Sophos Acquires SurfRight to Strengthen and Accelerate Next-Generation Endpoint Protection Leadershi

Cch123

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May 6, 2014
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Sophos (LSE: SOPH), a global leader in network and endpoint security, today announced the acquisition of SurfRight, an innovator in signature-less next-generation endpoint threat detection and response (ETDR) and advanced threat prevention.


Based in Hengelo, the Netherlands, SurfRight has developed a portfolio of technologies that prevent, detect and remediate zero-day and sophisticated attacks by interrupting malware and advanced persistent threat (APT) vectors. SurfRight's real time anti-exploit technology focuses on detecting and preventing the memory manipulations and abuses that allow malicious code to run in the first place. Generic prevention of exploits at this early stage in the attack chain is a key enhancement to endpoint security mechanisms and can help thwart malicious code in the processor and memory. The portfolio also includes anti-espionage technology and enhanced protection against ransomware attacks such as CryptoLocker.

Sophos is recognized as a leader in endpoint protection today, with a growing set of next-generation technologies such as behavior-based analytics, Malicious Traffic Detection that monitors attempted outbound connections to known bad URLs, and Application Reputation which leverages a crowd-sourced big data warehouse managed by SophosLabs to determine whether a downloaded file is known to be good or bad and prompts the user to take appropriate action. This acquisition will further strengthen Sophos' leading endpoint protection technology, by adding complementary new defense tactics, delivered either on premise or in the cloud.

"SurfRight is a growing, profitable business with an established customer base and proven security capabilities. The team has engineered powerful, innovative next generation endpoint technologies that provide multiple advanced protection and mitigation elements, and yet are simple to use," commented Kris Hagerman, CEO at Sophos. "SurfRight's products embody the same product vision we have at Sophos -- that even the most advanced IT security products should be simple to deploy and manage by organizations of any size. We are excited to welcome SurfRight to Sophos and look forward to introducing the benefits of this leading-edge technology to our global customer and partner base."

Sophos will immediately work to integrate the SurfRight technology into its line of endpoint security solutions. Once the integration work has been completed, Sophos will make the technology acquired from SurfRight available via its global network of more than 15,000 channel partners.

"Sophos offers SurfRight the opportunity to be part of a high-growth industry leader with a world-class channel and specialized product development teams to accelerate the delivery of our technology into IT organizations of all sizes," said Mark Loman, CEO at SurfRight. "We built this new technology from the ground up to address every vector of an APT attack in an auto-responding, coordinated manner, thus enhancing the speed of detection and response. SurfRight's unique next generation endpoint security software complements Sophos' offerings and delivers advanced security capabilities to better protect businesses worldwide."

SurfRight's technology will also further enhance the effectiveness of Sophos' synchronized security strategy, in which multiple components of security protection, including network security and endpoint security, actively and continuously communicate with each other. This innovative approach leads to faster threat detection and a dramatic reduction in the time and resources required to investigate and address security incidents.

"The team at SurfRight has developed cutting-edge technology that interrupts and mitigates even custom-made malware and exploits unknown to traditional antivirus or network-based intrusion detection systems," commented Dan Schiappa, senior vice president of Enduser Security at Sophos. "We recently announced the first delivery of our synchronized security strategy with thenext generation XG Series Firewall, and this enhancement to our next generation endpoint solutions further strengthens the 'better together' approach as a key advantage for our customers."

Sophos will continue development and support for SurfRight's existing product line including its popular HitmanPro malware scanning and removal tools, used by more than 20 million users worldwide. Sophos acquired SurfRight for a cash consideration of $31.8 million and will retain all SurfRight employees and the company's office in Hengelo. SurfRight CEO Mark Loman will join the Sophos Enduser Security Group, reporting to Dan Schiappa.
 

Cch123

Level 7
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Verified
May 6, 2014
335
I don't think this will affect home users much as Sophos is very nice with home users, with free antivirus, mobile security and even hardware firewall application. Hopefully this deal would also allow HitmanPro to have access to greater resources for R&D.

Also congrats to @Erik Loman and Mark Loman for their success :)
 

Enju

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Jul 16, 2014
443
I hope this won't affect my 2-year license for HMP.A!
Let's see what will happen with the amazing software of Surfright since Sophos is known for just absorbing companies into their portfolio.
 

Petrovic

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Apr 25, 2013
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OXFORD, UNITED KINGDOM -- 12/14/15 -- Sophos (LSE: SOPH), a global leader in network and endpoint security, today announced the acquisition of SurfRight, an innovator in signature-less next-generation endpoint threat detection and response (ETDR) and advanced threat prevention.
Based in Hengelo, the Netherlands, SurfRight has developed a portfolio of technologies that prevent, detect and remediate zero-day and sophisticated attacks by interrupting malware and advanced persistent threat (APT) vectors. SurfRight's real time anti-exploit technology focuses on detecting and preventing the memory manipulations and abuses that allow malicious code to run in the first place. Generic prevention of exploits at this early stage in the attack chain is a key enhancement to endpoint security mechanisms and can help thwart malicious code in the processor and memory. The portfolio also includes anti-espionage technology and enhanced protection against ransomware attacks such as CryptoLocker.

