PLATFORM SECURITY

Sophos Announces Sophos X-Ops

Sophos | July 21, 2022 | Read time : 03:00 min

Sophos
Sophos, a global leader in next-generation cybersecurity, today announced Sophos X-Ops, a new cross-operational unit linking SophosLabs, Sophos SecOps and Sophos AI, three established teams of cybersecurity experts at Sophos, to help organizations better defend against constantly changing and increasingly complex cyberattacks. Sophos X-Ops leverages the predictive, real-time, real-world, and deeply researched threat intelligence from each group, which, in turn, collaborate to deliver stronger, more innovative protection, detection and response capabilities.

Sophos today is also issuing “OODA: Sophos X-Ops Takes on Burgeoning SQL Server Attacks,” research about increased attacks against unpatched Microsoft SQL servers and how attackers used a fake downloading site and grey-market remote access tools to distribute multiple ransomware families. Sophos X-Ops identified and thwarted the attacks because the Sophos X-Ops teams combined their respective knowledge of the incidents, jointly analyzed them, and took action to quickly contain and neutralize the adversaries.

“Modern cybersecurity is becoming a highly interactive team sport, and as the industry has matured, necessary analysis, engineering and investigative specializations have emerged. Scalable end-to-end operations now need to include software developers, automation engineers, malware analysts, reverse engineers, cloud infrastructure engineers, incident responders, data engineers and scientists, and numerous other experts, and they need an organizational structure that avoids silos,” said Joe Levy, chief technology and product officer, Sophos. “We’ve unified three globally recognized and mature teams within Sophos to provide this breadth of critical, subject matter and process expertise. Joined together as Sophos X-Ops, they can leverage the strengths of each other, including analysis of worldwide telemetry from more than 500,000 customers, industry-leading threat hunting, response and remediation capabilities, and rigorous artificial intelligence to measurably improve threat detection and response. Attackers are often too organized and too advanced to combat without the unique combined expertise and operational efficiency of a joint task force like Sophos X-Ops.”

Speaking in March 2022 to the Detroit Economic Club about the FBI partnering with the private sector to counter the cyber threat, FBI Director Christopher Wray said, “What partnership lets us do is hit our adversaries at every point, from the victims’ networks back all the way to the hackers’ own computers, because when it comes to the FBI’s cyber strategy, we know trying to stand in the goal and block shots isn’t going to get the job done.

“We’re disrupting three things: the threat actors, their infrastructure and their money. And we have the most durable impact when we work with all of our partners to disrupt all three together.” Sophos X-Ops is taking a similar approach: gathering and operating on threat intelligence from its own multidisciplinary groups to help stop attackers earlier, preventing or minimizing the harms of ransomware, espionage or other cybercrimes that can befall organizations of all types and sizes, and working with law enforcement to neutralize attacker infrastructure. While Sophos’ internal teams already share information as a matter of course, the formal creation of Sophos X-Ops drives forward a faster, more streamlined process necessary to counter equally fast-moving adversaries.

“Effective cybersecurity requires robust collaboration at all levels, both internally and externally; it is the only way to discover, analyze and counter malicious cyber actors at speed at scale. Combining these separate teams into Sophos X-Ops shows that Sophos understands this principle and is acting on it.”

Michael Daniel, president and CEO, Cyber Threat Alliance

Sophos X-Ops also provides a stronger cross-operational foundation for innovation, an essential component of cybersecurity due to the aggressive advancements in organized cybercrime. By intertwining the expertise of each group, Sophos is pioneering the concept of an artificial intelligence (AI) assisted Security Operations Center (SOC), which anticipates the intentions of security analysts and provides relevant defensive actions. In the SOC of the future, Sophos believes this approach will dramatically accelerate security workflows and the ability to more quickly detect and respond to novel and priority indicators of compromise.

“The adversary community has figured out how to work together to commoditize certain parts of attacks while simultaneously creating new ways to evade detection and taking advantage of weaknesses in any software to mass exploit it. The Sophos X-Ops umbrella is a noted example of stealing a page from the cyber miscreants’ tactics by allowing cross-collaboration amongst different internal threat intelligence groups,” said Craig Robinson, IDC research vice president, Security Services. “Combining the ability to cut across a wide breadth of threat intelligence expertise with AI assisted features in the SOC allows organizations to better predict and prepare for imminent and future attacks.”

