Is the State of Israel prepared for cyber attacks? In the past year, the issue of information breaches and the harm to companies that hold personal information about customers has made headlines. The hacker attacks on vital services in the country are also of great concern to the Israeli security system and the government. Is Israel today prepared and able to defend itself against such future cases? This is what Walla! Journalist talked about this morning (Tuesday). And 103FM, Liat Ron, with Gil Schweid, CEO and Founder of Check Point, during the Walla!
There are more and more attacks on the health system.
“There will be more attacks. I think the risk of cyber attacks is indeed great. There are very sophisticated attacks, what we call the fifth generation of attacks. Unfortunately, most of the world today only defends at the 3rd generation level of attacks. The last attacks were ‘wake up sound’ for all of us. “.
For us, what happens is that the attacks are more on private companies and less on infrastructure.
“Some are very sophisticated, some are not very sophisticated, but they are really just the tip of the iceberg. The scary thing is that in cyber attacks the most sophisticated weapons can get into the hands of any child. It can also be a terrorist. Imagine the terrible scenario, access to F35 will be for everyone “A child who wants to attack us. His intentions can be economic or ideological against the state.”
In Corona we discovered that the citizen himself is exposed to cyber attacks, even on his cellphone. It is the weakest accessory in terms of cyber.
“This is very true. I deal mainly with the business sector. Less than 1% of companies protect their employees’ phones. Somehow the world says’ it will not happen to us’, and it happened to us. Hundreds of soldiers put in software that spies on them on the Gaza border. The source was our enemies. “From Gaza, they did nothing to protect the soldiers.”
There is a company that harms Israel’s reputation. What do you think about the way NSO works?
“I hope it has not hurt our business. There is a difficult reputation problem here. From the first day I entered this industry I chose to be on the side with almost no ideological problems. I did not want to be part of the offensive system. Defense industries are an important part. Our cyber researchers find weaknesses, we could Open up some companies with the weaknesses they found. ”
NSO offices (Photo: Reuters)You see all the unicorns popping up, companies that have not put in a penny and are valued at billions of dollars. Is that the end of every balloon?
“To a certain extent yes. I have seen two or three such bubbles in my career. There are industries and there are amazing companies in the country in the last two years with billions of dollars in sales. We have not seen them mature in a decade, and in the last two years we have seen such companies boost. “All of them are overestimated and some of them are underestimated. In the end, the market will work out.”
How much do you woo employees?
“The demand for workers today is very high, we experience a phenomenon all over the world where many people ask themselves what they are doing here, and sometimes resign or move elsewhere. This is in quantities we have not seen. We have jumped from 5,400 to 6,000 workers since the beginning of the year, so we have grown , And most of the growth in Israel. I try to recruit people abroad as well, because I also need people to sell, not just to open. It is very difficult to retain employees. The good workers do not come for the ice cream and the facilities, they come because of the challenge and the ability to move forward and fulfill themselves. “
Check Point was once considered the leader in the cyber field. Today you are called the ‘old lady’. That means a lot of young companies are leaving you with smoke. Does that offend you?
“I do not know if it offends me, but of course I do not like to hear such things. We are an older company, young companies come and try to use what they have. If they do not have good technology from us they use insults. We have huge technological depth, and there is in it “Also disadvantages. We have the best technology in the gap. Not that there are no good ideas out there, we have competitors who are marketing machines, and I wish I was as good at them as that, but without giving the widest security envelope – I’m sure we’re one rank above everyone else.”
.