Telecom
Sophos Acquires Braintrace to Boost Adaptive Cybersecurity Ecosystem
Sophos, a global leader in next-generation cybersecurity, today announced that it has acquired Braintrace, further enhancing Sophos’ Adaptive Cybersecurity Ecosystem with Braintrace’s proprietary Network Detection and Response (NDR) technology.
Braintrace’s NDR provides deep visibility into network traffic patterns, including encrypted traffic, without the need for Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) decryption.
Located in Salt Lake City, Utah, Braintrace launched in 2016 and is privately held.
As part of the acquisition, Braintrace’s developers, data scientists and security analysts have joined Sophos’ global Managed Threat Response (MTR) and Rapid Response teams.
Sophos’ MTR and Rapid Response services business has expanded rapidly, establishing Sophos as one of the largest and fastest-growing MDR providers in the world, with more than 5,000 active customers.
Braintrace’s NDR technology will support Sophos’ MTR and Rapid Response analysts and Extended Detection and Response (XDR) customers through integration into the Adaptive Cybersecurity Ecosystem, which underpins all Sophos products and services.
The Braintrace technology will also serve as the launchpad to collect and forward third-party event data from firewalls, proxies, virtual private networks (VPNs), and other sources.
These additional layers of visibility and event ingestion will significantly improve threat detection, threat hunting and response to suspicious activity.
Joe Levy, chief technology officer, Sophos
“You can’t protect what you don’t know is there, and businesses of all sizes often miscalculate their assets and attack surface, both on-premises and in the cloud. Attackers take advantage of this, often going after weakly protected assets as a means of initial access. Defenders benefit from an ‘air traffic control system’ that sees all network activity, reveals unknown and unprotected assets, and exposes evasive malware more reliably than Intrusion Protection Systems (IPS),” said Joe Levy, chief technology officer, Sophos. “We’re particularly excited that Braintrace built this technology specifically to provide better security outcomes to their Managed Detection and Response (MDR) customers. It’s hard to beat the effectiveness of solutions built by teams of skilled practitioners and developers to solve real world cybersecurity problems.”
Sophos will deploy Braintrace’s NDR technology as a virtual machine, fed from traditional observability points such as a Switched Port Analyzer (SPAN) port or a network Test Access Point (TAP) to inspect both north-south traffic at boundaries or east-west traffic within networks.
These deployments help discover threats inside any type of network, including those that remain encrypted, serving as a complement to the decryption capabilities of Sophos Firewall.
The technology’s packet and flow engine feeds a variety of machine learning models trained to detect suspicious or malicious network patterns, such as connections to Command and Control (C2) servers, lateral movement and communications with suspicious domains.
Since Braintrace built its NDR technology specifically for predictive, passive monitoring, its engine also provides intelligent network packet capture that IT security administrators and threat hunters can use as supporting evidence during investigations. The novel NDR analysis and prediction technique is patent pending.
According to Gartner, “compared with traditional approaches, where malicious behavior is defined ahead of time in the form of prebuilt signatures and detection engines inspecting traffic looking for matches, NDR takes a different approach. Instead of only inspecting traffic against a list of known bad payloads or behaviors, NDR also focuses on looking for unknown patterns in the network traffic, calculating a probability as to whether that anomaly is malicious.”
Gartner further notes that, “the machine learning algorithms that are at the core of many NDR products help to detect anomalous traffic that is often missed by other detection techniques. The optional automated response capabilities help to offload some of the workload for incident responders. The threat hunting functionality provides valuable tools for incident responders.”
“NDR is critical to successful threat hunting. Braintrace’s competitive differentiation is its unique NDR technology that our MDR analysts leveraged for finding, interrupting and remediating cyberattacks,” said Bret Laughlin, CEO and co-founder of Braintrace. “With our own NDR technology, the team responds faster and more accurately because of the real-time, automated visibility and threat verification they have into encrypted traffic. We built Braintrace’s NDR technology from the ground up for detection and now, with Sophos, it will fit into a complete system to provide cross-product detection and response across a multi-vendor ecosystem.”
British cybersecurity software and hardware company Sophos Group plc’s Silicon Valley office in Santa Clara, California by Gettyimages
Braintrace’s NDR technology is a key component for defending against cyberattacks today and in the future. Sophos research demonstrates how adversaries aggressively and constantly change tactics to evade detection and execute their attacks.
Braintrace’s technology helps uncover malicious C2 traffic from malware, such as ColbaltStrike, BazaLoader and TrickBot, as well as zero-days, that could lead to ransomware and other attacks.
This visibility allows threat hunters and analysts to pre-empt any potential ransomware attack, including recent strikes by REvil and DarkSide.
Sophos plans to introduce Braintrace’s NDR technology for MTR and XDR in the first half of 2022.
MTN Media Innovation Program (MIP), a six-month fully-funded certificate fellowship designed for media professionals, is redefining journalism and content creation in Nigeria.
Now in its fourth year, MIP, launched by MTN Nigeria in partnership with the School of Media and Communication (SMC), Pan-Atlantic University, is empowering journalists, broadcasters, and content creators with the tools to adapt, innovate, and thrive in today’s challenging media landscape.
Despite promising forecast that the market value of the Nigerian entertainment and media industry will grow from US$9.0bn in 2023 to US$13.6bn in 2028, the media sector has since grappled with issues such as limited access to training, financial instability, and the rapid decline of traditional revenue models. With digital platforms disrupting how news is consumed and monetised, journalists and media owners must rethink their approach.
