Real-Time Prevention of Threats is the Key to Block Future Attacks

Named in Gartner Market Guide for Mobile Threat Defense 2021, Check Point Software is disrupting the security market. Offering multilevel security architecture, “Infinity” Total Protection with Gen V advanced threat prevention, Check Point defends enterprises’ cloud, network and mobile device held information. The most comprehensive and intuitive one point of control security management system is provided by Check Point. In a chat with VARINDIA, Manish Alshi, Head of Channels and Growth Technologies, (India & SAARC) at Check Point Software Technologies delves deep in security technologies to fight in this unprecedented time, ways to withstand the security threats etc.

The latest security technologies amidst the pandemic

According to Manish, “The pandemic outbreak has accelerated the migration to the digital space at a rapid pace, rather than over time, gradually. This has resulted in a drastic increase in the attack surfaces.”

Check Point remains committed to safeguarding its customers by protecting their digital ecosystem using its latest cutting edge security technologies, some of which include:

Check Point Harmony: 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 CloudGuard: Check Point CloudGuard sets the gold standard for securing critical cloud workloads, both public and private. It offers cloud posture management, serverless security, and a new generation of Web Application Firewalls powered by contextual AI that secures APIs, Web applications as well as hosted and on-premise web servers.

Check Point Quantum: In 2021 the company continue to leverage Check Point Maestro, their unique and disruptive scalable performance solution. They will also accelerate data center firewall innovation with the introduction of a super-fast firewall gateway with 200 Gbps firewall throughput and sub-3 microseconds latency.

Hassles while Securing Endpoints

“It is critical for enterprises to secure their employees’ endpoint devices, as hackers are actively targeting employees’ endpoints because they know that these are not as well protected or updated.”, says Manish.

According Check Point’s recent survey, security for employees working remotely was one of the leading challenges for 2021 and has been magnified during the enforced transition to remote working in the COVID pandemic because of the following challenges:

• More endpoint devices, more entry points: Cyber-criminals know remote workers are relying on mobile devices now more than ever, and actively target enterprise and BYOD mobiles with new attacks.

• Remote working is targeted: Hackers ramped up ‘thread hijacking’ attacks on remote workers to steal data or infiltrate networks using the Emotet and Qbot trojans during 2020, which together impacted 24% of organizations globally.

• Vulnerabilities and outdated devices mean more risk: Check Point’s Achilles research showed that at least 40% of the world’s mobile devices are inherently vulnerable to cyberattacks due to flaws in their chipsets, and require urgent patching.

Tips to be safe while WFH

To secure endpoint devices, the company has the following tips for individuals working from home:

1. Passwords matter: It is always a good idea to review and strengthen the passwords that a person uses for logging onto remote resources, such as email or work applications.

2. Be phishing-aware: If an employee receives an email with an unusual request, check the sender’s details carefully to make sure that the sender is genuine and not a criminal. It is important to be wary of clicking on links which look in any way suspicious and only download content from reliable sources that can be verified.

3. Choose device carefully: It is recommended that an employee talks to the IT team about how to strengthen their device security, if at all, he/she wants to use a home or personal computer for work. Adding a strong anti-virus and security package to it can be a step in the right direction.

4. Regular OS updates are essential: Mobile devices should always be updated to the latest version of the OS to protect against the exploitation of privilege escalation vulnerabilities.

Manish concludes with a positive note saying, “When it comes to cybersecurity, I would like to say that ‘vaccination is better than treatment’. Therefore, real-time prevention of threats before they can infiltrate the network is the key to blocking future attacks.”