Check Point offers robust network security solutions for the “new normal”

Ram Narayanan, Country Manager, Check Point Software Technologies Middle East, talks to Security MEA and elaborates on the various network security solutions Check Point offers to safeguard the drastically shifting threat landscape.


Can you introduce Check Point to our readers?
Check Point Software Technologies is a leading provider of network security solutions. For the last three decades, Check Point has set the standards for cybersecurity and our customers expect nothing less. Make Internet communications and critical data secure, reliable and available everywhere has been and continues to be our ongoing vision. We are committed to staying focused on real enterprises needs and to developing new and innovative technology solutions that redefine security.

Enterprises around the world rely on our industry-leading solutions to protect their brand, assets and data from cyberattacks, enabling them to safely and productively accelerate their businesses. Our customers span verticals and business sizes, and Check Point offers them a complete security architecture to defend their business from networks to mobile devices. We also offer the most comprehensive and intuitive security management. This blueprint is realized using Check Point’s Infinity Gen V security architecture, which provides collaborative threat intelligence with a modular, agile infrastructure that keeps organizations one step ahead of the most advanced, Gen V cyber-threats.

Elaborate the portfolio of Check Point. With the introduction of remote working and distance learning in the ‘new normal’, how does Check Point view the shift in the threat landscape?
The “new norm” workspace has expanded the organization’s perimeter. Business data continually transfers between Bring-Your-Own-Devices, SaaS applications such as SalesForce.com and running on multi-cloud environments including AWS and Azure. With remote work as the new standard, remote employees are more prone to careless behaviour and non-compliance to corporate policies. The Organization’s attack surface has become wider, now more than ever. Modern organizations need to recalibrate their cybersecurity approach around three main elements: Securing their corporate networks and datacenters, securing cloud environments and lastly, securing employees – wherever they are.

Achieving complete protection across the expanded attack surface, require security solutions that deliver:
1. Complete Security against Gen V, zero-day attacks
2. Solutions that are easy to deploy and manage
3. Eliminate patchwork security architectures and high TCO with integration and interoperability

Our mission is to provide any organization with the ability to conduct their business on the internet
With the highest level of security. We address organizations’ most imminent cybersecurity needs based on three core principles:

1. Prevention-first approach – deploy pre-emptive user protections to eliminate threats before they reach the users
2. Gold Standard Management – a single pane of glass to manage the entire security estate
3. Consolidated Solution – Realize complete, preemptive protection against the most advanced threats while achieving better operational efficiency

Secure Your Everything with Check Point Infinity
We believe that in this new normal, you deserve to maintain productivity while staying protected in everything you do. Wherever you connect from, whatever you connect to and however you connect – Your home, your devices, your privacy and your organizational data must be secure and protected from any cyber threat.

To make our vision a reality, in 2021 we will recalibrate the Infinity portfolio of products focusing on those technologies and capabilities that will provide uncompromised security based on our core principles.

1. Quantum: Enterprise network security for perimeter and datacenter
Deliver the highest levels of security and performance to manage datacenter environments. Check Point Quantum Security Gateways deliver superior security beyond any Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) and are designed to manage the most complex policy requirements. Powered with over 60 security services, these gateways are the best at preventing the fifth generation of cyber attacks. In 2021 we will continue to leverage Maestro, our unique & disruptive scalable performance solution, we will focus on improving the stability and simplicity, we will accelerate data center firewalls with an innovative technology to deliver super-fast firewall solution and augment our gateways with SD-WAN
2. CloudGuard: Automatically secure your cloud
Provide consolidated security and threat prevention across all cloud environments, assets and workloads. Aligned with the agile nature of cloud development and deployment, CloudGuard delivers the ultimate solution for both cloud security practitioners and for Cloud DevOps. From the initial DevSecOps phase, through cloud network security into cloud applications security (WAAP), containers and serverless functions, we will leverage our leadership position with Azure cloud and business growth (60% YoY) to position Check Point as a cloud security leader
3. Harmony: The most complete security for remote employees
Check Point Harmony protects remote employees, devices and internet connectivity from malicious attacks while ensuring secure, remote zero-trust access at any scale to any corporate application. Check point Harmony is first to market in providing endpoint and secure connectivity (SASE), as a consolidated, unified cloud-based solution including the easiest and most secure remote Access (Based on Odo acquisition), Safe Internet Browsing with the market’s lower TCO, End Point and mobile security and email security. The solution delivers the broadest coverage of attack vectors with the industry’s leading, AI-driven threat prevention

