Sophos Managed Risk - Staying Ahead of Cyber Threats

In an increasingly complex digital world, where attack surfaces continue to grow and threats become ever more sophisticated, it is crucial for companies to understand and actively monitor their security posture. Sophos Managed Risk offers a comprehensive solution for identifying, assessing, and prioritizing risks through external attack surface management and vulnerability management. This service is powered by Tenable’s leading technology and delivered by Sophos experts.

What makes this solution interesting is that Sophos is taking a new path. Instead of simply acquiring a company and integrating the product into Central, Sophos is now working directly with the market leader Tenable. A fresh and promising partnership.

What is Sophos Managed Risk?

Sophos Managed Risk is a comprehensive service for vulnerability and attack surface management, powered by Tenable’s leading technologies. This service is delivered by experienced Sophos experts who identify high-priority cybersecurity vulnerabilities and potential attack vectors. This enables actions to be taken to prevent attacks before they disrupt business operations.

Key Features and Benefits

Transparency across attack surfaces

Attack surface management is crucial because a company’s digital attack surface continues to grow through cloud usage, IoT devices, and remote work. Without a comprehensive overview of all external and internal assets, effective protection against potential threats is not possible. Undiscovered or unprotected assets provide attackers with easily accessible entry points.

You can only address vulnerabilities effectively once you know they exist. Sophos Managed Risk enables companies to identify and analyze their external, internet-accessible assets. This includes web and email servers, web applications, and public API endpoints. Comprehensive visibility across the attack surface helps eliminate blind spots and detect potential attacks early.

Continuous risk management

The threat landscape is constantly evolving, and new vulnerabilities are continuously discovered. One-off security checks are therefore not enough. To stay current and respond quickly to new threats, continuous risk management is essential.

Sophos Managed Risk offers precisely this continuous monitoring of a company’s entire attack surface. Not only are automated scans performed regularly, but new potential threats are also assessed and prioritized by Sophos experts. Based on these assessments, companies receive not only a list of discovered vulnerabilities but also concrete recommendations for remediation.

Regular reports ensure that IT and security teams are always informed about the current security status. In addition, quarterly review meetings are held with the Sophos Managed Risk Team to discuss the results of the latest scans and make adjustments to the security strategy. This way, companies can ensure that they are not only up-to-date with the threat landscape but can also react proactively to new risks.

Through this continuous monitoring and expert support, security teams can reduce operational workload and focus on strategic tasks. In addition, the time between the discovery and remediation of critical vulnerabilities is minimized, which significantly reduces the risk of a successful attack.

In a time when cyberattacks are becoming more frequent and sophisticated, Sophos Managed Risk offers the necessary security and flexibility to continuously improve a company’s security posture and be prepared for new challenges.

Risk-based prioritization of vulnerabilities

In a complex IT environment, hundreds or even thousands of vulnerabilities can exist. However, not all vulnerabilities are equally dangerous or have the same potential to cause damage. Therefore, it is crucial to identify the vulnerabilities that pose the greatest risk to the company. This is where risk-based prioritization comes into play.

Sophos Managed Risk uses Tenable’s leading technology to comprehensively analyze vulnerabilities across a company’s IT landscape. It considers not only the technical details of a vulnerability, but also factors such as the current threat landscape, known exploits, and the potential business impact. This risk-based analysis helps create a clear picture of which vulnerabilities need to be remediated first to minimize the risk of a successful attack.

Another advantage of this prioritization strategy is the efficient use of resources. IT and security teams are often under enormous time and resource pressure. With risk-based prioritization, they can focus on the truly critical vulnerabilities and remediate them in a targeted manner, rather than spreading limited resources across less significant security gaps. This not only improves security but also makes day-to-day work more effective.

Furthermore, prioritization enables a quick response to new threats. For example, if a new, particularly critical vulnerability is discovered, companies can immediately determine whether they are affected thanks to risk-based prioritization and initiate appropriate measures. This can prevent potential damage at an early stage.

The combination of comprehensive vulnerability detection and risk-based prioritization offers companies a customized security strategy that can respond flexibly and efficiently to new challenges. Sophos Managed Risk ensures that companies always know which vulnerabilities have the highest priority and what actions need to be taken to continuously improve the security posture.

Rapid identification of new risks

In the constantly changing threat landscape, cybercriminals are always looking for new vulnerabilities they can exploit. They often exploit newly discovered security gaps long before companies can recognize them or take steps to defend against them. This time lag between the discovery of a vulnerability and its remediation can have catastrophic consequences. This is where Sophos Managed Risk comes in.

Sophos Managed Risk continuously monitors a company’s internet-exposed assets and performs regular vulnerability scans. As soon as a new, particularly critical vulnerability is discovered that could affect a company’s applications or systems, Sophos immediately informs the IT security team through proactive notifications. This allows security teams to act immediately and minimize the risk of a successful attack.

The rapid identification and response to new risks is particularly important for addressing so-called zero-day vulnerabilities – security gaps that are previously unknown and for which no patches yet exist. Sophos Managed Risk uses Tenable’s comprehensive threat databases and expert knowledge to identify potentially vulnerable systems early and provide appropriate recommendations for action.

