Kevin Isaac, newly appointed Senior Vice President of Sales for EMEA at Sophos.

Network and endpoint secure services provider Sophos has appointed Kevin Isaac as the company's Senior Vice President of Sales for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

“Kevin is a strategic addition to the Sophos senior leadership team, and his decades of expertise will be pivotal in helping partners evolve their security strategies to defend against today’s persistent attackers,” said Michael Valentine, chief revenue officer at Sophos. “There is tremendous opportunity for partners worldwide to leverage our strong portfolio of next-generation cybersecurity solutions and managed threat hunting and response services to protect their customers as they adapt to the constantly changing threat landscape and needs of remote and onsite workers. Kevin recognises this and is dedicated to supporting partners in their respective regions.”

UK-based Isaac brings more than 25 years of cybersecurity sales leadership to Sophos, and most recently served as chief revenue officer at Forcepoint.

According to Sophos he is known for inspiring and managing high-performing teams, and has considerable experience in driving business growth, operational excellence and year-over-year results, particularly in EMEA.

“We are thrilled Kevin has joined Sophos to expand our already strong growth path in the EMEA market. He is a well-respected international sales executive within cybersecurity, and his wealth of experience will benefit partners and customers as Sophos continues to innovate and lead the industry,” said Valentine.

The company continues to monitor ever-increasing cyber threats targeted at businesses and the end-consumer.

Tips for better protection

Paul Ducklin, Principal Research Scientist at Sophos, recently provided tips for keeping IOT devices and other connected computers secure at home, particularly as the work-from-home model becomes entrenched by businesses.

He advises that end users ask themselves a range of questions in order to better protect themselves:

• Do I actually need this device online? If not, consider removing it from your network. Or if you don't need it listening in or activated all the time, consider powering it down when you aren't using it. (Simply unplugging it from the wall socket is often all you need to do.)
• Do I know how to update it? If not, find out how; if the vendor can't reassure you about security updates, consider switching products to a vendor that does (and see step 1).
• Do I know how to configure it? Make sure you know what security settings are available, what they are for, and how to set them up (and see step 2).
• Have I changed any risky default settings? Many IoT devices come with remote troubleshooting features turned on, which crooks may be able to abuse, and default passwords, which the crooks will definitely know. Check and change defaults before you make the device live (and see step 3).
• How much am I sharing? If the device is hooked up to an online service, familiarise yourself with how much data the device is sharing, and how often. You may be happy to share some data, but never feel squeezed into turning all the options "to the max" (and see steps 3 and 4).
• Can I "divide and conquer" my network? Some home routers let you split your Wi-Fi into two networks that can be managed separately. This is useful if you are working from home because it means you can put your home IOT devices on a "guest" network and your work devices such as a laptop on another.
• Do I know whom to turn to if there's a problem? If your work has an IT department or offers access to tech support, make sure you know where to report anything suspicious. Ask them what information they are likely to need and provide it at the outset, in order to speed up the process.

“By the way, if you're an IT department looking after remote workers, make it easy for your less-technical colleagues to reach out for cybersecurity advice, or to report suspicious activity, and take the attitude that there's no such thing as a stupid question.