Sophos Central and Intercept X now free for LGfL Schools

[Zoom7000]

It was announced at the LGfL Conference yesteday that Sophos Central and Intercept X are now available free for all LGfL schools. I don't have any electronic information yet, but I've attached a photo of the programme below:

 

 

Sophos confirmed yesterday that Intercept X will work with the latest Enterprise Console 5.5 or that you can migrate to Sophos Central. I'll definitely be doing the latter as it means I can manage all the schools in my MAT from 1 place and I don't have to worry about updates and those annoying bits and bobs that EC brings with it!

 

To get the ball rolling with this, just log a call with the LGfL/Atomwide helpdesk.

Edited April 25, 2017 by Zoom7000
Corrected Attachment

[synaesthesia]

Nnnnnngh. Wish all LEAs/MATs would follow suit. It's horrendously expensive for what it is, yet so **** vital.

[GuyJD]

Excellent, I just upgraded to 5.5 today.

[kennysarmy]

Not such a good deal for SWGfL customers

 

https://www.phoenixs.co.uk/swgfl-sophos/

[Zoom7000]

Not such a good deal for SWGfL customers

 

https://www.phoenixs.co.uk/swgfl-sophos/

 

You could always leave SWGfL and sign up for the LGfL through TRUSTnet (which is basically the LGfL, just outside London)

 

Food for thought if you feel the TRUSTnet option is better value.

Edited April 25, 2017 by Zoom7000

[DavR]

Sophos confirmed yesterday that Intercept X will work with the latest Enterprise Console 5.5 or that you can migrate to Sophos Central. I'll definitely be doing the latter as it means I can manage all the schools in my MAT from 1 place and I don't have to worry about updates and those annoying bits and bobs that EC brings with it!

 

To get the ball rolling with this, just log a call with the LGfL/Atomwide helpdesk.

 

Are you sure it will work with EC 5.5? I came away from that session with the impression it was ONLY available in the web-based Sophos Central.

 

Definitely good news though - added protection, and cloud based management! One less server function on site.

 

As an aside, they haven't linked it into USO yet, but that is coming. When they've done that, and tested it in more than one school, I'm definitely in.

[kennysarmy]

Are you sure it will work with EC 5.5? I came away from that session with the impression it was ONLY available in the web-based Sophos Central.

 

Definitely good news though - added protection, and cloud based management! One less server function on site.

 

As an aside, they haven't linked it into USO yet, but that is coming. When they've done that, and tested it in more than one school, I'm definitely in.

 

It's my understanding also that for Intercept X protection you have to move the Sophos Central, it one less server role - though you could re-use your server running the SEC as a caching server once everything is migrated to the cloud.

[DavR]

It's my understanding also that for Intercept X protection you have to move the Sophos Central, it one less server role - though you could re-use your server running the SEC as a caching server once everything is migrated to the cloud.

 

Ah, there are local caching options then? LGfL were a bit vague on this point when asked, it was my only reservation.

[fiza]

It's my understanding also that for Intercept X protection you have to move the Sophos Central, it one less server role - though you could re-use your server running the SEC as a caching server once everything is migrated to the cloud.

 

somebody mentioned this in the other thread. http://www.edugeek.net/forums/security/179816-migration-local-sophos-end-point-security-enterprise-console-sophos-cloud.html#post1546490

[SchoolsBroadband]

With respect its not free, they just bundle it with the cost of the rest of the services which are consistently more than other education based ISP's.......

[nicholab]

Also LGFL they are the network that took direct connection away from customers.

[Zoom7000]

With respect its not free, they just bundle it with the cost of the rest of the services which are consistently more than other education based ISP's.......

 

With respect, it kinda is. Yes, I agree that Sophos Anti-Virus is bundled in to the cost of the broadband, but we always had Sophos Anti-Virus beforehand. This is another addon product which is considerably more expensive than the baseline Anti-Virus for no additional cost than we are already paying. As far as I'm concerned, this kinda suggests that the product is free.

 

Example: (Not real prices!)

Before we paid £5000/year for broadband and Sophos Anti-Virus.

 

Now we pay £5000/year for broadband and Sophos Anti-Virus with Intercept X

 

Still not seeing how it's not free?