Another advantage is the integration of notifications into Sophos’ central management console, enabling seamless collaboration with other security solutions such as Sophos Managed Detection and Response (MDR). All security-relevant events can therefore be consolidated in one dashboard, giving security teams a holistic view of their IT environment.

The rapid identification of new risks is a crucial factor for succeeding in today’s threat landscape. With Sophos Managed Risk, companies are ideally equipped to respond immediately to new threats and protect their systems from attacks even before they can cause damage.

Integration with Sophos MDR

Sophos Managed Risk works seamlessly with the Sophos Managed Detection and Response (MDR) service. This integration allows vulnerability information to be used effectively to detect and respond to threats even faster. While Sophos Managed Risk focuses on identifying, assessing, and prioritizing vulnerabilities in a company’s IT environment, Sophos MDR focuses on detecting and responding to active threats. Through the seamless collaboration of the two services, companies benefit from a stronger security strategy that includes both preventive and reactive measures.

• Improved threat detection: By combining vulnerability information from Sophos Managed Risk with the detection and monitoring capabilities of Sophos MDR, threats can not only be detected faster but also analyzed more precisely. For example, if a newly discovered vulnerability is correlated with suspicious behavior, security teams can immediately take appropriate action before an attacker can exploit the vulnerability.
• Proactive risk reduction: The integration makes it possible to include vulnerabilities identified by Sophos Managed Risk directly in the Sophos MDR security strategy. This allows attack attempts against known vulnerabilities to be detected and blocked early. This creates a proactive security posture that not only reacts to existing threats but also helps prevent potential attacks.
• Centralized management and transparency: All security-relevant events, vulnerability information, and threat notifications are consolidated in the Sophos Central console. This provides security teams with a central platform from which they can monitor and manage all aspects of their security infrastructure. The unified view of threats and vulnerabilities enables faster decision-making and more efficient handling of security incidents.
• Unified case management: Both Sophos Managed Risk and Sophos MDR use a common case management system. This allows vulnerabilities and threats to be viewed in the context of a single security incident. For example, a newly discovered vulnerability can be immediately linked to an ongoing security incident to accelerate investigation and remediation.
• Joint remediation strategies: The Sophos Managed Risk and Sophos MDR teams work closely together to develop joint remediation strategies. As soon as a critical vulnerability is identified, not only steps for remediation are proposed, but specific threat detection rules are also implemented to ensure that attacks on this vulnerability are detected and prevented.
• Example use case: Imagine that Sophos Managed Risk has identified a critical vulnerability in a company’s web application that could be actively exploited. This information is immediately forwarded to the Sophos MDR team, which implements targeted detection rules in the environment. If attackers attempt to exploit this vulnerability, the activity is immediately detected, and the MDR team can take appropriate countermeasures, such as blocking the attack, isolating affected systems, or alerting the company’s security team.

Licensing and Pricing

Sophos Managed Risk is offered as an add-on to existing Sophos MDR Essentials or MDR Complete solutions. Licensing is based on the total number of users and servers, allowing for predictable and consistent pricing. You are welcome to request a quote from us for both MDR and Managed Risk. Simply use our contact page.

Onboarding Process

Getting started with Sophos Managed Risk is straightforward. You do not need to install any additional software in your environment. The onboarding process includes the following steps:

1. Provide authorized contacts: You provide the relevant contact details that will be used for managing the service.
2. Enter domain details: The domains to be monitored are specified.
3. Schedule automated scans: You define when the regular vulnerability scans should be performed.

After activation, a basic review meeting with Sophos Managed Risk experts will be scheduled within approximately 30 days to discuss the initial results and determine the further course of action.

Why choose Sophos Managed Risk?

Sophos Managed Risk offers numerous advantages for IT administrators and Managed Service Providers (MSPs):

• Holistic security solution: Through integration with Sophos MDR, Sophos Managed Risk provides a comprehensive security solution that covers both threat detection and risk management.
• Efficient resource utilization: Risk-based prioritization helps to optimize the use of limited resources.
• Trusted partnership: Collaboration with Tenable, a leading provider in the field of exposure management, strengthens the credibility and trust in the security solutions offered.
• Scalability: Licensing based on the number of users and servers enables easy scaling according to company size.

FAQ

Documents and further resources

For a detailed overview and further information about Sophos Managed Risk, the following documents are available:

• Sophos Managed Risk - Solution Brochure — This brochure provides a comprehensive introduction to the features and benefits of Sophos Managed Risk. It contains details on attack surface management, continuous risk assessment, and risk-based prioritization of vulnerabilities. It is ideal for gaining a comprehensive overview of the service and considering it for your own IT security strategy.
• Sophos Managed Risk - Solution Description — This document goes deeper into the technical details and use cases. It describes how Sophos Managed Risk can be integrated into existing security infrastructures and provides practical examples of how companies can benefit from improved risk assessment and management.

Both resources offer valuable insights into how Sophos Managed Risk works and the value it provides, helping IT administrators make informed decisions to strengthen their security posture. You can find more information on the official Sophos Managed Risk website.