EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

In this edited interview excerpt from CRN, a media brand of The Channel Company, Check Point CEO Gil Shwed discusses emerging cyber threats, corporate technological advancement strategies, and Check Point’s innovation around security products. Don’t miss this. And if you like what you read, please be sure to read the full interview.

What is the biggest market opportunity that you and your channel partners will address together in 2023?

In 2022, the world experienced a 38% increase in cyber attacks, as compared to 2021. In addition to the statistical increase, the attacks became more sophisticated and caused more harm than previously. Hospitals and schools had to shut down, disrupting life-saving medical care and the education of the next generation. Governments struggled with attacks directed towards critical infrastructure groups.

In 2022, I think that everyone started to realize that cyber security impacts us all, as we are trying to go about our daily lives. Against this backdrop, we have an opportunity to step in and to help companies that are struggling with cyber security.

As trusted advisors, our channel partners are in a strong position to assist customers in understanding how to best spend their IT dollars in order to keep organizations secure and businesses running without disruption.

Customers tell us that they need to be strategic with their dollars, as IT teams are being asked to do more with less. This is the time to focus on consolidating security solutions, which provides the best ROI and security, while greatly simplifying IT’s workload.

Customers need -and deserve- the best security to protect them from cyber attacks. And they need both a trusted partner and a trusted technology platform to keep them safe in 2023 and beyond.

What are the key technology investments that you plan to make in 2023?

We will continue to strengthen our consolidated security platform, Infinity, to prevent attacks and to protect enterprises from the widest spectrum of attack vectors. Our technology investments cover a wide range of attack surfaces across networks, multi-cloud environments, remote users and their devices, IoT devices, critical infrastructure and more.

We’ve built a strong base with our Check Point Infinity Portal, which offers customers a unified security management platform, along with unprecedented protection, visibility, control and insights. And we will continue to innovate, add new features and to ensure that our customers have the best prevention-first security…

What do you see as the toughest challenges facing customers in 2023?

As I previously mentioned, the rate of cyber attacks is increasing rapidly, and we expect for the trend to continue. The main challenge that enterprises face is recognizing that these attacks are incredibly sophisticated, and that they require a multi-pronged approach to security, starting with prevention.

Many enterprises are focused only on protecting against Gen 3 attacks, which exploit vulnerabilities in applications. But today’s cyber criminals have advanced beyond that to what we call Gen 5 attacks.

These are mega, polymorphic attacks that are multi-vector and that use advanced tools to infiltrate and disrupt…

Trying to protect an organization from Gen 5 attacks with Gen 3 thinking and solutions is missing the point. It’s like unlocking the doors, but leaving the back window open. 

What is your top priority for 2023?

Continuing to provide Check Point customers with the best cyber security, based on prevention-first, gold standard management, a consolidated architecture and the largest partner ecosystem.

Read the full interview here. Lastly, to receive more cutting-edge cyber security news, best practices and analyses, please sign up for the CyberTalk.org newsletter.

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