Sophos Unveils Cloud Workload Protection Advancements

Emma Okonji

Sophos, a global leader in next-generation cybersecurity, has unveiled advancements to Sophos Cloud Workload Protection, including new Linux host and container security capabilities. These enhancements accelerate the detection and response of in-progress attacks and security incidents within Linux operating systems, improve security operations and bolster application performance. 

According to new SophosLabs research, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) tools, cryptocurrency miners and various types of backdoors were the top three types of Linux threats detected by Sophos in a dataset from January through March 2022. DDoS tools accounted for nearly half of all Linux malware detections during this time, likely due to automated attacks attempting to reinfect updated servers rapidly and repeatedly. SophosLabs has also detected a recent increase in ransomware attackers attempting to use tools targeting virtual machine hypervisors, many of which run on Linux environments, to carry out their attacks.

Chief Technology and Product Officer at Sophos, Joe Levy, said: “Linux environments continue to grow in surface area as organizations around the world increasingly migrate workloads to the cloud. Even though Linux is widely considered to be one of the most secure operating systems, it still harbors inherent and application-based risks and it is not immune to cyberattacks.”

Levy added: “Attackers target Linux hosts and containers because they are high value, and often under protected. Sophos Cloud Workload Protection already automates and simplifies the prevention and detection of these attacks on Windows systems, and now Sophos is providing the same observations and capabilities to Linux operating systems.”

Through the integration of Capsule8 technology, which Sophos acquired in July 2021, Sophos Cloud Workload Protection provides powerful and lightweight visibility into on-premise, data center and cloud-based Linux hosts and containers, securing them from advanced cyberthreats.