Speaking at the global business conference Globes Israel, the cybersecurity company Check Point Software Technologies Limited (Nasdaq: CHKP) CEO Gil Schwed said there are an increasing number of cyberattacks around the world, which are causing more damage than ever before. Shwed was speaking to Globes high-tech editor Assaf Gilad as part of the Game Changer sessions organized in collaboration with Playtika. Schwed is set to step down as CEO after 30 years at the helm of the company he co-founded. Schwed will become CEO and will be replaced by Nadav Zafrir as CEO.
What distinguishes the attacks?
“There is a very wide range of attacks – many types – by Iranian organizations, and before the war Hamas was very active, but today there are more organizations funded by Iran. In general, the level of attacks around the world has increased and they continue.” They were more complex and caused much more damage, and were as sporadic as gunfire, but today an integrated attack infiltrates the organization, seizes assets and causes damage.
There are attacks on dignitaries, members of the Knesset, and ministers. What is happening?
“Attacks used to send phishing emails to millions of people in the hope that someone would bite them, but today they have become more targeted and professional. Phishing used to be easy to recognize, and today emails are written in a very professional way. They did research. “An expert from an American research institute is supposed to call you, so you search the Internet and find him.”
I’ve seen sophisticated attacks that called people in the name of a senior executive at the company, called someone and asked for help. In the end, the victim is the one who offers help and ends up suffering great harm.
“We see expanding legislation, regulations imposing more fines on senior Israeli executives, and giving the National Internet Directorate a lot of powers. Some managers believe this is a transfer of responsibility from the state to them.
“In the entire cyber world, the responsibility lies with us. Most countries do not provide protection, and law enforcement authorities do not have much to do about it. In Israel, the situation is actually better, but 99% of the burden of protection I am against regulation in general, but it makes sense.” – It reminds managers that electronic attacks are not the responsibility of technical staff only, and I believe that the meaning of the legislation is to make clear that it is a major problem, and every organization must take the necessary measures to protect themselves.
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“The industry is constantly innovating, you can’t sell the same product for 10 to 20 years, and Check Point sells the same portal, but it’s nothing like it was 10 to 20 years ago. About 15 years ago, we came up with a new architecture It’s shifting the balance that turns the firewall into a more powerful security machine and we’ve changed the business model so that the customer buys subscriptions and adds layers of security and our business model is not based on selling more products, but rather that the customer buys a subscription to the security services Recent years, this has been the main driver of our revenue.
“It provides modular, scalable security capabilities that come from the cloud and also protects company sites. It has completely changed our business model.”
“We will see more small companies acquired by larger companies.”
If we talk about cloud cybersecurity, we have seen many acquisitions in this sector, which is the hottest in the industry.
“High technology has always been based on mergers and acquisitions, and in the future it will be much more so. We need consolidation in the industry. There are a lot of ideas, thousands of companies, and many ideas are good, but there is no possibility of an average enterprise buying dozens We have bought 10 large companies from Israel in recent years, and each one adds another layer.”
Your acquisitions have been relatively small. There was no huge merger that shook things up.
“Not yet, maybe there will be more. There are not many large companies in the industry. There are about 5 companies the size of Check Point. So, the situation is not huge mergers, but portfolio building by each company.”
You are in your final days as CEO
“I announced at the beginning of the year that I would become CEO to focus more on strategy, and I was looking for a CEO to run the company and help build the strategy. In the summer, we found a CEO, Nadav Zafrir, who was on Team 8. He officially started working at Check Point Yesterday, in a few weeks he will become CEO and has already met a lot of employees.
“I am very excited about this change. Nadav is a great leader, knows the industry well, the interaction between us is great and he is the right person to lead Check Point.”
Your stock price rose when you announced the appointment. How did you feel about that?
“I felt good. The capital market and Check Point are doing well. We took the company public 28 years ago, and the stock price went up 70-fold. I have no complaints about Wall Street. Last year was good, too.”
The share price has risen by 130% since the beginning of the year.
“I’m very happy. I’m very satisfied with it.”
How can you transform your role? How do you leave?
“Good question, ask me in two or three months. I don’t really know what it’s going to be like. I’m very happy with it. Since 1996, I’ve been asked at every conference why you’re still working and when? Are you still going forward? I’ve spent 28 years understanding this The thing is, it’s a good thing to bring new energy to the company, and I trust the people a lot. We’ve built an amazing organization, corporate culture, and unparalleled security capability. The organization has something I’m glad that someone with more energy than me has come in to do this today.
“We’re very different people, and I’m more focused on technology and internal, and he’s more focused on external. Obviously the CEO needs both, but his focus is more on the market and customer relationships. And he has a network of security managers that I think is exactly what you need.” Check Point Now, to get out there and get the message out to the world about our security capabilities.
The checkpoint is Israeli and managed by Israel. When you talk to senior executives around the world, what does that look like?
“There is no big difference, we have always been treated as a global technology company. We do not hide that we are Israeli, and we are not ashamed of it, on the contrary. After almost 32 years, Check Point identifies as Israeli.” That’s a good thing, and I’m proud of that, and I don’t think this issue has been addressed much. Our customers are purchasing a leading security product from a leading company. The change for the worse is that it is more difficult for managers from abroad to come to Israel, but by and large there are no major obstacles.
The Globes Business Conference in Israel is held in cooperation with Bank Hapoalim and Phoenix Holdings, and is sponsored by El Al, Bezeq, Nespresso, Walt, Dell, the Israel Medical Association, Energean, the Jewish National Fund, BlackRock, Playtica, Meta, Strauss Group, Bazin Group, Inc. MSCI, with the participation of Mekorot, the Port of Ashdod, and the Israel Innovation Authority.
Published by Globes, Israel Business News – en.globes.co.il – on December 3, 2024.
© Copyright Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2024.
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