Bytes Software Services

Sophos Firewall

"XGS Firewall integrates the essential SDWAN features and capabilities such as flexible ISP and WAN connectivity,
as well as redundancy and failover, robust VPN orchestration, unique application control and visibility. Application routing over preferred links via firewall rules or policy-based routing is also one of key feature for SDWAN." bssgc

Features

• SDWAN capabilities
• Firewall, Networking and Routing
• Web Protection
• Email Protection
• Advanced Threat Protection
• Intrusion Prevention System
• Wireless Protection capabilities
• Traffic Shaping functions
• Remote Access and Site to Site VPN
• Cloud Application Control and Visibility

Benefits

• SDWAN routing provides flexibility in connections
• Properly routing and access to different resources
• Provide URL and content filtering and control web access
• Prevent spam, phishing and virus on emails
• Isolates compromised systems to prevent spread in the network
• Scans inbound and outbound network traffic and prevent malicious attacks
• Wireless access for employees and guests to internet
• Bandwidth control and traffic prioritization
• Allow or deny access on network resources
• Allow or deny access on applications on the network

£3.00 a user a month

• Education pricing available
• Free trial available

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Service definition document

  PDF

• Terms and conditions

  PDF

Request an accessible format

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at tenders@bytes.co.uk. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 14

Service ID

240121373578811

Contact

Chris Swani
+44 (0) 7951 326815
tenders@bytes.co.uk

Service scope

• Software add-on or extension: Yes, but can also be used as a standalone service
• What software services is the service an extension to: Also works best with Sophos CIXA, Switch, Access Point, ZTNA, MDR
• Cloud deployment model:
  • Public cloud
  • Hybrid cloud
• Service constraints: No Constraints
• System requirements:
  • Citrix XEN Center 6.2.0 Citrix XEN Center 7.2 XCP-ng-Center 8.0
  • Proxmox Virtual Environment 6.0-4 On Microsoft Server platform 2016
  • Microsoft Hyper-V:
  • Nutanix Prism
  • VSphere Client version 6.7.0.20000

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Email or online ticketing
• Support response times: "Sophos Support is available 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, 52 weeks per year, including statutory, public, and bank holidays.; ; For Enhanced Support Plan:; Critical Within 4 hours; High Within 8 hours; Medium Within 24 hours; Low Within 24 hours; ; For Enhanced Plus Support Plan:; Critical Within 1 hour; High Within 2 hours; Medium Within 24 hours; Low Within 24 hours; ; Please see this link for details (page 9):; https://www.sophos.com/en-us/medialibrary/PDFs/Support/Sophos-Support-Services-Guide.pdf"
• User can manage status and priority of support tickets: Yes
• Online ticketing support accessibility: WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
• Phone support: Yes
• Phone support availability: 24 hours, 7 days a week
• Web chat support: Web chat
• Web chat support availability: 24 hours, 7 days a week
• Web chat support accessibility standard: WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
• Web chat accessibility testing: N/a
• Onsite support: Yes, at extra cost
• Support levels: "Enhanced ; • 24/7 multi-channel support ; • Software downloads, updates, & maintenance ; • Access to support knowledgebase and support forums ; • Warranty (Appliances only) ; • Hardware replacement (Appliances only) ; • Remote assistance support; ; Enhanced Plus - includes all features of the Enhanced plan above and the following:; • Remote consulting; • Priority case and sample handling ; • Phone calls routed to senior Technical Support Engineers; ; TAM - includes all features of Enhanced and Enhanced plus with the following:; • Named Technical Account Manager (TAM) ; • Front of the line access to product information ; • Personalized communications and alerts ; • Performance and feature optimization ; • Enhanced escalation ; • Emergency Onsite Support; ; Please see this link for reference:; https://www.sophos.com/en-us/support/technical-support"
• Support available to third parties: Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

• Getting started: "The following resources are available:; • Sophos Firewall Admin Help:; https://docs.sophos.com/nsg/sophos-firewall/20.0/Help/en-us/webhelp/onlinehelp/StartupHelp/index.html; • Sophos TechVids:; https://techvids.sophos.com/; ; Can also inquire about Professional Services."
• Service documentation: Yes
• Documentation formats:
  • HTML
  • PDF
• End-of-contract data extraction: "Data such as alerts, logs, and lists of devices can be readily exported out of the customer’s Sophos Firewall environment at the customer’s discretion.; Sophos Central also has a Logs & Reports section that contains several reports that can be exported to PDF or CSV."
• End-of-contract process: Enitlement ends and customer is responsible for product removal and configuration

