Sophos news in review: Channel surfing, bad BYOD habits, and Siri’s security bug

Continuing our world tour at our Partner Connections conferences this month, we stopped in London to talk to our European partners about our vision for success and how our product roadmap will make us second to none in the mid market.

Plus, we announced two appointments to our management team that will boost our channel in Europe, and around the world.

And in security news, our security experts talked about mobile devices, bad BYOD habits, and a Siri-ous bug in the iPhone 5.

Channel surfing

Sophos CEO Kris Hagerman likes to talk about how Sophos is disrupting the security market. What does he mean by disruption?

A good example is big wave surfer Laird Hamilton, who revolutionized the sport with a jet ski. Because of the speed and power of the biggest waves, catching up with them was the biggest impediment.

Using the jet ski for “tow-in surfing” allowed Laird, and those who followed his lead, to break new barriers.

Our acquisition of Cyberoam, our channel-first strategy, and the strength of our partnerships mean we’re making waves too.

In London this past week, we showed our NEMEA partners just how serious we are about channel growth, even as we announced the appointment of a new sales leader — Karl-Heinz Warum as regional vice president of sales for Germany, Northern and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa.

The only way to celebrate winning @sophos_news Top N. America Performer is by snapping a #SophosSelfie w/ their CEO. pic.twitter.com/mFoeOwCqqB

— SHI International (@SHI_Intl) May 13, 2014

We know how to have a bit of fun too. Check out the cool selfie our top-performing partner in the Americas, SHI International, snapped with Kris at our Americas partner conference. That’s Mike Valentine, our senior VP of worldwide sales, looking over Kris’s shoulder.

Bad BYOD security habits

The mobile device revolution has made workers more productive than ever, but it’s often come at the expense of security.

Our security expert Andrew Deacon talked to the Wall Street Journal about five ways hackers can exploit our bad BYOD habits to steal precious corporate information.

For sure, open and free Wi-Fi networks make working from anywhere easy. But do we really know who’s behind those Wi-Fi hotspots? As our James Lyne has repeatedly shown on his World of Warbiking tour, an open Wi-Fi network is an invitation for a criminal to do harm.

Other kinds of threats take advantage of our bad password habits, our tendency to trust emails from people we think we know, and cloud services that maybe aren’t as secure as we’d like.

Our smartphones contain the keys to our digital kingdom, which is why it was so worrisome this past week when a whitehat hacker discovered that the iPhone 5 lock screen could be defeated — just by asking Siri.

Sure, Siri is convenient. But, thanks to this latest bug, having her enabled on the lock screen is like having no security at all. We recommend turning Siri off on the lock screen until Apple gets out a fix.

Sophos Security Chet Chat #147: Why Snapchat will have to tell you the truth about security now

Here’s our latest security podcast, featuring Sophos experts and Naked Security writers Chester Wisniewski and Paul Ducklin.

60 Second Security: As one security hole closes, another one opens!

Paul Ducklin reviews the news of the week in just about a minute.

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