E-Business
Sophos Emerges Leader in IDC MarketScape for Worldwide Modern Endpoint Security for Midsize Businesses in 2024
Sophos, a global leader in innovating and delivering cybersecurity as a service, has announced its recognition as a Leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Modern Endpoint Security for Midsize Businesses 2024 Vendor Assessment, which evaluates the solutions and business strategies of 16 modern endpoint security (MES) vendors.
Sophos Endpoint defends more than 300,000 organizations worldwide against advanced attacks with anti-ransomware, anti-exploitation, behavioral analysis, and other technologies that stop threats before they escalate. In the report, IDC applauds Sophos Endpoint for including “a more expansive set of protection technologies (host-based firewall and IDS/IPS, device control, DLP, and encryption) as standard features in its endpoint security offering.”
In addition, “in the discipline of systematically strengthening customers’ security posture, Sophos has a strong set of features in customer security advisory recently enhanced with an account health-checking feature (detecting and remediating security configuration drift).”
The report also praises Sophos for adding “several new capabilities: adaptive attack protection, critical attack warning and data protection and recovery” to further mitigate risks.
With an extensive and expanding range of integrated capabilities spanning protection, detection, response, and recovery, Sophos Endpoint seamlessly integrates with other vendors’ and Sophos products including Sophos Managed Detection and Response (MDR), the most widely used MDR offering. Sophos Endpoint is also the foundation for Sophos Extended Detection and Response (XDR) and Sophos Endpoint Detection and Response capabilities (EDR).
“We’ve strategically engineered our products and services to work together and with third-party systems to create comprehensive, preventive and highly actionable defenses,” said Rob Harrison, senior vice president of product management at Sophos. “We’re also committed to innovation, which is critical for consistent protection against aggressive and determined cybercriminals.
“Sophos Endpoint protections, specifically Sophos Intercept X, continue to be recognized as industry-leading, which reflects our innovative approach to developing defenses against the latest and anticipated attacker tactics, techniques and procedures, including the recent increase in the deliberate use of remote ransomware to evade detection.”
“Adaptive attack protection, introduced in early 2023, is a demonstration of Sophos’ means to disrupt hands-on-keyboard attackers while minimizing potential disruption to legitimate operations. Tuned to detect attackers pivoting to more aggressive tactics, protection sensitivity is automatically elevated to prevent damage. Once the malicious activity is no longer present, normal protections are automatically reestablished.
Sophos critical attack warning alerts security personnel when immediate attack responses are necessary. Responses, estate wide if warranted, can be orchestrated through Sophos MDR, incident response (IR) or XDR. The prevalence of ransomware attacks compels organizations to be prepared to recover,” said the IDC report.
“With their professional and managed security services, expanded product set, and ability to integrate with existing security investments, it’s clear that Sophos understands the needs and challenges of a midsize business,” said Michael Suby, research vice president, Security & Trust, IDC.
“Sophos’s comprehensive approach from prevention through recovery places Sophos on the shortlist of midsize businesses looking for an established and effective partner for security.”
Managed in the cloud-native Sophos Central platform, Sophos’ portfolio solutions are part of the Sophos Adaptive Cybersecurity Ecosystem, where security data is collected, correlated and enriched with additional context to enable automatic and synchronized responses to active threats.
This platform is further optimized by Sophos X-Ops threat intelligence, a cross-operational task force of more than 500 security experts within SophosLabs, Sophos SecOps and SophosAI.
Kaspersky’s Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT) experts at the 10th annual Cyber Security Weekend – META 2025 held recently, talked about supply chain attacks and reported that by the end of 2024 a total of 14,000 malicious packages were found in open-source projects, a 48% increase compared to the end of 2023. 42 million versions of open-source packages have been examined by Kaspersky throughout 2024 in search for vulnerabilities.
Open-source is software with source code that anyone can inspect, modify, and enhance. Popular open-source packages include GoMod, Maven, NuGet, npm, PyPI, and others.
These are tools that power countless applications and help developers easily find, install, and manage pre-built code libraries, making it simpler to build software by reusing code others have written. Attackers take advantage of the popularity of these and other packages.
In March 2025, the Lazarus Group was reported to have deployed several malicious npm packages, which were downloaded multiple times before removal. These packages contained malware to steal credentials, cryptocurrency wallet data, and deploy backdoors, targeting developers’ systems across Windows, macOS, and Linux.
The attack leveraged GitHub repositories for added legitimacy, highlighting the group’s sophisticated supply chain tactics. Kaspersky’s GReAT also found other npm packages related to this attack. Malicious npm packages could have been integrated into web development, cryptocurrency platforms, and enterprise software, risking widespread data theft and financial losses.
In 2024, a sophisticated backdoor was discovered in XZ Utils versions 5.6.0 and 5.6.1, a widely used compression library in Linux distributions. Inserted by a trusted contributor, the malicious code targeted SSH servers, enabling remote command execution and threatening countless systems globally.
