Sophos Intercept X – Review

Picture this. It’s a normal day in the office, you’re on your second cup of coffee and you get the call. “I just tried to open the Word document I was working on yesterday and I’m getting a weird message.”  After the usual troubleshooting fails, you begin to realise this is not user error – there’s a much more serious issue at play here. 

Despite the numerous staff wide memos about opening suspicious files and links, it’s happened.  Almost immediately, your team is in full blown action stations trying to minimise the impact to the systems business wide, but it’s too late. There’s no time to point the finger and place blame, you need to get your files back NOW – but how? Do you pay the hundreds of thousands being demanded by the hackers before they permanently delete every file, or try and find another solution? 

If that’s a scenario that makes your heart beat a little faster, you’re not alone. Unfortunately, it’s an all too common occurrence around the world every day.

Ransomware has to be one of 2016’s IT buzzwords.  We’re seeing it in the headlines affecting individuals as well as industry, with businesses and organisations of every size becoming targets.

“This criminal activity encrypts your files and holds them hostage until the ransom is paid, causing massive disruption to business productivity. Without your files, business stops. And getting them back in a timely and cost effective manner is near impossible – so why take the risk?”

With the experts estimating ransomware crime is on pace to be a $1 billion activity in 2016, it’s more important than ever to be vigilant in the protection of your organisation’s systems from the ground up.

Enter Sophos Intercept X – a newly-released tool designed to stop hackers before they even hit your system, providing added protection to ward off zero-day attacks as well as root cause analysis to highlight vulnerabilities before they cause an issue.

What it does:

Here’s an analogy for you – think of your business systems as your home. Sure, you can lock the front and back doors, but will that stop someone coming through the window? No – but Sophos Intercept X will.

In the instance that someone in your house (on your staff) was to unwittingly invite a bad guy in (open a ransomware email), and he proceeded to encrypt everything inside – Intercept X would detect it. The program will stop the bad guy in his tracks and return everything to normal with no disruption to you.

On top of that, the program helps you pinpoint how/when/where the bad guy got in, and provides clear steps on what to do next.

Features and Benefits:

  • CryptoGuard creates cleartext copies of files being encrypted and blocks encryption processes if it’s determined they are acting like ransomware.
  • Performs root cause analysis to determine what endpoints have been affected.
  • Recommends actions to take to improve defenses against simialr future attacks.
  • Sophos Clean ensures all hidden malware is detected and removed for full remediation.

For a more in-depth explanation, check out this video – or contact us for a live demonstration in your business.

Why you need it:

MSS Director Kelly Webb says:

“This software is a global first, marking a new era in the proactive prevention of cyber terrorism.”

While at present the user community is under pressure to make informed choices about opening and deleting potentially harmful messages, Sophos Intercept X allows your business’ IT team to take back control from potential hackers.

Here’s Kelly’s top three points as to why Sophos Intercept X is a MUST HAVE for your business:

  • IT professionals are finally able to take back control from the cyber criminals.
  • Business owners and CIO/CTO roles can rest easy knowing that they will not have unforeseen costs or destructive business interruption from ransomware.
  • The pressures around what is and is not opened is lifted from the user community so IT are seen as a true business enabler.

In short, can you afford NOT to have this level of protection?

How to get it:

To find out more, take a look at the above video for an overview of the software. And when you realise why this is a must-have for your business, we’re ready for you to get in touch!

We can run you through the features, benefits and ways this powerful technology is going to revolutionise your IT security in a live demonstration.