kit” that can find a vulnerability in your software among thousands of possibilities.

When your browser is redirected to the site hosting an exploit kit, it probes your operating system, web browser and other software (such as your PDF reader or video player) to find a security vulnerability that it can attack (Stage 3: exploit).

Remember — if you are not applying security updates to your operating system and software, you are unprotected against these exploits.

Once the exploit kit has identified a vulnerability, that is where Stage 4: infection begins. In the infection phase of an attack, the exploit kit downloads what is known as a “payload,” which is the malware that installs itself on your computer.

Finally, in Stage 5: execution, the malware does what it was designed to do, which is mainly to make money for its masters.

The malware known as Zbot can access your email or bank accounts. Another type of payload called ransomware can hold your files hostage until you pay to have them released.

This kind of attack happens all the time. But you don’t have to be a victim. Download our checklist of technology, tools and tactics for effective web protection to find out how you can protect your organization from malware attacks at every step of the way. You should also check out our free whitepaper explaining how malware works and offering tips to help you stop it: Five Stages of a Web Malware Attack. (Registration required). 

You can read the original article here.

• Πως μοιάζει το νέο Κέντρο Διαχείρισης;
• Ποια λειτουργικά συστήματα υποστηρίζονται και ποιοι clients είναι διαθέσιμοι;
• Ποια είναι η διαφορά μεταξύ των UEFI και BIOS και γιατί χρειάζεται να το ξέρετε αυτό όταν πουλάτε ή εγκαθιστάτε το SGN;
• Μπορούμε να υποθέσουμε ότι η Native (Γηγενή) Κρυπτογράφηση είναι ίδια με το SafeGuard Enterprise Device Encryption;
• Μπορούν οι υπολογιστές Mac της Apple να διαχειρίζονται κεντρικά;
• Τι είναι και γιατί το FileVault 2 ενδέχεται να είναι απαραίτητο;
• Τι περιλαμβάνει η άδεια χρήσης SGN;

Σήμερα, ευαίσθητα δεδομένα βρίσκονται παντού, στο cloud, σε φορητές συσκευές και προσωπικούς υπολογιστές. Ο στόχος είναι η προστασία τους, χωρίς θυσίες στην απόδοση και η Sophos έχει τη λύση με το SafeGuard Enterprise 6.1, το οποίο προσφέρει κρυπτογράφηση, οπουδήποτε και αν βρίσκονται τα δεδομένα –σε υπολογιστές Windows, Mac, σε αφαιρούμενα μέσα αποθήκευσης, σε δίσκους στο δίκτυο, σε φορητές συσκευές ή στο cloud, χωρίς καμία επίπτωση στην απόδοση.

Με το SafeGuard Enterprise 6.1, η Sophos διευθετεί τα δύο μεγαλύτερα ζητήματα στην κρυπτογράφηση -την απόδοση και τη χρηστικότητα- εκμεταλλευόμενη την ενσωματωμένη κρυπτογράφηση του λειτουργικού συστήματος (Bitlocker στα Windows, FileVault 2 για Mac) για καλύτερη απόδοση και προσφέροντας multi-platform διαχείριση για όλες τις συσκευές και τα περιβάλλοντα cloud.

Θέλετε να μάθετε περισσότερα;
Σας περιμένουμε στο 4o Infocom Security όπου απαντάμε στις προκλήσεις του μέλλοντος.
Ώρα 12:30 – 14:15 στην 2η ενότητα «Ευφυείς Λύσεις για την Προστασία των Πληροφοριών»

We also found out that the Heartbleed bug is in a version of the OpenSSL software that’s two years old — so this vulnerability could have been attacked for a very long time by someone with the resources to exploit it. 

Sophos security experts helped us to understand Heartbleed and what it means, how to protect yourself, and why we should all be thankful for open source software, even if it’s not perfect.

Chester Wisniewski, Sophos senior security advisor, let us in on what Heartbleed is and why it’s so important for security on the Internet. Chet explained that OpenSSL sends a small packet of data back and forth between web servers to make sure the connection is still working, what’s called a TLS Heartbeat.

Only now it turns out that web servers could be tricked into sending huge amounts of system-stored data in response to a Heartbeat ping — data which could include passwords and encryption keys. In an opinion column published on CNN.com, Chet described how two-thirds of all websites were vulnerable to Heartbleed. Fortunately, most major Web services have already applied fixes to the affected Web servers and services. The bad news is that smaller websites as well as many companies’ products that rely on OpenSSL may linger for many more years without a fix.

Chet told BuzzFeed that an even bigger concern is who might have known about the Heartbleed bug before the rest of us caught on — and the most likely organization to know would be the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), which has the means and an interest in finding such vulnerabilities.

“That’s exactly what the leaked NSA programs are supposed to do: Find the flaws, exploit them and never tell anyone,” Chet said. According to Chet, the “open” part of OpenSSL means this vital security software is maintained by volunteer researchers, not commercial interests. And that means we should be focusing our attention on supporting the open parts of the Internet that we rely on for freedom of communication.

All of us have come to rely on the Internet socially, politically and economically. The billions of dollars a year being made by the tech giants would not be possible without the millions of donated hours that maintain free and open software like OpenSSL, Linux, Apache Web server, and Postfix mail server.