Detected before widespread exploitation due to performance anomalies, the incident highlighted the dangers of supply chain attacks. XZ Utils is integral to operating systems, cloud servers, and IoT devices, making its compromise a threat to critical infrastructure and enterprise networks.
In 2024, Kaspersky’s GReAT discovered that attackers uploaded malicious Python packages like chatgpt-python and chatgpt-wrapper to PyPI, mimicking legitimate tools for interacting with ChatGPT APIs.
These packages, designed to steal credentials and deploy backdoors, capitalised on the popularity of AI development to trick developers into downloading them. These packages could have been used in AI development, chatbot integrations, and data analytics platforms, endangering sensitive AI workflows and user data.
“Open-source software is the backbone of many modern solutions, but its openness is being weaponised. The 50% rise in malicious packages by the end of 2024 shows attackers are actively embedding sophisticated backdoors and data stealers in popular packages, which millions rely on.
“Without rigorous vetting and real-time monitoring, a single compromised package can trigger a global breach. Organisations need to secure the supply chain before the next XZ Utils-level attack succeeds,” comments Dmitry Galov, Head of Research Center for Russia and CIS at Kaspersky’s Global Research and Analysis Team.
Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) has launched an investigation into allegations that the confidentiality and integrity of candidates’ personal data may have been compromised by hackers.
The Commission initiated the inquiry following concerns over possible data breaches during examinations.
Preliminary findings indicate that several examination centres may not have implemented adequate technical and organizational measures to safeguard candidates’ personal information, as required under data protection regulations.
Although the incident reportedly affected 379, 997 candidates, the NDPC’s investigation is poised to cover a systemic audit of data processing and third parties.
It will be recalled that JAMB recently admitted that a technical error on its platform affected a total of 379,997 candidates in 157 examination centres across Lagos and the South-East.
Further investigation led to the arrest of at least 20 suspects who are currently in the custody of the Department of State Services and the Nigerian Police Force.
Cyber security firm, Kaspersky, has once again warned that sophisticated cybercriminals increasingly target Africa as ransomware and advanced persistent threats (APTs) escalate across the region.
Speaking at the company’s annual Cyber Security Weekend for the Middle East, Turkiye and Africa (META) region, the cybersecurity firm’s Global Research and Analysis Team highlighted growing digital threats affecting African nations.
Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa emerged as hotspots, with Kenya recording one of the highest web threat incident rates at 20.1% in first quarter 2025.
“While ransomware is less prevalent in Africa due to lower levels of digitisation and economic constraints, countries like South Africa and Nigeria are seeing a sharp rise in attacks,” said Sergey Lozhkin, head of META and APAC regions at Kaspersky.
Kaspersky noted a 0.01 percentage point increase in African ransomware cases year-on-year, reaching 0.41%, still below global and Middle Eastern averages, but a troubling sign for the continent’s emerging digital infrastructure.
Experts warned that attackers are refining their tactics, shifting focus to unconventional entry points like IoT devices, smart appliances, and misconfigured hardware.
“As these economies expand digitally, sectors such as manufacturing, finance and government are becoming key targets,” said Lozhkin
The cyber-crime landscape is evolving quickly, fuelled by AI tools and dark web access to large language models, which enable less skilled actors to launch convincing phishing and malware campaigns.
Groups like FunkSec, which uses AI-generated code and a low-cost ransom model, are redefining ransomware operations.
“African organisations face the dual challenge of expanding digital footprints and limited cybersecurity awareness. This makes layered defense strategies, including network segmentation, real-time monitoring and regular staff training, essential,” stated Lozhkin
Kaspersky continues to monitor 25 active APT groups in the META region, including SideWinder and MuddyWater, some of which are known to target African institutions.
To bolster defenses, the firm recommends using tools such as its free Anti-Ransomware Tool for Business and the Kaspersky Next suite for threat visibility and response.
Firm Reports a 48% Increase in Malicious Packages Threatening Software Supply Chains
Senate Passes Harmonised Report on Tax Reform Bills
FG to Provide High-fibre Internet in 12 Universities by Year End
The Silent Killer of Great Companies: A Guide To Why Your Processes Will Break (and How to Fix Them)
EFCC Witness Admits Writing Off Arik Air’s $2.3M Debt Amid N76Bn Fraud Trial
E-Financial2 days agoEFCC Recovers over N20Bn Stolen by Hackers from 6 Banks in Nigeria
Telecom3 days agoEngr. Ikechukwu Nnamani Receives Two Prestigious @ABoICT Awards
Telecom3 days agoFG to Deploy 80 Percent of 7000 Telecom Towers to North
E-Business2 days agoNigeria Among Hotspots as Kaspersky Warns of Rising Ransomware Threat in Africa
E-Financial3 days agoPonzi Scheme Operators Risk N10m Penalty, Others- IST Chair
E-Financial2 days agoUBA Launches *919# Advance Top-Up Feature for Instant Access to Customers
E-Financial2 days agoFidelity Bank Plc Wins 2025 DBN Innovation Award for MSME Support
News3 days agoEFCC Recovers Funds, Arrests Suspects in N1.3 Trillion CBEX Crypto Fraud