Easy, effective, and affordable protection for remote and hybrid workers without the cost and complexity of traditional cloud-delivered stacks.

Sophos Workspace Protection is a newly launched security solution designed to help IT teams secure today’s hybrid and remote work environments in an easier, more effective way. Announced in January 2026, this offer combines multiple security capabilities: secure web browsing, Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA), DNS protection, and email security into a single integrated suite. The core idea is to protect the modern “workspace” where work happens: the web browser. By building security directly into a hardened Sophos Protected Browser, Sophos Workspace Protection provides an accessible and affordable alternative to traditional cloud-based Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) solutions, which often require complex infrastructure and can introduce latency by routing traffic through distant gateways. Instead, Sophos’s approach enforces security at the point of use (the endpoint and browser), reducing overhead and ensuring consistent policy enforcement whether users are on or off the corporate network. Managed via the Sophos Central cloud platform, the solution also offers unified visibility into shadow IT and even shadow AI usage, helping organizations govern the safe adoption of emerging tools like generative AI within their workforce.

Key Components of Sophos Workspace Protection: This bundle is composed of four integrated components that can be deployed together or individually, depending on an organization’s needs:

• Sophos Protected Browser: A Chromium-based secure enterprise browser (developed in partnership with Island.io) that provides a familiar web browsing experience hardened against exploits. Within this browser, Sophos can enforce granular security policies on web activity, controlling application usage, web content, and how users handle local data (e.g. downloading or copying information). The Protected Browser effectively turns what used to be a vulnerable surface – the web browser – into a controlled environment, even supporting rich remote access protocols (SSH and RDP) for IT administrators who need to manage systems remotely. Notably, the browser has Sophos ZTNA tightly integrated to broker access to private web applications, meaning remote users can seamlessly connect to internal apps through the secure browser with zero trust enforcement built in.
• Sophos ZTNA: The Zero Trust Network Access component of Sophos Workspace Protection ensures that only authorized users on compliant, secure devices can access protected internal applications. It evaluates user identity and device health (using signals from Sophos endpoint security, such as its Synchronized Security Heartbeat system) before granting access, and it keeps applications hidden from the public internet to reduce exposure. In practice, this means the solution inherently supports Zero Trust principles: if a device fails a health check or is detected as compromised, its connection to sensitive apps can be automatically blocked in real time. This posture-based access control is now delivered via the Protected Browser or via a lightweight agent, providing flexible options for different use cases.
• Sophos DNS Protection: A cloud-delivered DNS security service for endpoints that adds an extra layer of web defence across all applications and ports. By deploying DNS Protection on Windows devices, organizations can block malicious or unwanted domains (e.g. those associated with phishing, malware, or botnets) at the DNS query level, with requests safely encrypted via DNS over HTTPS for privacy. This means even outside the protected browser, users and apps are prevented from reaching known dangerous websites, complementing the browser’s own web filtering capabilities.
• Sophos Email Monitoring System: An email security add-on that works alongside popular cloud email services like Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace. The system monitors email traffic to detect and flag spam, phishing attempts, and other malicious messages that might otherwise slip through primary email defences. By integrating this monitoring, Workspace Protection helps catch phishing and malware threats delivered via email and provides IT administrators with visibility into potential email-borne risks.

Architecture and Performance Advantages: Sophos’s browser-focused, endpoint-centric architecture offers significant advantages over conventional hub-and-spoke security models. Traditional SASE/SSE solutions often backhaul all user traffic through cloud gateways. Sophos Workspace Protection secures the workspace directly on each device, key controls travel with the user, eliminating distant proxies, VPN concentrators, and cloud‑based SSL inspection backhaul. This delivers lower latency, simpler deployment, and fewer moving parts, cost‑effective for mid‑sized organizations. In short, Sophos Workspace Protection achieves SASE‑like outcomes (secure web gateway, CASB, zero‑trust access) through a unified endpoint/browser approach instead of multiple cloud services.

Visibility, Control, and Shadow IT/AI Governance: Sophos Workspace Protection enforces controls at the browser, giving fine‑grained, uniform visibility and policy enforcement across any network. It directly addresses shadow IT and shadow AI by monitoring and controlling data shared with web apps and generative‑AI tools. Policies can block or restrict risky actions (e.g., uploading confidential files or pasting sensitive text), mitigating data loss while preserving productive use. Enforcement is consistent on and off corporate networks, and contractors/guests can be required to use the Sophos Protected Browser to extend policies to unmanaged/BYOD devices without full device management.

Integration and Zero-Touch Management: Sophos Workspace Protection integrates seamlessly via Sophos Central for zero‑touch, unified management alongside endpoint and firewall. Shared telemetry (incl. Security Heartbeat) enables adaptive access: if Endpoint/MDR flags a device as compromised or non‑compliant, ZTNA can automatically block access to critical apps until remediated strengthening zero‑trust without extra admin overhead. Built on existing Sophos ZTNA and DNS filtering under a single license, current ZTNA customers will be auto‑upgraded to the full Workspace Protection at GA in late February 2026, gaining the new browser‑based protections with minimal effort.

Summary

Sophos Workspace Protection is a unique, innovative, and disruptive way to protect remote and hybrid workers without the complexity, latency, and cost of multi‑cloud security stacks.

• Comprehensive protection for apps, data, workers, and guests
• Deep integration with Sophos Endpoint, MDR, and Firewall
• Extends Synchronized Security to roaming endpoints and app access policies
• Easy to sell, deploy and manage – priced for organizations of all sizes

Early Access available now. GA on February 26.
Let’s bring stronger, simpler protection to every worker, everywhere.

For more information request an online demo or a free trial.