Sophos has announced a new approach to data protection with the latest release of Sophos SafeGuard Encryption 6.1. Enabling wide-scale adoption, Sophos is addressing the two biggest issues in encryption – performance and usability – by leveraging native operating system (OS) encryption for better performance, and delivering multi-platform management across all devices and cloud environments.

“With this announcement, Sophos is enabling organisations to fully embrace a data-centric approach to encryption; to reach compliance standards; and to maintain credibility and good standing in today’s market, says Brett Myroff, CEO of Sophos distributor, NetXactics.”

Sophos is delivering SafeGuard Encryption 6.1 with a different approach that enables people to work the way they want to for new levels of productivity, without sacrificing time, performance or features, he adds.

For example, with Sophos SafeGuard, managing Microsoft BitLocker for Windows or Mac FileVault 2 ensures that the time required to encrypt a disk and boot up the operating system is greatly reduced, as compared to third party encryption engines. Disk encryption time is up to seven times faster and boot times are up to three times faster.

Terry Myerson, Executive Vice President, Microsoft, says, “From the very beginning we designed BitLocker to provide platform level encryption that provides the best possible integration, reliability, and provisioning capabilities.
“Sophos Safeguard offers the best of both worlds by taking everything that makes BitLocker great and adding innovative compliance and enterprise-management capabilities on top of it. This is a great example of how partners can add value on top of the Windows platform.”

The latest version of Sophos SafeGuard also solves the major challenge of managing encryption across multiple platforms, devices, as well as cloud environments. Users and IT staff are now able to share data safely between Windows, Mac and mobile devices – securing data wherever it lives and wherever it is sent.

Managing multiple devices no longer means managing multiple consoles, and enables IT to fully embrace encryption, as organisations use a multitude of devices and platforms to support their users.

The Sophos encryption approach enables users to safely work the way they need to – sharing files between users, partners and customers via the cloud and the devices they use.

For example, a Windows user can store data in a cloud storage system, and a partner on a Mac system can access and edit the content from their laptop or review it on their mobile device – fully encrypted and accessible only by intended users to provide complete data protection with simplified encryption management in a single console.

“Given today’s propensity for data to move outside of corporate owned devices and the data lifecycle lasting far beyond that of any laptop or smartphone, the need for a data first encryption mentality seems obvious,” says Charles Kolodgy, Research Vice President, Security, IDC.

“Sophos SafeGuard Encryption is a promising addition to the encryption market and offers organisations a unique approach to getting encryption right.”