Q1. With cyberattacks becoming more automated and AI driven, how do you see the balance shifting between prevention, detection, and response? What role do you see Sophos playing in that shift?
As cyberattacks grow in automation and sophistication – leveraging AI for phishing, deepfakes, and evasive malware – the traditional linear model of “prevent, detect, respond” is evolving into a dynamic, integrated cycle. The balance is shifting in three key ways:
Prevention is still foundational but now AI-augmented. Sophos delivers a prevention-first approach using deep learning to block threats before they reach endpoints or networks. AI is embedded across Sophos products and services to analyze behaviors and patterns in real time, stopping threats at the earliest possible stage.
Detection is becoming smarter and more context aware. Detection is no longer just about flagging anomalies. Sophos uses AI-powered analytics and behavioral modeling to detect multi-stage, stealthy attacks across endpoints, cloud, identity, and OT environments. Sophos Central, our AI-native platform, provides unified visibility and correlation across these domains.
Response is now real-time and often automated. Sophos offers flexible response modes – from alerting customers to fully automated remediation. It’s AI Security Assistant helps analysts triage alerts, enrich investigations, and recommend next steps using natural language queries. This dramatically reduces dwell time and enables faster containment.
Q2. Security leaders often struggle with tool sprawl and alert fatigue. How can vendors design platforms that truly simplify operations while still giving customers the flexibility to avoid vendor lock-in?
One of the biggest challenges we see in the SMB and mid-market space is that most organizations simply don’t have dedicated security teams or mature cybersecurity frameworks or strategies in place. A lot of the solutions out there assume you’ve got in-house experts managing everything—but the reality is, over 99% of these businesses don’t have the expertise and operational capabilities necessary to manage cyber risk. That leaves them especially vulnerable as environments become more complex with cloud adoption and remote work, and attackers become more predatory.
At Sophos, we’re focused on making cybersecurity proactively accessible and effective—no matter the size or maturity of the organization. That’s where our adaptive, AI-native platform, Sophos Central, comes in. It brings together a prevention-first approach, advanced threat intelligence, AI-enhanced detection, and real human expertise to deliver strong, manageable protection to security teams that are increasingly overtaxed irrespective of their size or budgets.
We also work closely with our partners—resellers, MSPs, and MSSPs—to make sure even the smallest businesses can access enterprise-grade security. Regardless of whether an organization wants to manage security themselves, or have their security managed by one of our partners, we have the products and services portfolio to enable either approach. Our goal is to help our customers understand and manage risk and deliver better outcomes, so our customers can stay focused on growing their business, achieving resilience, and thriving.
Fundamentally, we believe cybersecurity shouldn’t be a luxury for the “cyber rich.” We want to usher in a world where that’s a right, not a privilege. That’s why we’re committed to leveling the playing field and helping every organization defend against today’s most advanced threats.
Q3. What are Sophos's plans for SecTor 2025? Is there a specific technology or topic that your company plans to focus on at the event?
As a Diamond sponsor at SecTor 2025, Sophos will showcase how innovation and integration are transforming security operations. Our featured speaking session will take a technical deep dive into the next frontier of SOC automation: agentic AI. We will explore how autonomous AI systems can reason, plan, and act across the SOC lifecycle, where they deliver immediate value such as automated triage, context enrichment, and initial investigation, and where human oversight, validation, and safeguards remain essential. Attendees will walk away with a clear framework for responsibly integrating AI into security operations, including design patterns for assistant–agent architectures and practical insights on transparency, accountability, and performance measurement.
Beyond our AI focus, Sophos will highlight the convergence of Sophos and Secureworks, sharing milestones from the integration and demonstrating how the combined strengths of Sophos Endpoint, Firewall, and MDR with Secureworks’ Taegis platform deliver stronger, more resilient defenses.
Visitors can also connect with us at booth #403, where we will showcase demos of our latest endpoint, ITDR, firewall, XDR, and vulnerability management solutions. Additionally, Sophos experts will host sessions on today’s most urgent security challenges, including:
Through these discussions and demonstrations, Sophos will underscore its commitment to helping organizations modernize their defenses with cutting-edge technology, practical AI adoption, and an open approach to security that removes silos and strengthens resilience.
