Acronis - Experts & Thought Leaders

Sophos, a global pioneer of innovative security solutions for defeating cyberattacks, announced that its Sophos Managed Detection and Response (MDR) service has reached a major milestone, now protecting more than 26,000 organisations globally, growing its customer base by 37% in 2024. This achievement highlights the increasing demand for Sophos’ proactive, expert-led security solutions, which help organisations of all sizes stay protected 24/7 against increasingly sophisticated cyber threats, including the most advanced ransomware, business email compromise (BEC) and phishing attacks. Sophos MDR capabilities Sophos MDR offers a wide suite of abilities that go beyond standard threat containment Sophos MDR offers a comprehensive suite of capabilities that go beyond standard threat containment to include full-scale incident response, such as root cause analysis, the removal of malicious tools or artefacts used by attackers, and investigations across customers’ environments to ensure adversaries are fully ejected to prevent another attack.  What further differentiates Sophos is that these incident response services are included with Sophos MDR on an unlimited basis, meaning customers are not additionally charged and there is no limit on the number of incident response hours. Breach protection warranty Sophos MDR Complete also includes a breach protection warranty covering up to $1 million USD in incident response expenses. Sophos provides flexibility for how customers can work with the MDR analysts, including the ability to pre-authorise them to contain an active threat. Sophos investment in MDR and new features Sophos has made significant investments into its MDR offering with increased analyst capacity, AI-assisted workflows, new features and expanded integrations to help deliver the best possible outcomes through improved protection, detection and investigation of threats. Sophos has added the following new features: Proof of Value: New Sophos MDR service insights to explain the MDR team’s actions including highlighting the human hours spent threat hunting and creating and tuning detections. High-value dashboard enhancements include details of MITRE ATT&CK tactics uncovered in proactive threat hunts conducted by Sophos’ MDR team, MDR analyst coverage, case investigation summaries and an account health check status. Enhanced Security for Microsoft Customers: New Sophos-proprietary detections for Microsoft Office 365 identify threats including business email compromise and adversary in the middle account takeover attacks, independent of the customer’s Microsoft licence level. Expanded Compatibility with Third Parties: This expanded ecosystem of turnkey integrations with third-party cybersecurity and IT tools includes a new Backup and Recovery integration category. Proactive Vulnerability Mitigation: Sophos Managed Risk powered by Tenable provides attack surface vulnerability management as a new managed service option for Sophos MDR customers. Efficiency and Automation: Sophos MDR has added AI-powered workflows to streamline the operational processes and drive better security outcomes for their customers. This innovation delivers a reduced mean time to respond (MTTR) through more efficient triage, while also ensuring that all legitimate threats are rapidly investigated. This enables analysts to concentrate on other tasks such as threat hunting, account health monitoring and detection engineering. New offerings and integrations “Attackers are continuously advancing their tactics to outmanoeuvre traditional security defences,” said Rob Harrison, senior vice president of product management at Sophos. “Our customers rely on Sophos MDR to help their organisations tackle today’s threats 24/7 with full-scale incident response to remove active adversaries and conduct root cause analysis to identify the underlying issues that led to an incident." "We’re consistently evolving our solutions with new offerings and integrations, just like attackers are constantly evolving their tactics, so customers can disrupt threats before they escalate into destructive attacks.” Better together: Sophos MDR integrations Sophos has invested significantly in third-party integrations for its MDR customers to ingest and analyse events and alerts from an even broader range of tools and products, while also expanding propriety detections based on suspicious behaviour identified in Microsoft environments. This includes: A new Backup and Recovery integration pack with Acronis, Rubrik and Veeam integrations to strengthen defences against ransomware. Microsoft Office 365 Management Activity integrations, enabling the ingestion of audit logs and security alerts across the Microsoft ecosystem. More than 9,000 customers have this integration in the Sophos MDR solution. Sophos MDR accolades Sophos MDR has received multiple recognitions and accolades from customers, analysts and media in 2024: Sophos named a pioneer in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Managed Detection and Response (MDR) 2024 Vendor Assessment Sophos named a pioneer in the IDC MarketScape: European Managed Detection and Response (MDR) Services in 2024 Vendor Assessment. Sophos named a pioneer in Frost & Sullivan’s 2024 Frost Radar™ for Global Managed Detection and Response (MDR) Sophos MDR declared the Winner of the “Best Managed Detection and Response Service” award in the 2024 SC Awards, and "Best Managed Security Service" award in the 2024 SC Awards Europe Sophos named a Gartner® Peer Insights™ Customers' Choice for MDR Services for the 2nd year in a row Sophos MDR named CRN 2024 Products of The Year for Revenue and Profit Threat landscape from Sophos MDR In the last 12 months, Sophos shared findings from the following MDR cases it analysed for customers: In December 2024, Sophos released The Bite from Inside: The Sophos Active Adversary Report that provides an in-depth look at the changing behaviours and attack techniques that adversaries used in the first half of 2024. The data is derived from nearly 200 IR and MDR cases and found that attackers are looking for ways to hide in plain sight by abusing trusted applications or “Living off the Land” binaries or LOLbins. Sophos saw a 51% increase in abusing these applications. Sophos X-Ops released information that it is seeing an uptick of Akira ransomware cases across its MDR and Incident Response customers with eight cases since November 2024 across Akira’s 127 victims disclosed in the past six months. In June 2024, Sophos MDR published details on a nearly two-year long cyber espionage campaign they uncovered against a high-level government entity in Southeast Asia. The operation, which Sophos named Crimson Palace, involved three separate clusters of threat activity that overlapped with several well-known Chinese nation-state groups. What Sophos MDR customers are saying Sophos was named a Customers’ Choice vendor in the second Gartner® Peer Insights™ Voice of the Customer Report for MDR. Sophos scored the highest overall customer rating of 4.9/5, based on 344 reviews, as of Sept. 30, 2024, with verified customer reviews celebrating Sophos MDR’s innovation. Here’s what customers are saying about Sophos MDR: “Earlier it was very difficult for us to manage the alerts and incidents generated by the tools and technology but after MDR deployment we have complete peace of mind. We also have other products from Sophos so our overall experience from a manageability point of view is also good,” from assistant director of IT in the healthcare and biotech industry. “Sophos MDR is a wonderful product and services by Sophos, you don't need a SOC after getting MDR,” from an IT manager in the IT services industry.  “Sophos MDR is one of the best in the market. It’s a good service to have good sleep at night, as the burden of threat hunting is offloaded,” from an IT infrastructure specialist in the retail industry. “We have had an incredibly positive experience using Sophos MDR. We rest more easily knowing that their team is acting as an extension of our own team in doing threat hunting/detection/remediation in our environment on a 24/7 basis,” from an operations associate.

The ALSO UK Cloud Summit 2024 hosted a panel of security industry experts this month to explore the latest trends, developments and challenges in artificial intelligence (AI) and cybersecurity for cloud resellers and British SMEs. The expert panel looked at the importance of generative AI (GenAI) in the modern cloud landscape, revealing that 87% of organisations believe AI offers a competitive edge. 2024 has been a big year for generative AI (GenAI), specifically with the launch of Microsoft Copilot for the SMB market. And with continual advancements in technology innovation, it is important that MSPs and cloud resellers not only keep up but stay ahead of the curve. Keynote speakers at this year’s event included David Bowen, Global Business Development Director for Microsoft, and Robert Pritchard, founder of The Cyber Security Expert. Best practices in 2024 and beyond “The ALSO UK Cloud Summit 2024 is a celebration of our key security vendor partners and an opportunity for cybersecurity industry leaders to continue the conversation on best practices in 2024 and beyond,” commented Mark Appleton, Chief Customer Officer for ALSO Cloud UK. “Through bringing together industry experts from our top security vendor partners, ALSO is pioneering the conversation in presenting a unified security strategy for MSP cyberteams." “One message was clear: generative AI presents the biggest security challenges to British MSPs and SMEs. New cyber threats are rapidly developing as GenAI has become more accessible for cyber actors to exploit. The bar of entry for cyberattacks has been lowered, with ransomware attempts becoming easier to create – as they are no longer limited to those with advanced cyber skills to enact them.” 87% of organisations believe AI offers a competitive edge Microsoft’s David Bowen discussed the benefits of Microsoft’s long-term partnership with ALSO In addition to the security challenges posed by GenAI, it is also a key source of business growth for the future of SME operations. In his opening keynote, Microsoft’s David Bowen discussed the benefits of Microsoft’s long-term partnership with ALSO, and how MSPs can support their customers in implementing AI and Copilot tools successfully to accelerate growth.  “ALSO and Microsoft have been successful partners for over 25 years, and we are unified in our missions to empower people and organisations to achieve more through technology,” said Bowen. “With Copilot we expect to continue the value add of AI to organisations and we are working with ALSO and their partners to develop the best customer use cases for AI. It’s important that AI and Copilot projects are more successful when partners support projects to securely implement, support and deliver AI ROI for customers. ALSO partner ecosystem Bowen added: “In the latest Work Trends Index published in May, we found that 79% of organisations believe AI is a business imperative, however, 60% of companies lack a plan and vision to implement the technology, this is where the ALSO partner ecosystem can support customers develop a strategy that quantifies the productivity gains of AI. " “The study also found that 75% of workers are already using AI, and of these 78% are bringing their own AI tools for tasks. These lack the needed levels of security, data protection and compliance, leaving organisations' data exposed. MS Copilot is already enabling much greater productivity levels, allowing teams to spend less time on repetitive tasks and spend more time working on more creative and impactful work." "Employees are also advised to look at developing AI Skills, the study highlighted that 66% of leaders would not hire staff unless they have AI skills. The ALSO AI Academy is a fantastic resource for partners to ensure AI training is accessible for employees to develop capability and support the Era of AI.” The importance of GenAI in the modern cloud landscape Robert Pritchard, founder of The Cyber Security Expert highlighted the importance of AI in the modern cloud landscape. “The world has changed completely in recent years, with cloud-first dominating as the best solution, even though securing it is not without challenges. The old model (‘on-prem’ and trusted network) is outdated, and legislation for service providers is coming as the risk to critical infrastructure now dependent on modern technology services needs protection more than ever.”  Other highlights from the ALSO UK Cloud Summit ‘24 included:  Cybersecurity expert Acronis showcasing the dangers of AI-boosted ransomware attempts, as well as the latest AI tools being developed to counter malicious actors. Password manager LastPass outlined the ongoing compromised credential crisis and the urgent need to address poor cyber-hygiene practices.  Security awareness solutions expert Vade explained how easy and accessible hacking has become with GenAI with their “10 mins to make you a hacker” talk. CrowdStrike demonstrated the potential of GenAI tools when used for good in boosting cybersecurity efforts. AvePoint outlined the business expansion benefits of tools such as Copilot for MS365.  Future of enterprise security ALSO’s Mark Appleton summarised: “Since ALSO launched in the UK last year, we have cemented ties with our trusted security vendor partnerships. These alliances are not just a benefit but a necessity, and this year’s ALSO UK Cloud Summit has been a great way to celebrate our partners and our unique offering whilst paving the way for the future of enterprise security." “Our security vendor partners provide the very best cybersecurity for their clients. By working closely with all of our partners, we not only share insights and collaborate on the best security methods but also provide the very best tailored options for our client base. ALSO is committed to offering solutions that aid in protecting modern businesses across the channel and beyond.”