Using the service

• Web browser interface: Yes
• Supported browsers:
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Firefox
  • Chrome
  • Safari
• Application to install: Yes
• Compatible operating systems:
  • Linux or Unix
  • MacOS
  • Windows
• Designed for use on mobile devices: No
• Service interface: Yes
• User support accessibility: None or don’t know
• Description of service interface: "The web-based GUI of Sophos Firewall is a single screen control center that provides the unified policy model and provides the health and security of the network.; ; The Graphical User Interface is very easy to navigate with our unified policy model combines all business, user, and network firewall rules onto a single screen with grouping, filtering, and search options."
• Accessibility standards: None or don’t know
• Description of accessibility: "The web-based GUI of Sophos Firewall is a single screen control center that provides the unified policy model and provides the health and security of the network.; ; The Graphical User Interface is very easy to navigate with our unified policy model combines all business, user, and network firewall rules onto a single screen with grouping, filtering, and search options."
• Accessibility testing: Sophos Central does not currently have a VPAT compliance attestation. As a central console, many separate Sophos products appear in Sophos Central. Some of these products are accessibility compliant and we continue to improve the accessibility of our individual products.
• API: Yes
• What users can and can't do using the API: "; ; Sophos Central has a public API program that can automate monitoring, security, and administration activities in Sophos Central. It can do many of the things normally done in the Sophos Central Admin Console including Live Discover queries and pulling events/alerts into a SIEM.; ; All our APIs are offered as RESTful HTTP endpoints over the public internet. We use standard authentication, JSON requests and responses, and standard HTTP verbs. All communication is over HTTPS.; ; Please see the following link for details:; https://developer.sophos.com/intro; https://developer.sophos.com/apis"
• API documentation: Yes
• API documentation formats: HTML
• API sandbox or test environment: No
• Customisation available: No

Scaling

• Independence of resources: "User licensing is unrestricted so the firewall is only bound on it's hardware capacity. Different Sophos Firewall models provide different throughputs which is tied on its hardware capabilties.; ; Proper sizing of the firewall is needed to get the best experience and protection. "

Analytics

• Service usage metrics: Yes
• Metrics types: "The report hub shows key information about the hardware, security threats, and performance against policy for your selected Sophos Firewall devices. ; See https://docs.sophos.com/central/customer/help/en-us/ManageYourProducts/FirewallManagement/FirewallReportDashboard/index.html; ; Sophos Firewall also deliver SD-WAN capabilities like link performance metrics including Latency, Jitter and Packet-Loss"
• Reporting types:
  • Real-time dashboards
  • Regular reports
  • Reports on request

Resellers

• Supplier type: Reseller providing extra support
• Organisation whose services are being resold: Sophos

Staff security

• Staff security clearance: Conforms to BS7858:2019
• Government security clearance: Up to Security Clearance (SC)

Asset protection

• Knowledge of data storage and processing locations: Yes
• Data storage and processing locations:
  • United Kingdom
  • European Economic Area (EEA)
  • Other locations
• User control over data storage and processing locations: Yes
• Datacentre security standards: Managed by a third party
• Penetration testing frequency: At least once a year
• Penetration testing approach: Another external penetration testing organisation
• Protecting data at rest: Encryption of all physical media
• Data sanitisation process: Yes
• Data sanitisation type: Explicit overwriting of storage before reallocation
• Equipment disposal approach: In-house destruction process

Data importing and exporting

• Data export approach: "Data such as alerts, logs, and lists of devices can be readily exported out of the customer’s Sophos Firewall environment at the customer’s discretion.; Sophos Central also has a Logs & Reports section that contains several reports that can be exported to PDF or CSV."
• Data export formats: Other
• Other data export formats:
  • PDF
  • HTML
  • TAR
• Data import formats: Other
• Other data import formats: TAR

Data-in-transit protection

• Data protection between buyer and supplier networks:
  • Private network or public sector network
  • TLS (version 1.2 or above)
  • IPsec or TLS VPN gateway
  • Other
• Other protection between networks: Transport-level encryption is used to secure management communication between the client software and Sophos Central platform via certificates and server validation.
• Data protection within supplier network:
  • TLS (version 1.2 or above)
  • IPsec or TLS VPN gateway
  • Other
• Other protection within supplier network: It is carried out using secured services such as SFTP, HTTPS, TLS encrypted, etc.

