Sophos, a global leader in innovative security solutions designed to combat cyberattacks, has announced its acquisition of Arco Cyber, a UK-based cybersecurity assurance company. This acquisition aims to enhance organizations’ security posture while ensuring compliance with emerging threats.
This acquisition marks a significant advancement in Sophos’ strategy to bolster cybersecurity strategy and governance across all maturity levels, facilitated through the company’s extensive global partner network. Sophos has termed this initiative Sophos CISO Advantage. This initiative is a set of capabilities designed to extend the expertise, judgment, and operational discipline of a top-tier Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) to organizations, regardless of whether they have dedicated security leadership. It combines agentic AI, integrated platforms, and reliable human expertise, delivered in collaboration with managed service providers (MSPs) and managed security service providers (MSSPs). The advancements in agentic and AI-assisted systems enable the delivery of real-time insights into control performance, maintaining a foundation in human oversight and judgment.
Arco Cyber’s integration accelerates this vision by providing capabilities that help organizations continuously validate the effectiveness of security controls, map these controls to risk and compliance frameworks, and present clear, executive-ready insights that facilitate informed decision-making.
“There is no shortage of exemplary security technology in the market,” stated Joe Levy, CEO of Sophos. “What’s missing for most organizations is the ability to govern those tools, understand whether controls are actually working, and make informed decisions about risk. Arco has developed a platform and a team that offers clarity, accountability, and proof. This work directly supports our strategy and provides customers with a stronger foundation for simplifying compliance and managing cyber risk with confidence.”
A crucial aspect of Sophos CISO Advantage is the involvement of MSPs and MSSPs in delivering these capabilities at scale. Most organizations depend on trusted partners to translate insights into action, provide context, and guide daily decision-making. Sophos CISO Advantage is crafted to strengthen this relationship by equipping partners with AI-driven governance, continuous assurance, and clear risk insights, allowing them to deliver CISO-level leadership as a service. This approach enables MSPs and MSSPs to elevate their role from technology operators to strategic security advisors, giving customers greater clarity, control, and confidence in managing cyber risk.
“Arco was founded to help organizations move from assumption to proof in cybersecurity,” said Matt Helling, CEO and co-founder of Arco Cyber. “By joining Sophos, we can fulfill that mission and reach far more customers who are struggling to demonstrate control effectiveness, prioritize risk, and justify security decisions. Sophos shares our belief that cybersecurity should deliver clarity, confidence, and control, not just data. Together, we can help organizations of all sizes turn security into a managed, defensible business discipline.”
Arco Cyber will integrate into Sophos as a dedicated team to advance the Sophos CISO Advantage initiative. Its technology and expertise will be incorporated into Sophos Central, the platform delivering Sophos’ broader ecosystem, including advisory services, managed detection and response (MDR), and partner-delivered services that empower MSPs and MSSPs to scale cybersecurity strategies for their customers.
