News
Sophos XG Firewall Delivers a Breakthrough in Network Visibility with Synchronized App Control
October 2017 by Marc Jacob
Sophos announced the latest version of its next-generation Sophos XG Firewall that delivers a breakthrough in network traffic visibility. Using Synchronized Security to obtain information from the endpoint, XG Firewall can identify, classify and allow the control of all previously unknown applications active on the network, such as those which don’t have signatures or are using generic HTTP or HTTPS connections. Synchronized App Control on XG Firewall is an industry first and can reduce the security risks associated with unidentified traffic by allowing administrators to see exactly what is on their network.
Rob Ayoub, research director, IDC Security Products commented “The latest version of the Sophos XG Firewall represents a significant improvement in network application visibility, especially in regards to unknown applications. It’s an innovative solution to an industry-wide problem that has been getting increasingly challenging over time.”
Synchronized App Control will automatically associate discovered applications with appropriate categories where possible and adminsistrators can assign unknown apps to categories that will block or prioritize them as desired. Interactive application reporting provides deep insight into daily traffic activity.
Sophos XG Firewall is available for on-premise and cloud deployment, on all the major virtualization platforms as well as through the Microsoft Azure marketplace. Both Sophos Endpoint Protection and the next-generation anti-ransomware solution Intercept X will provide the XG Firewall with the Synchronized Security data required for this new level of traffic identification.
In addition, Sophos has introduced new XG Series hardware appliances that provide a modular system for connectivity with a wide variety of integrated connectivity and FleXi Port modules. The addition of two fail-safe bypass port pairs on-board every 1U appliance and an optional bypass FleXi Port module for all 1U and 2U XG Series models, plus optional Power over Ethernet (PoE) modules make it easy to enable Synchronized Security in any environment.
Sophos is named as a Leader in Gartner, Inc.’s June 20, 2017, "Magic Quadrant for Unified Threat Management (SMB Multifunction Firewalls),” and as a Visionary in Gartner, Inc.’s July 10, 2017, "Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Network Firewalls.” In June this year, NSS Labs rated Sophos XG Firewall as one of the best performing firewalls in the industry in its Next Generation Firewall Group Test Report(1) . The XG Firewall was “Recommended” as one of the top three products for security effectiveness.
