CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

FRSecure vs Sophos

FRSecure is an information security services company that helps organizations build security programs. Sophos sells security solutions managed through Sophos Fusion, a single cloud-based platform for IT security protection. CISO Tribune files both under MDR and managed SOC. This page sets the two records side by side: what each sells, where it is based, who owns and funds it, the customers it names and its recent news, each fact numbered to its source.

Change the companies

Up to four companies side by side.

  • FRSecure
  • Sophos
FRSecure vs Sophos: Products, Customers and Funding Compared
FRSecureFRSecure is an information security services company that helps organizations build security programs.frsecure.comSophosSophos sells security solutions managed through Sophos Fusion, a single cloud-based platform for IT security protection.sophos.com
What it sells
  • Incident Response[1][6][11]An organized approach to responding to a cybersecurity breach, incident, or attack.
  • Risk Assessment[1][2][4][6]An assessment designed to discover and quantify information security risk.
  • Penetration Testing[1][8]Emulated real-world attacks used to discover and exploit weaknesses.
  • PCI DSS[12]Review and advice on PCI DSS compliance from a Qualified Security Assessor Company.
  • Vendor Risk Management[7]Services that evaluate the risk that vendors present to an organization.
  • Sophos Fusion[6][7][10]Sophos Fusion is a single cloud-based platform for managing IT security protection.
  • Sophos Firewall[1][10]Sophos Firewall includes features for higher education, K-12, and primary and secondary institutions.
  • Sophos Managed Detection and Response[7]Sophos describes fully managed, 24/7 detection and response.
Categories
Headquarters
Not stated on its pagesOxford, United Kingdom[2]
Founded
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Ownership and funding
Not stated on its pagesOwned by Thoma Bravo since 2020[3][7][8][9]
Named customers
Not stated on its pages
  • Jotun[4]
  • National 9/11 Memorial & Museum[4]
  • London South Bank University[4]
  • Town of Gilbert[4]
  • DFS Group[4]
Recent news
Not stated on its pages
  • October 1, 2026Sophos launched CISO Advantage, an agentic AI service that links security operations to security strategy, rolling out across North America, the UK and Europe.[5]
  • July 15, 2026Sophos announced Sophos Fusion, a defense system combining its endpoint, network, email, cloud, identity and security operations products in one architecture.[6]
G2 and Gartner Peer Insights
  • G2: Not stated on its pages
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
  • G2: listed, seen November 4, 2026[8]
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
Who it fits
FRSecure points to heavily regulated industries such as healthcare and financial as ones that often require providers to meet the more thorough audit standards. FRSecure states that organizations processing cardholder data involving any of the major card brands have PCI DSS requirements to meet. FRSecure describes its RPM program as intended for new or growing IR programs.From its own pages, Sophos sells mainly to distributed and growing enterprises with complex networks, which its XGS 2U firewalls target. Sophos also sells firewalls for SMB and branch offices, and plug-and-play security for smaller branch offices and remote sites. Sophos Firewall includes features tailored to higher education, K-12, and primary and secondary institutions.
Last verified
November 6, 2026September 27, 2026

Where they overlap

  • FRSecure and Sophos are both filed under MDR and managed SOC.

Where they differ, field by field

  • FRSecure's primary category is Security consulting and advisory; Sophos's is EDR and XDR.
  • FRSecure is also filed under Penetration testing and red team services and Incident response and forensics. Sophos is also filed under Firewalls and NGFW.
  • FRSecure lists Incident Response, Risk Assessment, Penetration Testing, PCI DSS and Vendor Risk Management. Sophos lists Sophos Fusion, Sophos Firewall and Sophos Managed Detection and Response.
  • Sophos is headquartered in Oxford, United Kingdom.
  • Sophos is owned by Thoma Bravo, since 2020.
  • Sophos publicly names Jotun, National 9/11 Memorial & Museum, London South Bank University, Town of Gilbert and DFS Group.

