Sophos (LSE:SOPH), a global leader in network and endpoint security today announced that NSS Labs has rated the Sophos XG Firewall as one of the highest performing firewalls in the industry in its most recent Next-Generation Firewall Group Test Report(1) . The XG Firewall was “Recommended” as one of the top three products for security effectiveness. It passed all stability and reliability tests, offering some of the highest levels of protection and performance at great value.

The NSS Labs evaluation included 11 market leading next-generation firewalls which were rated for security effectiveness, performance, stability and reliability, and total cost of ownership (TCO). The Sophos XG Firewall out-performed many other market-leading products across the stringent test criteria, placing it amongst the top-ranks of the seven products that also earned the NSS Labs ‘Recommended’ rating.  

“Trusted, independent testing is a vital tool for any organization assessing its security needs. NSS Labs plays a critical role in determining which products deserve their place on the IT security shortlist,” commented Dan Schiappa, senior vice president and general manager of the Enduser and Network Security groups at Sophos. “Sophos is committed to developing the most effective and easy to manage security products for organizations of all sizes. We are proud that this NSS Labs test validates the XG Firewall as a leader in the industry for protection, performance, and value. We continue to invest heavily in our next-generation firewall platform as we enhance our synchronized security strategy. As proven by the recent WannaCry outbreak, effective network protection prevents the spread of sophisticated, fast moving attacks and will remain a critical component of any comprehensive security strategy for years to come.”

Thomas Skybakmoen, distinguished research director from NSS Labs commented, “We continue to develop and maintain rigorous testing standards to reflect enterprise defenses that are constantly being challenged by attackers and adopting new evasion techniques at a record pace.  The Sophos XG Firewall has executed well in this evaluation with high levels of security effectiveness and zero false positives.”

A copy of the NSS Labs Next-Generation Firewall Test Report for the Sophos XG-750 Firewall and the associated Security Value Map (SVM) graphic, which plots all vendors included in the evaluation are available from the Sophos website, here.

Released in December 2016, the latest version of the next-generation Sophos XG Firewall added significant new features including:

Sophos Sandstorm - Blocks evasive zero-day threats like ransomware, disguised as executables, PDFs and Microsoft Office documents - sending them to its cloud-sandbox to be detonated and observed in a safe environment
Synchronized Security - Extends Security Heartbeat by adding missing heartbeat detection and destination Heartbeat protection. Control access to endpoints and servers based on the status of their heartbeat, restricting potentially compromised systems until they are completely safe. In addition, the XG Firewall can determine the application responsible for generating unknown traffic on your network
Enterprise-Grade Secure Web Gateway (SWG) - New inheritance-based policy building tool enables multiple user and group based web control policies. Plug a full web policy into a single firewall rule for enforcement – dramatically reducing rule count
Microsoft Azure Support - Available as a preconfigured virtual machine within the Azure Marketplace, IT managers can deploy seamlessly using Azure Resource Manager templates or customize deployment according to their needs. Sophos XG Firewall provides detailed, out-of-the-box reports that are generated and stored locally, giving them a view of exactly what their users are doing
Streamlined User Experience - XG Firewall makes managing network security easier than ever with all-new navigation with a logically organized menu and tabs for click access to anywhere. Streamlined firewall rule screen makes it easier and more intuitive to build sophisticated rules

The Sophos XG Firewall is available on-premise as a hardware appliance or for all the major virtualization platforms as well as through the Microsoft Azure marketplace for securing infrastructure-as-a-service deployments in the cloud. Available models range from a desktop appliance with integrated Wi-Fi to rack-mount appliances purpose built for the data center. Pricing is available from authorized Sophos partners worldwide.