The president of Check Point - TAdviser: The Russian Federation trusts cybersecurity technologies from Israel
The presidentof Check PointAmnon Bar-Lev in an interview of TAdviser in September, 2015 told about features of work in the Russian market and about how the economic situation which developed in the country affects business of his company.
TAdviser: Amnon, tell, please, what new threats of cybersecurity you observe in the world now? In what direction does development of cyber attacks move?
Amnon Bar-Lev: We observe two most interesting trends now. One of them – emergence of increasing number of malware of "zero day" (Zero Day) which cannot be revealed normal antiviruses and the systems of protection against invasions. Harmful software is usually recognized on indicators, signatures, but the difference of the Zero Day programs consists that they constantly change these identifiers. Here it is possible to draw an analogy as though at some person the face was constantly changed. This is the same person, he has a passport, but it is impossible to identify it because the person at it always a miscellaneous.
The second trend – the growing number of the attacks on mobile devices. In corporate environment they remain a weak link in a data protection chain, through them it is simpler to get direct access to the valuable data, than through other entrance points.
TAdviser: In what direction, in your opinion, does the competitive situation in the world market change now? Whether you feel gain of presence in the market of cybersecurity of Asian and Russian suppliers?
Amnon Bar-Lev: In the market of means for data protection very high competition. At the same time it continues to grow, and we see more and more aggressive players who want to work at the growing market. The part suppressing them – from the USA where the largest developers and in many other segments of IT are based. In world scales at the same time we do not see significant changes in alignment of forces of players.
It should be noted that in some separate markets local developers have advantage thanks to legislative regulation. It is possible to carry China where support is provided at the state level to like those: state institutions and the companies with state participation oblige to consider first of all when choosing the supplier of local producers. To the markets where local producers are often given advantage, it is also possible to carry Korea, and, perhaps, Russia.
TAdviser: What new products are prepared by Check Point for an output to the market and how you are going to develop the direction of cloud computing in the product line?
Amnon Bar-Lev: Here it is possible to select two products which we bring to the market according to the selected key trends in the field of cyber-threats. One of products – Check Point SandBlast – protects from zero day attacks which I mentioned earlier. It identifies such threats on initial stage before the malware is implemented into infrastructure or will try to bypass detection systems.
The second product – Mobile Threat Prevention – is intended for protection of mobile devices based on iOS and Android. Last year we presented the solution for protection of mobile devices – Check Point Capsule – which creates on the device a safe container for corporate data. The new solution performs a comprehensive protection from threats, including the network threats and threats directed to OS.
Concerning cloud computing, there is one more new solution which we announced recently- Check Point vSec. It is intended for data protection in private clouds. Our solutions also allow to protect the data placed in public cloud platforms it seems Microsoft Azure and Amazon. We in development have technologies for data protection in cloud environments and also cybersecurity solutions which can be provided from a cloud.
TAdviser: On your feelings at what markets of the countries it is the most difficult to company to work now and why?
Amnon Bar-Lev: It is the most difficult to work where the smaller investment volume into IT in general. For example, in Latin America some countries are in a difficult economic situation and practically do not make investments in IT. It has a business impact of the IT companies working at such markets.
In the certain countries complexity is very large number of regulatory requirements which need to be observed. It can be told about Russia. Here regulation is very developed, there are many requirements for certification both separate products, and new versions of these products, bureaucratic requirements to logistics, etc. It is necessary to be sure that you fulfilled all numerous requirements. Sometimes it is slows down work a little.
TAdviser: In what, in your opinion, do features of demand for cybersecurity solutions consist in Russia in comparison with other countries?
Amnon Bar-Lev: In my opinion, at the moment the Russian clients have no special requirements different from what is in other countries to solutions. They have more requirements to existence of these or those certificates, besides, that is dictated by statutory requirements.
Also, in my opinion, more mature markets, accept new technologies quicker, than in Russia, but I think that in the future Russia will be tightened. Our long-term clients in Russia usually willingly implement our latest solutions.
TAdviser: How did the difficult economic situation in Russia and the course towards import substitution which amplified in connection with threat of sanctions affect your business in 2014-2015? Whether some contracts on this background broke at the company?
Amnon Bar-Lev: Certainly, here had on our business an impact of rate fluctuation of currencies and the general economic instability, however I can note that last year affairs at us went well here, and revenue of the company grew both in currency, and in rubles. And in rubles growth very high. At the beginning of a year some projects were postponed as against the background of a difficult economic situation customers took a break and thought what to them to do next, however we did not observe failure of contracts.
Also we did not feel on ourselves import substitution policy influence as we though the global company, but are based in Israel. Substitution is directed, first of all, to products of the western producers. It is possible even to tell that the situation with import substitution for us gives additional opportunities. Since the beginning of year we see projects on replacement of existing solutions by the solutions Check Point at our clients.