Sophos Enhances Mobile Security for Android Devices

Security solutions provider Sophos recently released two new apps—Sophos Mobile Security and Sophos Mobile Encryption—to extend protection for Android devices. Here are the details.

Sophos Mobile Security was developed by the company as an anti-virus app to protect Android devices from malware, privacy issues and hardware loss. In the latest version of the app, Sophos Mobile Security includes extra features to protect loss and theft mitigation, as well as the ability to schedule device scans for malware. According to the company, scheduling scans will enable IT administrators to consistently monitor devices for the most recent malware.

To assist users with a misplaced phone, the company’s loss and theft features allows users to pre-select contacts from a user’s address book to send remote commands to a missing device via text message. The commands can also sound a loud ringtone or wipe the device’s information if it’s stolen or permanently lost to minimize the impact of losing a device.

Sophos Mobile Encryption, on the other hand, enables Sophos SafeGuard Enterprise customers who use the Encryption for Cloud Storage module to view documents saved in Dropbox on their Android device. Before being uploaded to the cloud, Safeguard ensures data encryption to protect the cloud, regardless of where or how the user accesses it. To view documents, users simply enter their password.An iOS version of this app is already available via Apple’s App Store.

This news comes a few weeks after Sophos released a hosted version of its mobile device management (MDM) solution, Mobile Control. The hosted solution lets companies manage mobile devices without changing their own backend infrastructures or making new capital investments.

Both free apps are available for free download from Google Play. Sophos currently has more than 100 million users in 150 countries and is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. For more information on the company’s partner program, visit the company’s website.