Dubai, UAE : Sophos today announced the availability of Sophos Cloud Web Gateway, a cloud-based secure web gateway that delivers advanced protection for users, devices and data across multiple operating systems, regardless of their location. The addition of secure web gateway to Sophos Cloud integrates technology from Mojave Networks, which Sophos acquired in October 2014.

Sophos Cloud Web Gateway provides protection from the latest malware and phishing threats, granular policy management, advanced content filtering and big-data web traffic analytics – all without the need for physical appliances. Access to a global network of data centers makes the comprehensive analysis of data traffic for content and security compliance fast and transparent for the end user.

IT managers are able to pinpoint ‘at risk’ users or devices through activity, behaviors and usage monitoring with advanced alerts, warnings and notifications.  Granular policies can be set by device, by user or by group, and tamper protection prevents the accidental or intentional changing of settings, keeping even rogue users compliant.

Bill Lucchini, senior vice president and general manager for Sophos Cloud Security business unit commented, “In today’s world employees are mobile and work across multiple devices.  Securing the perimeter or a single device is no longer sufficient.  Sophos Cloud Endpoint and Mobile products cover employees wherever they work and on whatever device they are using.  Now, with the addition of a powerful web gateway Sophos Cloud provides a full suite of enterprise-grade security solutions designed for the mid-market.”

“Sophos’ unified defense vision and the benefits that the cloud managed offering gives to SMBs with limited IT resources, will be well received in the marketplace. Ease of use is also a primary focus for Sophos, and one that customers and partners both attest is well-received,” agreed Rob Westervelt, research manager, at IDC.

Stephen Weber, a partner, at CDN and active beta-tester said, “Participating in the Sophos Cloud Web Gateway Beta provided CDN with hands-on experience of the solution and insight into how Sophos is enhancing their platform. Our main goal is to offer our customers the best solutions on the market and we foresee Sophos Cloud Web Gateway as enhancing an already comprehensive security model.”

Sophos Cloud Web Gateway features include:

Advanced web protection from today’s threats

Global network of web gateways ensures web traffic is analyzed quickly and transparently

Intelligently scans web content and blocks the latest web threats – backed by Sophos Labs

Multi-protocol scanning across application & web traffic – including HTTPS and SSL

Big-data, cloud-powered reporting

Big-data reporting – no onsite servers or management overhead

Granular reports available by user, by device, by application, by category

Effortless to deploy, simple to manage

Deploys in a matter of minutes

Easily expandable to meet changing business needs with flexible subscription-based SaaS pricing

Simple but powerful policy control

Easy and intuitive policy settings

Customize policies to meet compliance obligations, manage productivity and optimize bandwidth

Control applications such as Instant Messaging and Skype

Reliable enforcement on the go

Web security designed for employee computers and mobile devices on or off the corporate network

Endpoint agent with sophisticated tamper protection safeguards

Wayne Scarano, chief executive officer, SGA Cyber Security added, “Sophos Cloud Web Gateway provides complete visibility and control into deployed devices, while still providing the comprehensive security we’ve come to expect from Sophos. The ease of deployment and seamless integration with Sophos Cloud will have our users up and running almost immediately. Most importantly, our clients will be better protected against the latest web threats.”

With the introduction of the new Sophos Cloud Web Gateway and the Sophos Web Appliance, IT managers can get great web security from Sophos whether they choose an appliance or cloud model for their business.

The latest version of Sophos Web Appliance was recently released with a new proxy engine with up-to 7x the scanning performance on the same hardware and improved granular controls over features like chat, games and comments to manage the use of popular social media apps like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube. In addition it now provides enhanced user reporting including snap-shot and detailed  reports which show a chronological list of every website a user has visited over a day, week, month or longer.