After an incredibly successful Early Access Program, we’re thrilled to announce the launch of Sophos Firewall OS v21! This upgrade, available at no cost to all Sophos Firewall customers, offers significant advancements in threat response, scalability, and administrative ease, including smooth migration options for our new 2nd Gen XGS Series Desktop models.
Key Features and Enhancements
1. Active Threat Response with 3rd-Party Threat Feeds
Sophos Firewall v21 now extends Active Threat Response capabilities by supporting third-party threat feeds. This makes integration with external Security Operations Centers (SoCs), managed service providers (MSPs), and security consortiums seamless. Here’s what’s new:
Effortlessly add custom or industry-specific threat feeds that integrate with the firewall’s security engines to automatically detect and block suspicious activities—no additional firewall rules needed.
Synchronized Security now expands its automated response to include third-party threat feeds, correlating attempts with managed endpoints and presenting detailed threat analyses.
2. Enhanced Scalability and Performance
Several improvements optimize performance, scale, and resiliency, making it ideal for larger, more complex environments:
Google Workspace Integration: Sophos Firewall now supports LDAP client access and Google Chromebook SSO, simplifying access for Google-centric organizations.
Authentication Boost: Experience up to 4x faster login processing for Radius SSO, STAS, and Synchronized User ID, handling thousands of simultaneous logins across varied SSO environments.
High Availability (HA) Enhancements: Improved HA deployments enable faster, more resilient transitions with reduced downtime.
IPsec VPN Improvements: Updated configuration options and performance enhancements for more efficient VPN management.
Web Protection and Performance Optimizations: Enhancements for smoother, faster web traffic handling.
3. Simplified Upgrades to XGS Series
Sophos Firewall v21 includes features first introduced in v20 MR2, making upgrades to the XGS Series easier and more adaptable:
Backup and Restore Assistant: This tool simplifies migration, allowing firewall configurations to be restored across different models.
Port Mapping Flexibility: Easily transition to appliances with new port configurations.
Zero-Touch Deployment and Configuration: Enable full configuration through Sophos Central with true zero-touch deployment.
4. Streamlined Management with Quality-of-Life Enhancements
Every new version of Sophos Firewall OS brings features that make managing security easier. Sophos Firewall v21 is no exception, adding multiple tools and optimizations:
Let’s Encrypt Certificate Support: Automatically deploy and renew Let’s Encrypt certificates for Web Application Firewall (WAF), SMTP, TLS, the Web Admin console, and more.
Expanded Object Reference: Gain insights into the usage of network objects, including interfaces, zones, gateways, and SD-WAN profiles, with XML API support for easy retrieval of object reference counts.
Static Route Management: New functionalities allow users to clone, enable/disable, and add descriptions to static routes, with a blackhole route option and Equal-Cost Multi-Path (ECMP) for enhanced load balancing.
User Experience Enhancements: A refreshed Web Admin Console, improved Control Center with Card Views, and VPN configuration optimizations make navigation and control more intuitive.
Sophos Firewall OS v21 is designed to bring next-level security, performance, and user-friendly management to your network. Enjoy smoother upgrades, stronger security integrations, and optimized network performance, all with the reliability you’ve come to expect from Sophos.