What it sells: FRSecure

What Incident Response does[1][6][11]
FRSecure describes incident response as an organized approach to rapidly responding to the aftermath of a cybersecurity breach, incident, or attack. FRSecure assists in the identification, containment, and recovery of ransomware. FRSecure incident response team assists with forensics when a compromise is suspected.
What Risk Assessment does[1][2][4][6]
FRSecure offers a risk assessment designed to discover and quantify information security risk. FRSecure uses a risk assessment methodology and platform called S2.
What Penetration Testing does[1][8]
Penetration testing from FRSecure uses emulated real-world attacks to discover and exploit weaknesses in systems, configurations, and processes. FRSecure experts follow Penetration Testing Execution Standard (PTES) methodology during penetration testing. FRSecure offers pen tests that expose vulnerabilities in internet-facing systems, networks, firewalls, devices, and web applications.
What PCI DSS does[12]
As a PCI DSS Qualified Security Assessor Company, FRSecure provides the expertise necessary to review and advise organizations on PCI DSS compliance. FRSecure certified professionals can help an organization define its PCI DSS environment, determine compliance gaps, and provide necessary attestations of compliance. FRSecure gap analysis identifies gaps in credit card processing and customer data storage methods that need to be addressed.
What Vendor Risk Management does[7]
FRSecure uses SecurityStudio for vendor risk management. FRSecure offers three different levels of vendor risk management services depending on needs and the number of vendors.

What it sells: Sophos

What Sophos Fusion does[6][7][10]
Sophos Fusion integrates natively with Sophos solutions and 500+ third-party technologies. The Sophos Fusion dashboard consolidates all alerts. Fusion AI is the intelligence layer within Sophos Fusion.
What Sophos Firewall does[1][10]
Sophos Firewall includes built-in policies for CIPA and predefined activities. Sophos Firewall includes features like SafeSearch, YouTube restrictions, and keyword filtering. Sophos Firewall uses dynamic firewall rules and lateral movement protection to isolate a compromised host.
What Sophos Managed Detection and Response does[7]
Sophos quotes simple per-user and per-server pricing with no hidden extras. Sophos describes three Response Modes.

Questions about FRSecure and Sophos

What do FRSecure and Sophos sell?
FRSecure sells Incident Response, Risk Assessment, Penetration Testing, PCI DSS and Vendor Risk Management. Sophos sells Sophos Fusion, Sophos Firewall and Sophos Managed Detection and Response.
Are FRSecure and Sophos in the same category?
They share MDR and managed SOC. FRSecure's primary category is Security consulting and advisory and Sophos's is EDR and XDR.
Where are FRSecure and Sophos headquartered?
Sophos is headquartered in Oxford, United Kingdom.
Who owns FRSecure and Sophos?
Sophos is owned by Thoma Bravo, since 2020.
Which customers do FRSecure and Sophos name?
Sophos publicly names Jotun, National 9/11 Memorial & Museum, London South Bank University, Town of Gilbert and DFS Group.
Who are FRSecure and Sophos sold to?
FRSecure points to heavily regulated industries such as healthcare and financial as ones that often require providers to meet the more thorough audit standards. From its own pages, Sophos sells mainly to distributed and growing enterprises with complex networks, which its XGS 2U firewalls target.
What have FRSecure and Sophos announced recently?
October 1, 2026: Sophos launched CISO Advantage, an agentic AI service that links security operations to security strategy, rolling out across North America, the UK and Europe.

About FRSecure

FRSecure is an information security services company that helps organizations build security programs. FRSecure states that its mission is to fix the broken information security industry. FRSecure states that information security is all it does and that it does not do IT, sell hardware, or provide telco services. FRSecure has been in business for over 10 years, and its team has more than 300 years of combined experience working in information security and 30 different kinds of certifications. FRSecure describes many organizations as understanding that they need to do something around information security and data protection without knowing which risks pose the biggest threat or where to begin combatting them.[1][2][3][6]

FRSecure offers a risk assessment designed to discover and quantify information security risk. FRSecure uses a risk assessment methodology and platform called S2, and the final report of a gap assessment maps the specific controls to the corresponding controls in S2. Gap assessments from FRSecure are conducted with regulatory requirements in mind. FRSecure analysts work with the client team to understand which capabilities and controls are in place.[2][4][5][6]

FRSecure uses SecurityStudio for vendor risk management, and that software platform employs S2Vendor to measure and manage the security risk of an organization's vendors. FRSecure offers three different levels of vendor risk management services depending on needs and the number of vendors.[7]

