A new version of Sophos Unified Threat Management (UTM) is available today, the firm announced, and is offering more end-point protection features than previous models.
The Boston-based vendor tries to cover all of a small business’ security bases with its UTM products that are available both as a hardware box and virtual offering. Companies can install it to control access to their networks, combining a firewall to block unwanted Web traffic, remote access over a protected virtual private network (VPN), and also control outbound traffic such as what Web sites employees are allowed to visit. New in UTM 9 will be the ability for the IT department to role out policies to end-point devices including laptops, tablets, and smartphones.
Sophos is addressing a trend of employees leaning on their own devices to get work done. With many workers bringing their own mobile technology to work, the IT department is looking for ways to connect them to the network while maintaining business-grade security. Sophos allows users to manage their devices use the LiveConnect cloud service. It allows antivirus updates to be delivered to devices, and new policies to be put in place at any time.
The new UTM 9 also includes an HTML5 VPN. This allows for a remote connection between an employee on the road and resources behind a company firewall, without installing any software.
Customizable wireless hotspots are also a new feature in the appliance. This allows IT administrators to set up wireless access with different permission levels, allowing guests to get online, or employees to use their own devices at work.
Finally, anti-virus scanning is added with Sophos’ own engine and a second engine provided by Avira. Its designed to protect against viruses, worms, Trojans, adware, and zero-day attacks, Sophos says.