MIP provides a structured learning environment where media professionals gain first-hand exposure to new industry trends, digital transformation, and the intersection of media and ICT. From data journalism to audience engagement strategies, participants leave the program with actionable skills that are shaping the future of storytelling in Nigeria.
A standout feature of MIP is its international study visit to South Africa, where fellows engage with leading media institutions, visit MTN Group’s headquarters, and participate in hands-on training sessions at the University of Johannesburg. This global exposure provides invaluable insights into how media practitioners in other markets are leveraging technology and innovation to stay ahead.
For many participants, this has been a career-defining experience. Juliet Tontoye, Vice-President, MIP Cohort 3, describes the program as ‘a turning point.’ “When we share our experiences with our colleagues at our respective media houses, we realize that the program’s benefits and impact are easier to experience than explain. In the past three months, MIP has been such an eye-opening journey. It’s a fellowship every media professional needs to experience. MTN has been such a wonderful host and we know this costs millions of Naira. However, we believe it will have a profound impact on our colleagues.”
Beyond individual impact, MIP is helping reshape the media industry by fostering collaboration and leadership. By bridging the gap between traditional journalism and digital innovation, the program ensures that fellows graduate not just as better storytellers, but as industry disruptors with a mission to create lasting change. The program’s 60 alumni, now spread across Nigeria’s top media organisations, are applying their knowledge to revolutionise newsrooms, create digital-first content strategies, and introduce sustainable business models.
According to Tobechukwu Okigbo, Chief Corporate Services & Sustainability Officer, MTN Nigeria: “When we launched MIP in 2022, our goal was to enhance media professionals’ reporting capabilities and deepen their understanding of the technology sector, empowering them to become true media innovators. Seeing the impact of the programme over the past three years has been both inspiring and humbling. We are proud to continue this initiative and invite all eligible media professionals and content creators to seize this opportunity by applying for the fourth cohort.”
Similarly, the Dean of the School of Media and Communication, Pan-Atlantic University, stated: “SMC will leverage its extensive experience in training media professionals to equip this next cohort. And we will do this with our usual emphasis on creativity and ethics.”
With over 60 fellows trained since its inception in 2022, MIP is building a network of media advocates who are championing ethical reporting, storytelling innovation, and the smart use of technology in journalism.
MTN Nigeria has invested over NGN 300 Million in building Nigeria’s media industry in the past three years through its partnership with PAU.
As applications open for the 2025 cohort, the program continues to attract top-tier talent eager to take their careers to the next level and contribute to the transformation of Nigerian media.
For journalists, broadcasters, and content creators looking to future-proof their careers, the MTN Media Innovation Program is more than just a fellowship—it is a movement that is reshaping the industry, one fellow at a time.
Interested journalists, bloggers, and content creators can apply for the MIP 2025 at https://bit.ly/MTN_MIP2025.
Dr. Vincent Olatunji, Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria Data Protection Commission, has been appointed as the Chair of the Anglophone Countries Committee of the Network of Africa Data Protection Authorities (NADPA).
The appointment, confirmed on April 2, underscores Nigeria’s leadership in Africa’s data privacy efforts. Speaking after his confirmation, Olatunji urged members to prioritize collective efforts in protecting the privacy rights of over 1.4 billion Africans.
Meanwhile, Nigeria will host the 2025 NADPA Annual General Meeting and Conference in May. Themed “Balancing Innovation in Africa: Data Protection and Privacy in Emerging Technologies,” the event will showcase Nigeria’s strides in digital economy development under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration.
Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has charged the over 174 million telecoms subscribers in the country to constantly monitor their data usage to authenticate their consumption level.
This follows concerns being raised by telecoms consumers about the rapidity of data depletion on their devices.
The Commission particularly enjoined the consumers to always contact their service providers to make requests for cases of discrepancies noted in their data usage.
While the consumers are expected to contact their service providers to request for their usage history/statement where inconsistency exists in their data usage as first step, the Commission said they may also escalate such issues to the Commission through its toll-free Number 622 and social media platforms, especially if their requests are not satisfactorily handled.
The Commission, which also made some clarifications regarding the concerns being raised by the consumers around data usage, said the need to inform the consumers on their concerns is part of its commitment to protect and appropriately inform and educate the telecom consumer on industry issues.
Making further clarifications around data speed and usage, the Commission said data speed is the speed at which data is transferred between two devices, measured in megabits per second (Mbps or mbps), stressing that given the spread of Internet services and the immense investment in the sector, data rates have continued to increase and users may be unaware of how to measure data speed.
The telecoms regulator explained further that websites such as www.fast.com also provide an easy way for consumers to measure Internet speed on any device at any location.
“The higher the data speed, the quicker pages load-downloads and uploads-occur and expectedly, the quicker data bundles are exhausted. So, as telecom consumers are able to do more on devices in less time, some consumers’ devices & network service providers make it possible to limit data speed to help users manage data usage better.
“In any case, most devices now include functions to measure data used by devices and it is imperative that users monitor same to authenticate data usage, such as applications left running on devices. Therefore, where discrepancies occur users may contact their service provider to request for their usage history/statement. If request is not dealt with satisfactorily then, users can contact NCC by calling 622 or engage the Commission via its social media platforms”.
It added that the data usage experience is a function of location, network equipment and users connected in a particular location.
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