Sophos published its Mid-Year 2011 Security Threat Report which revealed that fake anti-virus and search engine poisoning have become more commonplace and, since the beginning of 2011, Sophos has identified an average of 150,000 malware samples every day. This equates to a unique malware file being created every half-second, a 60 percent increase since 2010. In addition, around 19,000 malicious website addresses (URLs) are now identified daily, with 80 percent of those URLs being pages on legitimate websites that have been hacked or compromised. Read More…

Sophos announced that its market-leading Sophos Anti-Virus for Mac and the Home Edition will fully support Apple’s Mac OS X Lion (10.7). Current users of Sophos Anti-Virus products for Mac will continue to be fully protected as soon as they upgrade to Mac OS X Lion, now available. New users will also have immediate compatibility after downloading the security product. As Apple’s operating system has increased in popularity in recent years, so have security threats for users. Sophos Anti-Virus for Mac provides automatic detection against existing and new threats for Mac OS X Operating Systems, including Lion.Read More…

Sophos announced that it has completed its acquisition of network security vendor Astaro. This acquisition will allow Sophos to deliver coordinated, best-in-class threat and data protection offerings from every endpoint to any network boundary. Organizations today face new challenges in protecting users and IT infrastructure from complex and targeted security threats; especially those that gain entry from across the Web or through new applications. As workforces become distributed across multiple offices, including the home, even basic security controls have become hard to update and enforce. Through this acquisition, Sophos will address the need for security solutions that provide threat and policy protection no matter where the user or company data resides.
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UK based security and data protection company Sophos, today said it has agreed to buy Astaro, a privately held provider of network security solutions. The market for multi-function security appliances has continued to grow because organizations of all sizes want better protection against security threats and need to support their users and distributed workplaces in a comprehensive, easy to use, efficient way. According to IDC, the market for unified threat management was approximately $2 billion worldwide in 2010, with a CAGR of 13% 2010-2014.Read More…