Q1. Trend Micro has visibility across regions and industries. From your vantage point, what threats or attacker behaviors stand out as truly global in scope? How is Trend Micro helping them address those threats?
When you look at the global threat landscape, a few attacker behaviors really rise above borders and industries. Ransomware is the most visible—it’s become a business model, with groups franchising attacks globally. Supply chain compromises are another, where a single vendor breach cascades to thousands of organizations worldwide. Cloud exploitation is also accelerating as companies adopt hybrid environments, with attackers targeting misconfigurations, stolen credentials, and identity sprawl. And of course, phishing remains universal because people are the most reliable entry point. What’s new—and accelerating quickly—is the weaponization of AI by threat actors. We’re already seeing AI-driven social engineering: phishing emails, fake audio, and deepfake video that are far more convincing than anything attackers could produce before. We’re also seeing AI used for automated vulnerability discovery—finding and exploiting flaws at a scale humans can’t match. And AI-powered malware is starting to use machine learning to adapt in real time, bypassing traditional detection. That’s a global challenge every organization needs to be preparing for. Trend Micro helps customers proactively predict these threats through a combination of global intelligence and integrated defence. With hundreds of millions of sensors worldwide feeding into our Trend Vision One platform, we give organizations early visibility into emerging attacks, including AI-generated ones. No matter where in the world we find a threat, customers everywhere benefit from the insight. Our platform correlates signals across email, endpoints, cloud, identity, and network, so even sophisticated, evasive campaigns are harder to hide. On top of that, our research teams are constantly analyzing new AI-driven attack techniques and building protections into our products before they scale. In short, attackers are going global and getting smarter with AI, and Trend Micro helps customers stay a step ahead with full visibility, AI-powered detection and response, and robust layered protection.
Q2. What risks do you see Canadian organizations underestimating right now that could come back to haunt them in the next 12 to 18 months? How should they be preparing for those risks?
One of the biggest risks I see Canadian organizations underestimating right now is the complexity of their cloud and hybrid environments. Many teams feel reasonably confident once workloads are running, but the reality is that misconfigurations, shadow IT, and identity sprawl are opening the door for attackers. Those risks often don’t show up on a dashboard until it’s too late.
Another underestimated area is the evolving ransomware model. We tend to think of it as an encryption problem, but attackers have shifted to double or triple extortion—stealing sensitive data, threatening to leak it, and in some cases targeting customers or partners to increase pressure. That’s a reputational risk many boards haven’t fully accounted for.
I’d also call out third-party and supply chain exposure. Canadian organizations are increasingly interconnected, but vendor risk management hasn’t kept pace. An attack on one supplier can cascade quickly, and we’ve seen how global those impacts can be.
Finally, there’s the human factor. Phishing, credential theft, and now AI-driven social engineering are becoming harder to spot, and most security programs still treat awareness training as a compliance checkbox rather than an ongoing defence strategy.
So how should organizations prepare? First, they need to shift from a reactive mindset to a continuous risk visibility model—knowing their cloud posture, their attack surface, and their third-party dependencies in real time. Second, invest in integrated detection and response across email, endpoint, cloud, and network, so threats don’t fall through the cracks. And third, elevate cyber risk to a business resilience conversation—because it’s not just about IT anymore, it’s about protecting brand, customers, and trust.
In summary, three risks Canadian organizations are underestimating:
Three ways to prepare:
Q3. What can customers and other organizations expect from Trend Micro at SecTor 2025? What does your company plan on highlighting at the event?
We’re thrilled to be back at SecTor this year—and even more excited to be part of the AI Summit for the first time in Canada! Trend Micro’s David Girard, our Head of AI Security and AI Alliances, will be front and center: he’s joining a panel discussion on September 30 and leading a session on AI Security on October 1 at 11:45 AM.
As a Diamond Sponsor, we’re bringing something special to the show floor. Visitors to our booth can dive into a gamified educational experience designed to make learning about cybersecurity both fun and impactful. We’ll also be spotlighting Trend Vision One – Cyber Risk Exposure Management, showcasing how we help organizations proactively understand and reduce their cyber risk.
Whether you're attending to explore the latest in AI, sharpen your security strategy, or just connect with industry peers, we’re looking forward to seeing you there!