Availability and resilience

• Guaranteed availability: Sophos Central does not provide a traditional SLA because the availability of our products is not dependent on the availability of the web portal. However, the availability of the web portal ranged between 99.99 and 100% over the past year, depending on geographic region.; ; Sophos Central status can be viewed here:; https://centralstatus.sophos.com/#!/
• Approach to resilience: "Sophos Firewall offers High Availability functionality. High Availability (HA) support clustering two devices in active-active or active-passive mode with plug-and-play Quick HA setup.; ; Sophos Firewall can be configured to function via High Availability even if one firewall stops functioning due to power loss, disk failure, network connectivity etc.; ; Sophos Firewall supports high availability where you can place two firewalls in a group and synchronize their configuration. This prevents a single point of failure on your network.; ; Reference: https://docs.sophos.com/nsg/sophos-firewall/20.0/Help/en-us/webhelp/onlinehelp/HighAvailablityStartupGuide/AboutHA/index.html; ; Since Firewall is can also be managed in Sophos Central, Sophos Central does not provide a traditional SLA because the availability of our products is not dependent on the availability of the web portal. However, the availability of the web portal ranged between 99.99 and 100% over the past year, depending on geographic region.; ; Sophos Central status can be viewed here:; https://centralstatus.sophos.com/#!/"
• Outage reporting: "Since Firewall is can also be managed in Sophos Central, Sophos Central status can be viewed here:; https://centralstatus.sophos.com/#!/; ; It also has a subscribe button at the top right to receive status notifications."

Identity and authentication

• User authentication needed: Yes
• User authentication:
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google Apps)
  • Username or password
  • Other
• Other user authentication: Access to the Sophos Central admin console requires a login (email and password) as well as MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication).; Sophos Central also supports Azure AD Federation authentication.; ; Except for the SuperAdmin, Users need to have an admin role assigned to them to get access to the Sophos Centrla admin console
• Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels: "Sophos Central has a Role Management feature that provides admins the capability to assign pre-defined administrative roles to users who need access to the Sophos Central Admin Console. The following are the available pre-defined administrative roles:; • Super Admin; • Admin; • Help Desk; • Read-only; ; Please refer to this link for more information:; https://docs.sophos.com/central/Customer/help/en-us/central/Customer/concepts/AdminRoles.html"
• Access restriction testing frequency: At least every 6 months
• Management access authentication:
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google Apps)
  • Username or password
  • Other
• Description of management access authentication: Access to the Sophos Central admin console requires a login (email and password) as well as MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication).; Sophos Central also supports Azure AD Federation authentication.; ; Except for the SuperAdmin, Users need to have an admin role assigned to them to get access to the Sophos Centrla admin console.

Audit information for users

• Access to user activity audit information: Users have access to real-time audit information
• How long user audit data is stored for: Between 1 month and 6 months
• Access to supplier activity audit information: Users have access to real-time audit information
• How long supplier audit data is stored for: Between 1 month and 6 months
• How long system logs are stored for: Between 1 month and 6 months

Standards and certifications

• ISO/IEC 27001 certification: Yes
• Who accredited the ISO/IEC 27001: Coalfire Certifications
• ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date: 16/01/2024
• What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover: "The certificate scope comprises the Sophos information security management system supporting the operations underlying the ; Sophos Labs, Sophos Central, Sophos OPTIX, Intelix, and MDR/MTR services. The organizational scope includes the Security, ; Information Technology, Product, and Legal teams affecting the Sophos information security management system. These activities ; are governed by the implemented controls in accordance with the organizational Statement of Applicability."
• ISO 28000:2007 certification: No
• CSA STAR certification: No
• PCI certification: Yes
• Who accredited the PCI DSS certification: A-Lign
• PCI DSS accreditation date: 09/02/2021
• What the PCI DSS doesn’t cover: It only covers our Sophos MTR Product.; ; Other Sophos Central products do not contain or protect any cardholder-related information and is therefore not required to be PCI Compliant.
• Cyber essentials: Yes
• Cyber essentials plus: Yes
• Other security certifications: Yes
• Any other security certifications:
  • SOC 2 Type 2
  • ISO27001:2022

Security governance

• Named board-level person responsible for service security: Yes
• Security governance certified: No
• Security governance approach: The Sophos Information security framework (SISP) is based upon leading practices such as ISO 27001, SOX, and PCI as well as with Sophos priorities. Our ISPF and Security policy is part of a holistic approach to Information Security Management. Contents of ISP and security policy drives development of technical security standards, processes, and configurations will be utilized by staff and vendors to implement security controls. They also provide the context for training, awareness, audits, and compliance assurance activities. Lastly, they provide Sophos with necessary information to risk adjust business initiatives and improve the state of the Sophos Information Security Program.
• Information security policies and processes: "Sophos has a dedicated cybersecurity team. The team has developed and deployed security policies, standards, and procedures validated by an active governance and audit program.; Sophos aligns with the NIST Cybersecurity Framework and ISO 27001 controls.; ; Please see this link for the High-Level Overview of the Sophos Security Policy:; https://www.sophos.com/en-us/trust/high-level-security-policy-overview"

