Check Point Software introduces ‘World’s Fastest Firewall’

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd., a provider of cyber security solutions globally, has introduced the world’s fastest firewall, Quantum Lightspeed, at its recent annual customer and partner event series, CPX 360, said a company press release.

The three-day online event hosted the launch of Check Point’s first rebrand in nearly 30 years and a review of the planned innovations for 2022.

In his keynote address entitled: ‘You Deserve the Best Security’, founder and CEO Gil Shwed talked about the company’s major transformation, which came about as a response to the post-COVID era and the world’s increased dependence on the network. “Today, more than ever, the online puzzle needs to be secure. The level of sophistication of attacks keeps going up. Gen V attacks are something we experience everyday: supply chain attacks, ransomware threats that can take down an entire hospital or an entire oil pipeline for half of the US, and vulnerabilities like we have just seen last month with Log4j. When we look at 2021, it was one of the most challenging years in terms of cyberattacks.”

‘You Deserve the Best Security’ was also the tagline for the company’s new logo and marks a new strategic drive by Check Point to urge organisations to implement comprehensive ‘prevent-first’ security solutions capable of dealing with the cyber pandemic: “All of the attacks through 2021, from Solar Winds to Log4J, were Gen V multi-vector attacks. In the face of such threats, organizations can no longer afford to compromise on security. Second best is not enough. Second best doesn’t work. Second best will get you breached,” said Shwed.

 He explained how the Check Point Infinity architecture is the basis of what Check Point does. It provides a unified solution for every possible threat, based on three pillars: Quantum to secure the network, CloudGuard for complete cloud security and Harmony for secure users and access, wherever they are, on all platforms and however they connect. All of this is based on Infinity Vision management software and the ThreatCloud, which is the ‘brains’ connecting all the elements and ensuring protection from all threats in real time across all vectors. Shwed added that Check Point Infinity is the only architecture in the industry that gives you the widest security coverage for all attack vectors: mobile, network, corporate email, web servers, endpoint and cloud. It’s the only AI technology that blocked Log4j on zero day.” 

The company’s new Quantum Lightspeed firewall technology for data centres, signals Check Point’s determination to confront the evolving threat landscape in the light of the 50% year-on-year increase in cyber-attacks uncovered in the company’s 2022 security report. The new solution was the result of a collaboration with ASIC developer Nvidia, a company that has a long-standing relationship with Check Point.

“Quantum Lightspeed represents the latest innovation in our Quantum portfolio, and through increased throughput, ultra-low latency and better price performance, aims to kickstart the biggest network security revolution in more than a decade,” said Shwed.

Check Point Chief Product Officer Dr Dorit Dor sees the introduction of the Nvidia GPU, with its enhanced processing power, as a key part of the company’s drive to make great use of AI in securing networks to deliver the best real time prevention of Gen V attacks. She commented: “We need to stay ahead of the emerging threats and for that we need evolving technology that can identify and emerge alongside the threats. So, we are designing AI into our next generation firewall. We see ourselves evolving in terms of how to leverage GPUs in order to accelerate the AI calculation.”

Itai Greenberg, Head of Check Point Product management, spoke about plans in 2022 for the three product pillars. On the network side he outlined developments in the Quantum product family, focusing on the new Quantum Lightspeed gateway, commenting, “Quantum Lightspeed redefines price performance. We are giving you over five times the performance of the previous generation of gateway.” On CloudGuard, he looked at the latest developments in securing the cloud DevOps environment while highlighting the fact that Check Point was the only cloud security vendor that gave pre-emptive security protection against the Log4j vulnerability in December 2021. For end user access he stressed that Check Point Harmony is actually five solutions in one, giving a consistent security experience where others offer multiple products for different types of endpoint threats and vectors. He also explained how the SASE solution Harmony Connect is ideally suited to mixed security environments of branch networks, remote users and contractors using unmanaged devices, all needing the best level of protection.

Maya Horowitz, VP Research at Check Point Software, discussed the potential “cyber power” wielded by security researchers in her keynote address, ‘Hacking Like a White Hat Witch,’ and how Check Point was using this power for good. Discussing companies turning a blind eye to cybercrime, Horowitz said: “If you ignore it, if you don’t learn about it, you won’t be able to protect yourself from it.”