Hey everyone,

Today we published a new version of the "classic" Home Edition of Sophos Anti-Virus, version 9.6.1. All endpoints should receive this update within the next few hours automatically.

This update matches version 9.6.1 for our business customers, and the Sophos Home team have incorporated the same improvements into version 1.2.3.

This update includes performance and stability improvements to the on-access scanner, especially addressing some lingering compatibility issues with Time Machine on 10.11 and 10.12. It also includes an updated threat detection engine (version 3.68.0).

For most people you'll need to reboot your Mac to activate the new kernel extension with these improvements. Doesn't affect security, just performance. Reboot when convenient.

Although this update took a lot longer to publish than we'd like, we really put a lot of emphasis on the quality of the software and this time that testing cycle took longer than expected. It makes no sense to release buggy software, especially if those bugs could compromise the security and integrity of your Mac.

This is a good time to remind everyone that although we'll continue to support this "classic" Home Edition version of Sophos Anti-Virus, but you should not expect this will last forever. We really encourage everyone to look at upgrading to the new Sophos Home product, as that version will get all the new consumer-oriented features going forward.

Get started with Sophos Home today: https://home.sophos.com

Note: The standalone installer is no longer available.