Operational security

• Configuration and change management standard: Supplier-defined controls
• Configuration and change management approach: Changes to the production environment are strictly done after following our Change management process (including approval from the Security team if needed) and are reviewed by the operational team.
• Vulnerability management type: Supplier-defined controls
• Vulnerability management approach: The Security team (Red team) is tasked with scanning systems for vulnerability scans.; We follow a risk-based approach while deciding on the remediation of vulnerabilities. ; ; Most of the systems are set for automated patch management. In cases where systems are set for manual patch updates, a time frame is mandated to the system owners to apply patches (especially security/ critical patches); All relevant teams involved in patch management (like system owners, business units, IT, Security, etc.) are notified in advance for patch activity. ; Patches are tested in a test environment before moving to the production environment.
• Protective monitoring type: Supplier-defined controls
• Protective monitoring approach: Plans developed with guidance from the NIST 800-61 Computer Security Incident Handling Guide and we frequently review these plans for compliance with industry standards.; ; There are many ways Sophos identifies or becomes aware of security incidents:; • Security monitoring capabilities, often in our products, or complementary methods we have developed; • Bug-bounty reports; • Penetration test findings; • Vulnerability analysis; • Code and application analysis; • Research and threat intelligence analysis; • Customer notifications; To report a potential security incident, please see our Responsible Disclosure Program.; ; Please see this link for the Overview of the Sophos Incident Response:; https://www.sophos.com/en-us/trust/incident-response
• Incident management type: Supplier-defined controls
• Incident management approach: Plans developed with guidance from the NIST 800-61 Computer Security Incident Handling Guide and we frequently review these plans for compliance with industry standards.; ; There are many ways Sophos identifies or becomes aware of security incidents:; • Security monitoring capabilities, often in our products, or complementary methods we have developed; • Bug-bounty reports; • Penetration test findings; • Vulnerability analysis; • Code and application analysis; • Research and threat intelligence analysis; • Customer notifications; To report a potential security incident, please see our Responsible Disclosure Program.; ; Please see this link for the Overview of the Sophos Incident Response:; https://www.sophos.com/en-us/trust/incident-response

Secure development

• Approach to secure software development best practice: Conforms to a recognised standard, but self-assessed

Public sector networks

• Connection to public sector networks: No

Social Value

• Social Value:

  Social Value

  Fighting climate change

  Fighting climate change

  We take our environmental management and the impact we have on the environment very seriously. We have environmental policies in place and hold the ISO14001 accreditation. Our environmental assessments are conducted annually by an external Lead ESOS Assessor; they are signed-off by the board and compliance reported to the regulator (the Environment Agency). Our environmental policy is published on our website at https://www.bytes.co.uk/company/sustainability/environmental.; Bytes achieved carbon net zero in March 2022 through approved carbon offsetting schemes. We are always seeking to reduce our impact on the environment. We aim to minimise waste, reduce pollutants and use renewable materials. Our offices have recycling facilities for cans, plastic and paper. We aim to reduce our office printing to zero within the next few years. ; An Environmental Steering Committee has been established to coordinate environmental activities and drive change.; To drastically reduce our emissions, we have switched to renewable energy. Our Head Office has reached our first milestone of using a specialist 100% renewable electricity provider. We are also exploring options to install solar panels on our Headquarters building.; Other environmental initiatives include installing electric vehicle charging points and encouraging staff to commute to work without the car (setting up a car share network and installing secure cycle parking).; We produce a SECR (Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting) report that details the companies energy consumption and carbon emissions. This report is produced annually by an independent assessor. ; This report provides details of our emissions in Scope 1, 2 and 3 categories. It details the activities previously taken to reduce emissions and also recommendations for further improvements.; For scope 1,2 and 3 emissions we aim to reduce these by 50% by 2025-2026 from our 2021 baseline.; We aim to be Net Zero by 2040, covering our own operational emissions.

Pricing

• Price: £3.00 a user a month
• Discount for educational organisations: Yes
• Free trial available: Yes
• Description of free trial: There is no free version, just a time limited trial version which limits this product to 100 users for a 30 day period
• Link to free trial: http://central.sophos.com

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Service definition document

  PDF

• Terms and conditions

  PDF

Request an accessible format

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at tenders@bytes.co.uk. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.