Sophos announced that deep learning driven malware detection is available through its Intercept X early access program. This deep learning capability has been developed using technology from Invincea, acquired by Sophos inĀ  February 2017.

First released in September 2016, Sophos Intercept X is a next-generation endpoint security product that stops zero-day malware, blocks all exploit techniques known today and includes an advanced anti-ransomware feature that can stop both known and unknown ransomware variants within seconds. Deployed through the cloud-based management platform Sophos Central, Intercept X can be installed alongside existing endpoint security software from any vendor, immediately boosting endpoint protection by stopping malicious code before it can do harm.

Deep learning is a branch of machine learning and artificial intelligence that leverages an artificial neural network to build a model used to make predictions with speed, scale, and judgement that exceed human capabilities. The deep neural network of Intercept X is trained on hundreds of millions of samples to detect when a file is malicious, potentially unwanted, or legitimate.Ā Deep learning is more effective than traditional machine learning approaches because of its larger scale training set, smaller model, and more effective detections.

ā€œThe real-world effectiveness of Intercept X was proven by its proactive protection of customers during the WannaCry outbreak, and now we are taking that zero-day malware detection to the next level,ā€ commented Dan Schiappa, general manager and senior vice president of the Enduser and Network Security groups at Sophos. ā€œMore advanced than conventional machine learning, Sophosā€™ deep learning systems can scale to hundreds of millions of training examples, meaning our technology can ā€˜memorizeā€™ the observable threat landscape as part of its training process. This dramatically improves detection results for new and unique malware without the volume of false-positives that other products produce. This is the next step in the implementation of deep-learning techniques across our portfolio. Our early adopter customers have already installed this enhanced detection and we are now broadening access to this technology through the Intercept X early access program.ā€

Additional enhancements to Intercept X are available through the early access program including active hacker mitigation, advanced application lockdown, and enhanced exploit prevention.