Sophos

For other uses, see Sophos (disambiguation).
Sophos
Private
Industry Computer Security, antivirus, computer software
Founded 1985
Founder Jan Hruska and Peter Lammer
Headquarters Abingdon, England (UK)
Key people
 Kris Hagerman (CEO)
Nick Bray (CFO)
Ari Buchler
Gerhard Eschelbeck (CTO)
James Lyne (Director of Technology Strategy)
Matt Fairbanks (CMO)
Bryan Barney
Edie Givens
Michael Valentine
Bill Lucchini
Mary Winfield
Dan Schiappa
Number of employees
 2000+
Slogan "Security made simple."
Website sophos.com

Sophos is a developer and vendor of computer security software and hardware, providing communication endpoint, encryption, network security, email security and mobile security as well as Unified Threat Management products. Sophos is largely focused on providing security to organisations and businesses.

SophosLabs is the company's global network of threat analysis centres.

Sophos has won several awards for its consumer-facing Naked Security blog.[1][2]

Sophos competes in the antivirus industry against avast!, AVG, Avira, ESET, F-Secure, G-Data, Kaspersky, McAfee, Panda Security and Symantec among others.


Company profile

Sophos is a privately owned British computer software and hardware company, founded by Jan Hruska and Peter Lammer,[3] and is headquartered in Abingdon, England. The company has subsidiaries in: Australia, Austria, Canada, Dubai (UAE), France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, India, Japan, Netherlands, Poland, Singapore, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. The software production and threat analysis centers (known as SophosLabs) are located in: Abingdon (England), Ahmedabad (India), Budapest (Hungary), Linz (Austria), Sydney (Australia) and Vancouver (Canada). All these SophosLabs serve as threat and malware analysis centers. In addition, in Abingdon there is the development of the antivirus and the UTM, in Budapest the one of the Android, firewall, AntiSpam, URL-related and cloud technologies as well as the main back-end systems development and in Linz encryption technologies.

The company has grown to more than 2,000 employees and, today, it is the biggest European-based computer security firm, with more than 100,000 customer businesses and 100 million customer users in more than 150 countries.

History

Sophos was founded by Jan Hruska and Peter Lammer and began producing its first antivirus and encryption products in the 1980s.[4]

During the late 1980s and into the 1990s, Sophos primarily developed and sold a range of security technologies in the UK, including encryption tools available for most users (private or business).

In the late 1990s, Sophos concentrated its efforts on the development and sale of antivirus technology, and embarked on a program of international expansion. Meanwhile, Sophos opened several subsidiary operations and moved to selling exclusively with channel partners.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Sophos added a series of data security and protection tools and remote device administration tools to its product range .

In 2006, Peter Gyenes and Steve Munford were named Chairman and CEO of Sophos respectively. Jan Hruska and Peter Lammer remain as members of the board of directors.[5]

In 2010, the majority interest of Sophos was sold to Apax.[6] In 2010, Nick Bray, formerly Group CFO at Micro Focus International, was named CFO of Sophos.[7]

In 2011, Utimaco Safeware AG were accused of supplying data monitoring and tracking software to partners that have sold to governments such as Syria. Sophos issued a statement of apology and confirmed that they had suspended their relationship with the partners in question and launched a thorough investigation.[8][9]

In 2012, Sophos acquired what remained of VirusBuster – a Hungarian antivirus firm - after the company had closed. All the developers and the malware analysts from VirusBuster joined Sophos in its new Lab in Budapest, Hungary.

In 2012, Kris Hagerman, formerly CEO at Corel Corporation, was named CEO of Sophos and joined the company's board. Former CEO Steve Munford became non-executive chairman of the board.[10]

In the 2000s, Sophos also presented its range of Unified Threat Management (UTM) products.

In 2014, Sophos acquired Mojave Networks of San Mateo, California to strengthen Sophos cloud-managed and appliance-based security solutions.[11]

Acquisitions and partnerships

From September 2003 to February 2006, Sophos served as the parent company of ActiveState, a developer of programming tools for dynamic programming languages. In February 2006, ActiveState became an independent company when it was sold to Vancouver-based venture capitalist firm Pender Financial.

In 2007, Sophos acquired ENDFORCE, a company based in Ohio, USA which developed and sold security policy compliance and Network Access Control (NAC) software.

In July 2008, Sophos announced its intention to acquire Utimaco Safeware AG.[12]

In July 2009, Sophos completed integration of Utimaco Safeware AG.[13]

In May 2010, Sophos reached a definitive agreement to sell a majority interest in the company to Apax Partners, a global private equity group.[14]

In May 2011, Sophos announced it had entered into an agreement to acquire Astaro, a privately held provider of network security solutions, headquartered in Wilmington, Massachusetts (USA) and Karlsruhe, Germany.[15]

In April 2012, Sophos acquired DIALOGS, a privately held provider of mobile management solutions, headquartered in Germany.[16]

In February 2014, Sophos announced that it had acquired Cyberoam Technologies, a leading global provider of network security products.[17]

In October 2014, Sophos acquired Mojave Networks, a leading cloud based security startup.[18]

Products

Network Protection

Enduser Protection

Server Protection

See also

References

External links