BotGuard OÜ, an Estonia-founded cybersecurity software company that helps web hosting providers control traffic and protect their infrastructure from malicious threats, has secured a €12 million Series A funding round led by MMC Ventures. Existing investors Tera Ventures and Expeditions Fund also participated in the round, alongside prominent angel investors including Stefan Lindeberg. This latest investment will enable the business to further develop its technology, recruit tech development talent, and expand its sales and marketing teams as it continues to scale globally. Other innovative technologies Good bots exist everywhere: every payment system, CMS, or social tool uses ‘good bots’ Nearly half of all internet traffic comes from bots, exposing website owners to threats such as data theft, scams, and DDoS attacks. Good bots exist everywhere: every payment system, CMS, or social tool uses ‘good bots’. When used for good, bots can benefit a company by crawling and indexing a website to improve search engine results. However, bad bot traffic can be harmful to operations and drive up costs.  BotGuard OÜ has developed an easy-to-implement, state-of-the-art cloud-based solution, partnering with hosting providers to help website owners filter their web traffic, lower website management costs, defend their infrastructure, and protect their assets. Using AI and other innovative technologies to automate the implementation process and reduce costs, the startup provides effective, manageable, platform-agnostic web security for organisations of all sizes. Democratising web security  Nik Rozenberg, CEO and co-founder at Botguard OÜ, said: “Every business should have effective web traffic management, yet there are no affordable solutions focused on the SME segment due to complicated and expensive onboarding processes. Malicious bot traffic can be extremely harmful for businesses – particularly for the likes of e-commerce retailers that depend on their website to operate – and organisations require tools that keep pace with the rapidly-evolving threat landscape." "Even neutral web traffic – like some crawler bots – can drive up management costs. We are democratising web security by offering web hosting providers a flexible, easy-to-use, and cost-effective solution that still offers the highest level of control over web traffic. We are excited for this next stage of our growth journey as we continue to innovate and expand into new territories.”  Battling malicious bots BotGuard OÜ now operates globally with clients and partners in more than 30 countries BotGuard OÜ was founded in Estonia in 2019 by engineers Nik Rozenberg, CEO, and Denis Prochko, CTO. Born out of the co-founders’ experience pioneering and growing startups and battling malicious bots and hackers on their own websites, BotGuard OÜ now operates globally with clients and partners in more than 30 countries.  The company’s executive team includes industry veterans such as CRO Bertil Brendeke (ex-CloudFest, Acronis), COO Martin Pawliczek (ex-GoDaddy, Host Europe Group), CPO Jason Haworth (ex-AWS, F5 Networks), CMO Renee Stromberg (ex-Cisco, F5 Networks) and CDS Cagri Ozcinar (ex-Samsung, Sky Group). Incredible traction BotGuard OÜ Mina Samaan, Partner at MMC Ventures, said: “Born from the pain of living through this problem, Nik and Denis have built an impressive business, and the incredible traction BotGuard OÜ has seen to date demonstrates how well they understand this problem." "As generative AI makes the malicious threats businesses are facing even more sophisticated, the BotGuard team has its own AI-powered solution – effectively fighting AI with AI. We share their vision in growing together to build a secure internet that is accessible to everyone.” Level of protection Botguard OÜ Stanislav Ivanov, Founding Partner at Tera Ventures, said: “There’s an addressable market of over 300 million websites that require the level of protection Botguard OÜ can provide. By partnering with web hosting providers, the business has achieved an economy of scale to SME websites." "The company is putting hosting providers in the driver’s seat, providing them with a straightforward and robust solution that protects against myriad web threats and offers complete control over web traffic. We look forward to offering the team our continued support as they scale the business globally.”