[AlanD]

Sorry - it may be pedantic - but free is free, and its clearly not free (I couldn't have it for nothing, for example) - but it is "included". I agree its not costing you extra - so its a free add on - yes. But its not free.

[elsiegee40]

Sorry - it may be pedantic - but free is free, and its clearly not free (I couldn't have it for nothing, for example) - but it is "included". I agree its not costing you extra - so its a free add on - yes. But its not free.

 

Even by my pedantic standards, I think you're in urgent need of Eduhobnobs.

 

The thread is clear that it's free for LGfL schools. LGfL is not a free service and that's commonly known.

 

It's included as part of the package. Fair enough.

[DrCheese]

It's my understanding also that for Intercept X protection you have to move the Sophos Central, it one less server role - though you could re-use your server running the SEC as a caching server once everything is migrated to the cloud.

 

You don't - If you have SEC 5.5 & a license you just redeploy Sophos 10.7 with "exploit protection" ticked. The only thing you don't get is the root cause analysis stuff, which requires the cloud version

[fiza]

You don't - If you have SEC 5.5 & a license you just redeploy Sophos 10.7 with "exploit protection" ticked. The only thing you don't get is the root cause analysis stuff, which requires the cloud version

You have to have the extra exploit protection licence though don't you?

[DrCheese]

Yup, does cost around the same as intercept X tho

[GuyJD]

A cloud migration tool has shown up in my LGFL downloads

 

 

No configuration documentation on it as yet though.

[GuyJD]

Well I have spent most of this week migrating all of my clients over to Sophos Central and it has gone relatively smoothly, no major issues and Sophos central is a lot easier to manage that SEC in my opinion.

 

The migration tool handles most of the switch for you all I've really had to do is turn laptops on to get them updating, I could have waited for them to be used next but I want everything moved over ASAP.

[Zoom7000]

Well I have spent most of this week migrating all of my clients over to Sophos Central and it has gone relatively smoothly, no major issues and Sophos central is a lot easier to manage that SEC in my opinion.

 

The migration tool handles most of the switch for you all I've really had to do is turn laptops on to get them updating, I could have waited for them to be used next but I want everything moved over ASAP.

 

Are you on a CC4 network? The migration tool pretty much didn't want to migrate any of my PCs on CC4. Threw up a whole load of errors. I found it faster to download the installer and deploy with CC4. If any one is interested, the command line switches are:

 

SophosInstaller.exe -q -tps remove

("-q" for quiet install, "-tps remove" to remove any 3rd party security software during the install)

 

The migration tool seemed to work fine on my vanilla admin domain, however, Atomwide have advised to download the installer without Device Encryption as that isn't included in the license, but when my admin domain PCs migrated over automatically they are showing as including Device Encryption on Sophos Central. Luckily it's only 20 or so PCs, but I might log a call with Atomwide to let them know that the migrator seems to include it automatically.

[GuyJD]

No I'm vanilla too

[Zoom7000]

Something I found quite worrying was that Intercept X isn't included in the server license provided by LGfL. Whilst it seems great that Intercept X is included on workstations, the vast majority of schools currently store their data on file servers, NAS boxes etc via shared areas. I feel that in theory, we're only really a little bit more protected than we were in the first place. Technically, a ransomware infection could still infect our servers if a workstation hasn't been updated. In theory, not having it on the workstations and having it on the server instead would probably be a better solution.

 

I've raised this with LGfL, let's hope they can include Intercept X for servers in the license.

[kennysarmy]

Something I found quite worrying was that Intercept X isn't included in the server license provided by LGfL. Whilst it seems great that Intercept X is included on workstations, the vast majority of schools currently store their data on file servers, NAS boxes etc via shared areas. I feel that in theory, we're only really a little bit more protected than we were in the first place. Technically, a ransomware infection could still infect our servers if a workstation hasn't been updated. In theory, not having it on the workstations and having it on the server instead would probably be a better solution.

 

I've raised this with LGfL, let's hope they can include Intercept X for servers in the license.

 

But if the client is the cause of the malware outbreak then the InterceptX will contain the threat no matter where the clients files are stored, locally or on mapped drives.

[ReverentCreature]

Well Ive logged in and had a nose around. So far I have not seen anything called InterceptX.

[DrCheese]

It may just be the SEC version, in which case you'll be able to turn on the endpoint exploit protection bit within SEC