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Regional Computing Centre (RRZK)

Sophos anti-virus (license expiring)

Sophos Endpoint Protection Advanced and Mail & Endpoint eXploit Prevention is software designed to defend against computer viruses and other malicious programs. The license to use Sophos will expire soon. The software should not be newly installed.

For more information, see the Sophos manufacturer page. To see if your current operating system is supported, consult the knowledge base article Previously supported platforms and operating systems.

Products

Note: Sophos Intercept X cannot be used anymore after January 10th 2025. Please use Cisco Secure Endpoint instead.

The following products are currently available to you free of charge. How you can obtain the products can be found below in the section Download.

  1. Sophos Home Premium (until April 2025)
    This product is available to all students and employees to secure their personal home devices. A license can be obtained for one year on the manufacturer's website if the mail address of the student or staff account is used. After expiration, the license can be renewed if the affiliation with the university still exists. Up to 10 private devices can be protected. The software has advanced protection mechanisms, including early detection of ransomware, also known as encryption Trojans.
    Your licence can not be extended any longer after April 2025.
  2. Sophos Intercept X
    Sophos Intercept X Advanced is the successor to Sophos Endpoint Protection and is available to all employees (except medical faculty) to secure their work devices. Before installation, please have a look on the notes section regarding Sophos Central. In contrast to the predecessor product, updates are also available outside the university network. The software has advanced protection mechanisms, including early detection of ransomware, also known as encryption trojans.
  3. Sophos Endpoint Protection (until July 2023)
    Sophos Endpoint Protection was available to university employees (except medical faculty) for use on personal and work devices. This product does no longer receive updates (since July 20th, 2023) and must not be used anymore. Devices that continue to use this outdated version are categorised as a security risk and blocked without further warning. In the case of non-stationary office devices, users' Wi-Fi/VPN access may be blocked if they continue to connect these devices to the university network.

Which product am I currently using?

Symbol Sophos Endpoint Security (bis Juli 2023)
If you see this symbol in the notification area of Windows (next to the time of day, showing a blue "S" on a white background), you are still using the old version of Sophos and need to upgrade.
Symbol Sophos neu (weißes S auf blauem Schild)
When this symbol is displayed (white "S" on blue background), you are already using a version of Sophos that will be supported past July 2023.

Are you unsure which of the above products you are currently using? On Windows, you can do the following:


First check your current Sophos installation in the system tray, look for a shield icon with an S on it. The old Sophos variant, which expires in July 2023, uses a white shield with a blue S on it. Sophos Intercept X and Sophos Home Premium use a blue shield with a white S on it.
To distinguish between Sophos Home Premium and Sophos Intercept X, you should open the program and click Information here. Depending on the version, you will then find out here whether you are using Sophos Intercept X or Sophos Home Premium.  If you are still unsure, contact our helpdesk (see below).

Only if you are using the old Sophos product (white shield with blue S) is a switch required by July 20, 2023.

License

Eligibility: employees (except Faculty of Medicine), students

License Type: rent

Price: free of charge

Home Use: yes

Terms of use

  • Employees (except the Faculty of Medicine) and students of the University of Cologne can install and use the software on both private and business devices.
  • Commercial use of the software is prohibited.
  • It is also prohibited to pass on the software to third parties.
  • The most current version of the software must always be used.
  • The right of use is valid until 30.09.2024 (end of the contract) or until leaving the university (whichever event occurs first).

Download

Contact
If you have any questions or problems, please contact the RRZK-Helpdesk