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Sophos Endpoint Security and Control
2 About Sophos software
This section describes the Sophos products for managed endpoint security.
2.1 Sophos Enterprise Console
Sophos Enterprise Console is an administration tool that deploys and manages Sophos endpoint software using groups and policies. It also provides alerts and detailed reports about endpoint status and detected threats.
Enterprise Console includes and manages Sophos Update Manager.
2.1.1 Sophos Update Manager
Sophos Update Manager downloads software and updates from Sophos automatically to a central location. It makes these updates available in shared update folders. Endpoint computers update themselves from these shares.
Sophos Update Manager is installed as part of Sophos Enterprise Console but can also be installed separately.
2.1.2 Reporting Interface and Log Writer
Sophos Reporting Interface and Sophos Reporting Log Writer are additional tools you can use with Enterprise Console. They enable you to use third-party reporting and log-monitoring software to generate reports from threat and event data in Enterprise Console. For more information, see:
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Sophos Reporting Interface documentation page
Sophos Reporting Log Writer documentation page
Knowledgebase article 112873
2.2 Sophos Endpoint Security and Control
Sophos Endpoint Security and Control (SESC) refers both to the entire suite of Sophos security software as described in this section, and also the agent which runs on endpoint computers, protecting them and interacting with the administration tools.
Endpoint Security and Control (for endpoints) includes these components:
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Sophos AutoUpdate. This updates itself and the other components from an Update Manager.
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Sophos Remote Management System (RMS). This handles communications with Sophos
Enterprise Console over TCP on ports 8192 and 8194.
Sophos Anti-Virus. This includes anti-virus, HIPS, data control, and device control features.
Managed Service Provider guide for a single server
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Web protection (optional) provides enhanced protection against web threats. It includes the following features:
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Live URL filtering, which blocks access to websites that are known to host malware. This feature works by performing a real-time lookup against Sophos’s online database of infected websites.
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Content scanning, which scans data and files downloaded from the internet (or intranet) and proactively detects malicious content.This feature scans content hosted at any locations, including those not listed in the database of infected websites.
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With Website control (optional), you can filter the web activity of users, based on the 14 website categories: Adult Sexually Explicit, Alcohol and Tobacco, Anonymizer Proxies,
Criminal Activity, Gambling, Hacking, Illegal Drugs, Intolerance and Hate, Phishing and
Fraud, Spam URLs, Spyware, Tasteless and Offensive, Violence, and Weapons.
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Sophos Client Firewall (optional). This enables only named applications, or classes of applications, to access a network or the internet.
Sophos Patch (optional). Enterprise Console enables you to check that the endpoint computers have the most up-to-date security patches installed. SophosLabs provides ratings that help you determine the most critical security patch issues so that you can resolve them quickly.
SophosLabs ratings take the latest exploits into account and therefore may differ from a vendor's severity level.
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