You can read the original article here.

“The new Sophos SG Series appliances are the fastest UTM and Next-Gen Firewall devices we’ve ever produced,” said Guenter Junk, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Network Security Group, Sophos. “They run our latest operating system, version 9.2, and are optimized to get the most out of latest performance innovations from Intel to ensure our customers and partners get an unrivalled performance and protection combination.”

The new SG Series includes models to meet the requirements of small offices to large, distributed enterprises. These 1U appliances are available today in the mid-range 200, 300 and 400 models.  They all deliver over 10 Gbit/sec firewall throughput to easily handle the demands of multi-layered protection. The SG Series is the 6th generation of Sophos security gateways built on an Intel® architecture, to enable Sophos customers to quickly benefit from the frequent performance and protection enhancements. They utilize Intel® technologies including high-speed LAN interfaces, high volume Solid State Drives and AES-NI acceleration.

“By using Intel® Architecture, Sophos has been able to use the performance gains we’ve been able to deliver with the 4th Generation Intel Core processors which delivers improved software processing architecture,” said Bob Ghaffari, Director, Communications and Storage Infrastructure Division, Intel. “Sophos has been able to see dramatic performance improvements by unlocking Intel’s core processor capabilities to make fast, intelligent decisions.”

The SG Series run the latest Sophos UTM 9.2 operating system which features over 150 enhancements including new Advanced Threat Protection and SPX Email Encryption functionality. Designed to run on an Intel architecture, version 9.2 can also be deployed on Intel compatible servers as virtual appliances and in the cloud using Amazon Web Services.

Bruce Kneece, Chief Technology Officer at Convergent Information Security Solutions, said, “Our team was heavily involved in the UTM 9.2 beta program.  From the outset we liked what we saw – added performance and simplicity across the board.  Version 9.2 running on the SG Series hardware is a true winner.  It’s easy for us to recommend it to our customers.”

Additional information on all of the features in Sophos SG Series appliances and Sophos network security solutions is available at: www.sophos.com/accelerated.  

In our recent UTM 9.2 release we accelerated our Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) – to do so we made changes to the underlying engine and worked at making our IPS smarter with new optimized default rule sets. We’ve been getting great reports from customers and partners about the speed boost they’re seeing.

But it’s not just software that can boost performance — it’s pretty obvious the hardware it runs on plays a critical role too. That’s why we’re releasing some new security gateway appliances that we’re calling our SG Series appliances.

These are the fastest appliances we’ve ever built. When we started the refresh project we would have been pleased with a 50% speed increase, and we were hoping we’d be able to double the speed. When our engineering team ran our benchmark tests the results were impressive — the new SG Series is up to four times faster than its predecessors. Now it’s all very well beating your own personal best but for us the real question was how would they fare in a race – just how do they stack up to the competition?

So we asked Miercom Labs, a respected testing house, to run tests. And the results were proof that we’ve built some appliances that will provide Sophos customers and partners with the best price/performance ratio anywhere in the market.

This first chart shows a comparison on firewall throughput. Now it’s important to note these results aren’t from some special, high end box targeted for thousands of users. These are from the SG 210; a mid-range model which is offered at a great price point that any business can afford.

And this performance advantage is seen not just on raw Firewall speed. The chart below shows results with Application Control enabled, a key component in next generation firewalls. As you see, our hard work paid off here as well.

And as you know Sophos has a great heritage in virus scanning and here our expertise really shows. Just look at the AV scanning numbers in the chart below.

This test compares AV proxy scanning which is widely known to be the most effective form of scanning because it looks at the entire file rather than taking shortcuts. But not everybody can do it “at speed,” and as you can see some don’t offer it at all.

The complete report from Miercom Labs will be published soon but as we announce the availability of the new SG Series appliances I just wanted to share some of the great results we are seeing. And as we extend the SG Series and continue to optimize our software here’s to even faster, even better protection!

You can read the original article here.

Download the Sophos Mobile Encryption app from Google Play for Android, or from iTunes for iOS devices (iPhones, iPod Touches and iPads).

New features available in this version

• Protect access to your Sophos Mobile Encryption application with an optional password.
• Fully transparent key management, so you don’t need to enter the passphrase each time you open a file.
• Store your encrypted files in the local storage area within the app. Local storage is also accessible via USB from your PC or Mac.
• Encrypt and upload files handed over by applications from cloud storage providers.
• Supported cloud storage solutions: Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft One Drive (former SkyDrive), Egnyte, Telekom Media Center, WebDAV (e.g., Windows Server, ownCloud or Strato HiDrive)

Sophos Mobile Encryption for Android

Download the Sophos Mobile Encryption app from Google Play for Android devices. Requires Android 2.3.3 and up.

Sophos Mobile Encryption for iOS

Download the Sophos Mobile Encryption app from iTunes for iOS devices. Requires iOS 5.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5.

For business users: You can get Sophos Mobile Encryption together with the optional SafeGuard Enterprise Encryption for Cloud Storage module. The app extends access to encrypted files to mobile devices –for persistent encryption wherever your users are working.

You can read the original article here.