Hands up who knows the modern Greek for “smart-arse”? Anyone? Hello-ooooo?
Way back when, two budding entrepreneurs whose arms would have been raised aloft were Jan Hruska and Peter Lammer, the two founders of Abingdon-based cyber security firm Sophos.
After meeting in Oxford in the mid-1980s, the two founded a technology company named – you got it – Sophos!
And where were the glamorous offices for this now huge, multinational, FTSE 250, $640million company? Kidlington of course!
After an aborted launch into the hardware market with the never-released AC-86, the pair focused on software – creating encryption software for the disk operating system (DOS).
By the late 1980s, Sophos had carved out a niche as an anti-virus company, growing significantly by protecting people against a growing number of viruses.
Since then, the company has grown internationally by a healthy mix of innovation and acquisition. With offices around the world, over 100 million business users are protected by their products, helping to secure computers in hundreds of countries around the globe.
Co-founders Jan Hruska and Peter Lammer continue to serve on Sophos’s board of directors – although sadly the dodgy glasses and barnets are (almost) gone!
So from everyone here at Selective Recruitment to everyone at Sophos Cyber Security: WE SALUTE YOU!