About Sophos
Sophos is a worldwide leader in next-generation cybersecurity, protecting more than 500,000 organizations and millions of consumers in more than 150 countries from today’s most advanced cyberthreats. Powered by threat intelligence, AI and machine learning from SophosLabs and SophosAI, Sophos delivers a broad portfolio of advanced products and services to secure users, networks and endpoints against ransomware, malware, exploits, phishing and the wide range of other cyberattacks. Sophos provides a single integrated cloud-based management console, Sophos Central – the centerpiece of an adaptive cybersecurity ecosystem that features a centralized data lake that leverages a rich set of open APIs available to customers, partners, developers, and other cybersecurity vendors. Sophos sells its products and services through reseller partners and managed service providers (MSPs) worldwide.

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Cyber Security & Cloud North America – New Line-Up Speakers Announced

TechEx Events Ltd | April 17, 2023

The Cyber Security & Cloud Congress North America (17-18th May) has announced exciting new additions to its line-up of speakers and panellists for the upcoming two-day event in Santa Clara. The event will take place on May 17th and 18th, 2023, and will feature a diverse range of tech industry experts, including CIOs, CTOs, Cyber Security, Cloud Architects, and other key players in the field. Attendees will have a great opportunity to hear from the most talented speakers including: Prasanna P., Digital Transformation Leader – Enterprise Architecture & Enterprise Strategy Leader – Molina Healthcare Shea Lovan, Chief Security Officer – UC Santa Barbara Sachin Vaidya, EVP Chief Information Officer of Heritage – Bank of Commerce Kishore Viswanathan, Senior Technical Program Manager, Cybersecurity and Compliance – Lucid Motors Sameh Emam, Division Risk Manager – Union Bank Kavitha Venkataswamy, Director – Digital Product Security – Capital One Richard Paz, CISM, Cyber Security Engineer – NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory & many more! In addition to these keynote speakers, the event will also feature several panel discussions covering a wide range of topics, including Zero Trust, Threat Detection & Response, Training, Talent & Culture, Identity & Access Management, Application Security, Data Security and more. Attendees will have the opportunity to network with other industry professionals and gain valuable insights into the latest trends and technologies shaping the cybersecurity and cloud technology landscape. The Cyber & Cloud Congress North America promises to be a knowledge-packed, innovative, and engaging event for all those interested in Cyber Security and Cloud technology, but also the newest technology solutions, products and services that will be showcased during the event. “We are thrilled to have such an outstanding group of speakers joining us for the Cyber & Cloud Expo,” said Lia Richards, Head of Conference. “With their diverse backgrounds and extensive experience, they will bring a wealth of knowledge and insights to our attendees. We look forward to hearing their perspectives on the most pressing issues facing the industry today”. WHAT ELSE TO EXPECT? Over the course of two days at Cyber Security & Cloud Congress North America attendees will have a great number of opportunities to visit exhibition stalls and connect with the representatives of some of the world’s biggest brands including IBM, IDC, Bosh, AWS, Zoho and many more, all implementing the latest in Cyber Security & Cloud technologies within their sectors. Paying attendees will also have a chance to join the networking party event following Day 1 of the conference, where all will be able to connect and network in a more relaxed setting, with free food and drinks provided. This opportunity is open for Gold and Ultimate Pass Holders, Speakers, Press, Sponsors, and Exhibitors. Find out more information here: https://www.cybersecuritycloudexpo.com/northamerica/networking-party/ Early-bird registration offering 25% discount of the full ticket price is open until 17th April, and interested attendees are encouraged to secure their tickets before the offer ends to avoid missing out on this exciting opportunity. Follow this link to discover ticket types and prices: https://www.cybersecuritycloudexpo.com/northamerica/ticket-types-and-prices/. About TechEx Events Ltd The TechEx Event portfolio is an international conference and tech showcasing cutting-edge tech innovation in enterprise. Featuring real-life use cases and in-depth industry insights, the event series delves into the AI, Big Data, Blockchain, Cyber Security, 5G, IoT and Edge Computing ecosystems. Running for over six years, our co-located events strengths lie within our expert community. We bring the heroes responsible for pushing game changing tech and strategy together, to craft relationships and creative solutions. We are the place where networking never stops – The one-stop-shop for enterprise innovators.

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