OXFORD, U.K. — May 14, 2024 —

Sophos, a global leader of innovative cybersecurity solutions that defeat cyberattacks, today announced that its Incident Response service has been awarded U.K.’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) Cyber Incident Response (CIR) Level 2 status by CREST. This assurance confirms that amid the sophisticated cybersecurity threat landscape, Sophos has the experience and capabilities to deal with incidents caused by financially motivated criminals, such as business email compromise (BEC) attacks and ransomware.

Part of the U.K.’s intelligence and cyber agency, Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the NCSC provides support to the public and private sector to tackle and minimize the impact of security threats.CIR Level 2 accredited organizations must have the capability to support cyber incident response for most private sector organizations, including smaller public sector organizations, charities, local authorities, and organizations that predominantly operate in the U.K.

“The threat landscape is constantly shifting, and cybercriminals are continually refining their tactics and tools to inflict damage. In our latest 2024 Threat Report, we uncovered that the number of ransomware attacks that involved remote encryption increased by 62% in the last year, making it increasingly challenging for defenders to keep organizations safe.

“This accreditation is a real testament to Sophos’ Incident Response work fighting adversaries who are responsible for ransomware, malware, exploits, phishing and a wide range of other sophisticated cyberthreats to rescue organizations in the heat of active attack recover faster,” said Peter Mackenzie, Director of Incident Response, Sophos.

“As a delivery partner for the NCSC’s Cyber Incident Response (Level 2) scheme, we are delighted to congratulate Sophos for gaining Assured Service Provider status,” said Rowland Johnson, president of CREST. “This means Sophos has been assessed as capable of supporting most organizations with common cyberattacks, such as ransomware. It provides valuable assurance to buyers of the high quality of Sophos' incident response services.”

Gerard Allison, senior vice president of Europe, Middle East and Africa, Sophos added: “Achieving the Level 2 Certified Incident Response (CIR) certification is a major milestone for Sophos and its channel partners. Sophos is unique as it provides its partners and MSPs with real-time and historical data insights, information and understanding of attacker behaviors from its Sophos X-Ops unit, with this knowledge then built into our product portfolio, from Managed Detection and Response (MDR) to Sophos Central and Intercept X. This insight and visibility means that all of security products and services are integrating and sharing intelligence, creating strong defenses for our customers.”

Sophos Incident Response is available for any organization under active attack, by calling the response lines listed below, or prepare in advance by using the Incident Response retainer.For more information, read IR’s April 2024 Active Adversary Report and go to Sophos.com.

Experiencing an active incident and are interested in the Rapid Response service? Call your regional number below at any time to speak with one of our Incident Advisors.

Australia: +61 272084454
Austria: +43 73265575520
Canada: +1 7785897255
France: +33 186539880
Germany: +49 61171186766
Italy: +39 0294752897
Netherlands: +31 162708600
Spain: +34 913758065
Sweden: +46 858400610
Switzerland: +41 445152286
United Kingdom: +44 1235635329
USA: +1 4087461064

About Sophos

Sophos is a cybersecurity leader defending 600,000 organizations globally with an AI-driven platform and expert-led services. Sophos meets organizations wherever they are in their security maturity and grows with them to defeat cyberattacks. Its solutions combine machine learning, automation, and real-time threat intelligence with frontline human expertise from Sophos X-Ops to deliver advanced, 24/7 threat monitoring, detection, and response.

Sophos offers industry-leading managed detection and response (MDR) alongside a comprehensive portfolio of cybersecurity technologies — including endpoint, network, email, and cloud security, extended detection and response (XDR), identity threat detection and response (ITDR), and next-gen SIEM. Together with expert advisory services, these capabilities help organizations proactively reduce risk and respond faster, with the visibility and scalability needed to stay ahead of evolving threats.

Sophos goes to market with a global partner ecosystem, including Managed Service Providers (MSPs), Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs), resellers and distributors, marketplace integrations, and cyber risk partners, giving organizations the flexibility to choose trusted relationships when securing their business.  Sophos is headquartered in Oxford, U.K. More information is available at www.sophos.com.