Sophos is recognized as a leader in endpoint protection today, with a growing set of next-generation technologies such as behavior-based analytics, Malicious Traffic Detection that monitors attempted outbound connections to known bad URLs, and Application Reputation which leverages a crowd-sourced big data warehouse managed by SophosLabs to determine whether a downloaded file is known to be good or bad and prompts the user to take appropriate action. This acquisition will further strengthen Sophos' leading endpoint protection technology, by adding complementary new defense tactics, delivered either on premise or in the cloud.

"SurfRight is a growing, profitable business with an established customer base and proven security capabilities. The team has engineered powerful, innovative next generation endpoint technologies that provide multiple advanced protection and mitigation elements, and yet are simple to use," commented Kris Hagerman, CEO at Sophos. "SurfRight's products embody the same product vision we have at Sophos -- that even the most advanced IT security products should be simple to deploy and manage by organizations of any size. We are excited to welcome SurfRight to Sophos and look forward to introducing the benefits of this leading-edge technology to our global customer and partner base."

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upnorth

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Jul 27, 2015
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Smart and interesting move by Sophos. Wonder if Sophos will implement Surfrights tool ( HitmanPro ) or simply dismantle as they already have a complete line of products.
 
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CMLew

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Oct 30, 2015
1,251
Hmm.. I wonder how will it impact our current HMP and HMPA users? As well as potential users?
  • Usually whenever i see this kind of news, something "interesting" is bound to happen.
 

SloppyMcFloppy

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Sep 12, 2015
617
Hmm.. I wonder how will it impact our current HMP and HMPA users? As well as potential users?
  • Usually whenever i see this kind of news, something "interesting" is bound to happen.

Me too, and does this mean that Sophos will use HitmanPro engines license?
 
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Tempnexus

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Nov 25, 2015
136
Honestly I am not too giddy about this new development.
I just obtained two 2 year lic and I hope I get to use them full term. Since, based on past precedence of giant company acquiring a smaller one, it doesn't bod well for the smaller company.
The only thing that worked out well so far was/is Sandboxie but that is rare. I mean look at BoClean and Comodo or all the past Symantec Acquisitions (AtGuard firewall etc).
 
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cruelsister

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Apr 13, 2013
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What I find curious is that Sophos acquired SurfRight for about 34 million USD. As Surfright claims to have 20 million users this seems like the bargain of the century! If this is indeed correct SR's gross sales must be easily over 200 million USD annually and I've never seen a company taken out at only a tenth of sales.

Also for the future- Sophos just went public this summer (stock trades in London) and they raised about 125 million USD for the stock issued (total company value is about 1.5 billion USD); so maybe we should expect more acquisitions, especially in the Network appliance area.
 

woodrowbone

Level 10
Verified
Dec 24, 2011
480
Sophos UTM Firewall is a great product, I guess they have had their eyes on HitmanPro for Network Devices - SurfRight for a long time now.
Both these solutions are fantastic at stopping malware at the gate, and if Sophos integrates the way Surfright scans the files into their UTM they will have a killer product.
If they (Sophos) now finally would implement transparent bridge mode into their UTM, (see Untangle UTM) I for one would be a happy camper:

In Bridge mode, NG Firewall is set between your existing firewall and main switch. When in Bridge mode NG Firewall is transparent, meaning you won’t need to change the default gateway of the computers on your network or the routes on your firewall – just put NG Firewall between your firewall and main switch and… that’s it! You’ll need to give NG Firewall’s External interface an IP in the subnet of the firewall, set the Internal interface to bridge and bridge it to External.

Please Note:
  • If you’re having connectivity issues, you may want to try a crossover cable between NG Firewall and the upstream device – this is usually not necessary with modern equipment, but it’s something to try if the settings look good but it’s just not working. If you don’t have a crossover cable handy, try putting a switch between Untangle and the upstream device.
  • If you want to install NG Firewall in a VM, we recommend reading this guide.
  • If you’re in Router mode and have a PPPoE WAN connection, contact your ISP and see if the modem can do the authentication and pass the IPs to NG Firewall so you can set the External interface to Static – this is a much better situation than having NG Firewall do the PPPoE login, since some features (such as Multi-WAN) will not work with interfaces set to PPPoE.
  • If you’re in Bridge mode you most likely do not want to be double NATing, so make sure your Internal interface is set to Bridge and notStatic or DHCP.
  • When setting up in Bridge mode, it’s easy to have the NG Firewall plugged in backwards. The quickest way to check is to go to a website that should be blocked and take a look at the block page – if you see a simple page with a white background and black text, your interfaces are backwards. If you see a grey background with an Untangle logo, you’re good to go. If it is backwards, you should be able to simply swap the External and Internal cables connected to the NG Firewall and verify you get the correct block page.
/W
 
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