Sophos Delivers the Industry’s Most Complete Security for Android Devices

Manila, Philippines - November 6, 2014 – Recently recognised as an enterprise mobility management (EMM) market leader by Forrester, Sophos today announced the immediate availability of additional security and device management capabilities for the Android mobile platform. These simple-to-deploy, yet powerful solutions deliver mobile security for businesses of any size. IT professionals can now allow employees to take advantage of all that the Android platform has to offer without putting sensitive data at risk. 

According to Nielsen, mobile users are now spending 30 more hours per month on mobile devices than on their laptops, and cybercriminals are taking notice. SophosLabs has identified over 1 million new and unique pieces of Android malware and potentially unwanted applications (PUAs) just since the beginning of 2014. Android malware has grown 1,800 per cent over the last two years, by far the fastest growing of any attack surface. Approximately two billion mobile phones and tablets will be shipped this year, 85 per cent of those will be Android devices, and 75 per cent of apps on those devices will fail basic security tests. With a mix of corporate-owned and employee-owned devices being used for business anywhere and anytime, organisations clearly require a more comprehensive approach to mobile security. And that’s where Sophos comes in. 

"Users in Southeast Asia are no stranger to this trend with both enterprises and consumers riding on the BYOD trend and the explosion of Android devices in the region. As the number of time spent on mobile devices increases, so does the attack vector," said Sumit Bansal, director for ASEAN at Sophos. "Proactive defense measures should be in place to safeguard their devices." 

Sophos delivers comprehensive Android protection

Sophos Cloud now features Android support, delivering one central and hosted console for managing both desktops and mobile devices. With a simpler user-centric approach, it helps keep corporate information safe with mobility management features like remote lock, remote wipe, password reset, theft protection, Wi-Fi configuration and Microsoft Exchange setup help. 

 Sophos Mobile Security brings a powerful new antivirus engine and web protection technology to the Android platform. Without reducing device performance or diminishing battery life, this powerful engine provides comprehensive malware protection. In fact, Sophos received a perfect 100 per cent Android malware detection rate in the latest AV-Test. 

Sophos is the only enterprise mobility management vendor that offers built-in antivirus capabilities and web filtering without relying on third-party software. Additionally, only Sophos delivers a centrally managed, cloud-based mobile security solution that is compatible with Windows, Mac, iOS and now Android platforms – providing simple and complete security for businesses of all sizes.

In addition, Sophos today announced the new Sophos Anti-Malware SDK for Android, which features the core Sophos antivirus engine.  Now Telco providers, mobile carriers and other IT vendors can integrate Android anti-malware technology into their own mobile offerings. 

With an increasing number of viruses and other malware samples entering the corporate network via mobile devices, it’s more important than ever to deploy Android management and security technology to ensure that sensitive corporate data stays out of the wrong hands.

“Well over half of all mobile apps fail basic security measures, and these sobering figures are on the rise,” said Dan Schiappa, senior vice president and general manager, end user protection group, Sophos. “Every day the risk is growing, and we're proud to offer the most comprehensive mobile protection for businesses to keep confidential information out of the wrong hands.”