For the last three decades, we have set the standard for Cyber Security. We now have an opportunity, once again, to pioneer and redefine the role of cybersecurity in today’s society. With Check Point Infinity, the only consolidated cybersecurity solution across cloud, networks, endpoints, mobile and IoT, we are best positioned to make the world a safer place in 2021 and beyond

What are the major gaps, according to Check Point, that organizations should focus on plugging while looking to pursue their cloud journey?
Security concerns associated with moving data beyond traditional IT controls has kept many organizations from fully embracing the cloud. The dynamic nature of cloud-based infrastructure introduces a variety of new challenges, making traditional security approaches ineffective. We’re also seeing Gen VI attacks, which began to emerge in 2020, exploit clouds in addition to advanced 5G mobile networks and the always-on connectivity between smart devices, IoT devices and networks.

CISO’s face the constant challenge of dealing with lack of visibility into cloud infrastructure security and with setting consistent security policies across cloud and on-premise environments. The lack of qualified security staff adds to these challenges.
Businesses must equip security teams with visibility into all traffic and threats so that they can mitigate risk.

How can Check Point help organizations handle the Zero-day attacks?
Zero-Day attacks pose critical risks to businesses and are perhaps the hardest to prevent. While many businesses rely on SOC teams to detect zero-day attacks after breaching their systems, this is an ineffective strategy. Check Point’s evasion-resistant technology maximizes zero-day protection without compromising business productivity, and they can reduce the risk of unknown attacks by implementing a prevent-first approach. Check Point’s hybrid prevention approach provides a practical method for businesses to elevate their threat prevention capabilities and complements existing detection and response security. It provides layered security against zero-day threats and combines CDR with sandboxing. This helps prevent attacks rather than only detecting them. It has zero impact on productivity and business agility and provides unified management and monitoring to improve user productivity.

Zero-day attacks can come in many forms, but almost any type of security vulnerability could be exploited as a zero-day if a patch is not produced in time. Businesses must stay informed, keep their systems updated, and employ additional security measures that protect against zero-day attack because these security measures may not be enough to fully protect you from a zero-day attack.

How can Organizations improve their effectiveness in increasing awareness among its employees against BEC and phishing campaigns?
Many organizations still rely on built-in security settings on their emails. These are inadequate for a number of reasons. Strong email security must be a priority as it is one of the most common vectors by which an attacker gains initial access to an organization’s network and steals sensitive information, such as user login credentials.

An effective email security solution must provide protection against all of the primary methods that cybercriminals use to weaponize emails. So, when looking for an email security solution, it is important to look for and verify the following four critical features:

Anti-Phishing: An email security solution must include the ability to detect attached malware and malicious links. It must also use Natural Language Processing (NLP) to identify emails that are likely to be part of a BEC or similar social engineering-based phishing attack.
Malware Protection: Phishing emails are commonly used to deliver malware, such as ransomware or trojans. An email security solution should be able to analyze attachments in a sandboxed environment to identify zero-day malware contained within a malicious email.
Data Loss Prevention: An organization can leak sensitive data via email, whether as part of an attack or due to employee negligence. An effective email security solution should scan emails for sensitive data and block sharing of any data matching these filters from being shared outside of the organization or with unauthorized third parties.
Account Takeover Prevention: An email security solution should monitor for and block any suspicious access attempts, such as those coming from known-bad or suspicious IP addresses or access requests for the same account coming from multiple locations.