Penetration testing from FRSecure uses emulated real-world attacks to discover and exploit weaknesses in systems, configurations, and processes. FRSecure experts follow Penetration Testing Execution Standard (PTES) methodology during penetration testing. FRSecure offers pen tests that expose vulnerabilities in internet-facing systems, networks, firewalls, devices, and web applications that could lead to unauthorized access. Red teaming from FRSecure is a real-world attack simulation focusing on defense evasion with a mix of social engineering and external and internal network-level testing. FRSecure social engineering exercises use techniques that include email, phone, and physical methods.[8][9]

FRSecure technical services team helps identify vulnerabilities through regular scanning. FRSecure describes vulnerability assessments as identifying technical vulnerabilities through a combination of automated tools, expert interpretation of the findings, and remediation recommendations. FRSecure web application scanning uses automated tools to evaluate web applications for vulnerabilities such as Cross-site scripting, SQL Injection, Command Injection, Path Traversal and insecure server configurations.[10]

FRSecure describes incident response as an organized approach to rapidly responding to the aftermath of a cybersecurity breach, incident, or attack. FRSecure assists in the identification, containment, and recovery of ransomware and helps organizations prevent and prepare for future incidents. FRSecure tabletop exercises are designed to practice and find weaknesses in plans such as disaster recovery, incident response, and more.[6][11]

As a PCI DSS Qualified Security Assessor Company, FRSecure provides the expertise necessary to review and advise organizations on PCI DSS compliance. FRSecure certified professionals can help an organization define its PCI DSS environment, determine compliance gaps, and provide necessary attestations of compliance. FRSecure helps prepare organizations for the SOC 2 audit and does not perform the actual audit itself. FRSecure overlays risk assessment results onto the five Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) levels so an organization can see where it stands in each level. For organizations using Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), or Microsoft 365 (M365), FRSecure provides configuration and security health checks based on CIS benchmarks.[3][6][12]

FRSecure notes that heavily regulated industries such as healthcare and financial often require their providers to comply with Type 2 standards. FRSecure states that organizations that process cardholder data involving any of the major card brands have PCI DSS requirements to meet. FRSecure states that it can support a wide range of requirements across almost any industry.[1][3][5][6][7][10][11][12]

FRSecure on the record

Sources

FRSecure full record

  1. [1]frsecure.comFRSecure · frsecure.com · undated page, accessed November 6, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Information Security and Compliance Experts | FRSecureFRSecure · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]SOC 2 Compliance Support Services | FRSecureFRSecure · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]Cybersecurity Risk Assessment Services | FRSecureFRSecure · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]Cybersecurity Gap Assessment Services | FRSecureFRSecure · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Information Security Consulting & Management Services | FRSecureFRSecure · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Cyber Vendor Risk Management (VRM) Services | FRSecureFRSecure · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Penetration Testing Services: External, Internal, Web App, & MoreFRSecure · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]Social Engineering Attack Prevention | FRSecureFRSecure · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]Cybersecurity Vulnerability Assessment Services | FRSecureFRSecure · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]Cyber Incident Response Services | FRSecureFRSecure · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]PCI DSS Compliance Consulting Services | FRSecureFRSecure · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A

Sophos full record

  1. [1]ProductsSophos · sophos.com · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Sophos completes secureworks acquisitionSophos · sophos.com · published February 3, 2025 · Tier A
  3. [3]Sophos announces completion of take private acquisition by thoma bravoSophos · sophos.com · published March 2, 2020 · Tier A
  4. [4]Case studiesSophos · sophos.com · undated page, accessed October 10, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]Sophos launches ciso advantage bringing ciso level security strategy within reach of every organizationSophos · sophos.com · published October 1, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Sophos fusion ai native cybersecurity defense systemSophos · sophos.com · published July 15, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Sophos: Cyber Resilience for the Agentic AI EraSophos · undated page, accessed October 28, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Sophos Firewall Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features | G2G2 · undated page, accessed October 28, 2026 · Tier C
  9. [9]Sophos Reviews, Ratings & Features 2026 | Gartner Peer InsightsGartner Peer Insights · undated page, accessed October 28, 2026 · Tier C
  10. [10]School Protection | SophosSophos · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]XGS Series Firewalls - Distributed Edge - Enterprise & Campus - 2U ModelsSophos · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Compare 200 and 1000 Series Sophos Switches - Multi-gigabit ModelsSophos · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]Free Quote: Sophos MDR for Microsoft DefenderSophos · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A

Spot a factual error? Request a correction.