Bowers & Wilkins is an award-winning British audio brand focused on providing a fully complementary portfolio of high-performance loudspeaker, custom integration, wireless audio, headphone and automotive audio products for the discerning customer. From its origins in the UK in 1966, the brand has grown to global status, with Bowers & Wilkins products now distributed in over 60 markets world-wide. 

The brand’s reputation is founded on its world-class acoustic expertise, with many of its products being used in highly regarded professional recording venues such as Abbey Road Studios and Skywalker Sound. Bowers & Wilkins is now part of B&W Group Ltd., which also includes audio equipment manufacturers Rotel and Classé.

B&W Group were looking to boost endpoint security across all offices worldwide. The antivirus they had lacked central management and couldn’t support multiple endpoints and servers from different operating systems. As they used Microsoft Intune to manage the endpoints for both company sourced and ‘bring your own’ devices, they also wanted to find a solution with mobile threat defence capabilities that could integrate with Intune. 

B&W Group quite simply needed an endpoint security solution that could keep pace with the changes of a thriving modern workplace with many different devices and users. 

Bytes took the time to learn the B&W Group technology estate and worked hard to find a solution. We found several products that fit their needs and demonstrated the features of each, but it was the impressive capabilities of Sophos Advanced Intercept X that eventually won them over.

Intercept X offers award-winning endpoint protection with Gartner, CRN and PC Magazine all recognising its unrivalled quality. It offers cloud native protection from a single console for all devices and operating systems and is one of the few solutions to use AI effectively.

It has the following features:

• Endpoint Detection & Response (EDR) which automatically detects threats and shows which machines might be impacted.
• Anti-Ransomware with behavioural analysis to block threats before they wreak havoc. File protection and automatic file recovery helps employees continue work.
• Deep Learning Technology which changes endpoint security from reactive to predictive - so users are protected against known and new threats. More intelligent than traditional signature-based solutions.
• Managed Threat Response which offers 24/7 threat hunting, detection and response as a fully managed service from an expert team.
• Exploit Prevention to stop the techniques used in exploit-based attacks and stop zero-day attacks before they get started.
• Active Adversary Mitigations which prevents persistence on machines, detects malicious traffic and protects against credential theft.

B&W Group had great success with Intercept X. It provided exactly what they needed - a centrally managed solution which secures endpoints on all devices and operating systems. It also offers a mobile threat defence option that can be connected to their Intune account to control mobile access to company resources.

Working with us meant B&W Group benefitted from our strong relationship with the vendor. We liaised with Sophos to present business cases and get the best discount. We also arranged for a test drive to help B&W Group decide on the product and helped them get the most out of their new investment by organising aftersales calls with Sophos.

Intercept X has since helped B&W Group to mitigate a ransomware attack. Known malicious URLs and files have been blocked much more efficiently, and the product has given them metrics to justify further investment in security solutions. They are now exploring more Sophos products to secure their networks.