Sophos enhances network security portfolio

Sophos has announced a series of network security innovations designed to help organisations protect against constantly evolving threats in the AI era.

The company has announced Sophos Firewall v23, which adds capabilities such as controls to help organisations sanction only trusted AI tools and block unapproved services. The latest release also adds an AI assistant to help administrators understand firewall configurations and draft rules for review, and a modern REST-based API to support greater automation for IT teams, partners and managed service providers.

Hardware-aware tweaks enable the latest version to reduce the detection window from four seconds down to 300 ms, and additional enhancements include DNS over HTTPS, greater visibility into applied common vulnerability hotfixes and security updates, and support for domain name system security extensions (DNSSEC).

In addition, Sophos has announced four XGS Series 1U hardware appliances that the company says can deliver up to four times higher protected throughput than earlier models and a standalone Sophos network detection and response (NDR) offering, as well as a revamped Sophos Firewall licensing option combining multiple licences and support in a single package.

Finally, enhancements to the Sophos Workspace Protection bundle of products introduce synchronised web policies that allow administrators to define web filtering policies and apply them across the suite, as well as a generative AI web category for more granular control over AI services.

Sophos SVP of Product Management Daniel Cole said AI is raising the stakes for network security teams.

“Organisations need to support more encrypted traffic, applications and automated activity while defending against attacks that can move faster and exploit gaps at greater scale,” he said. “Users should not have to choose between enabling innovation and strengthening protection. This launch helps organisations keep pace with growing network demands while turning network visibility and intelligence into faster, coordinated defence through Sophos Fusion.”

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