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Check Point introduces AI copilot - ‘a powerful security teammate’

Christopher Tredger
By Christopher Tredger, Portals editor
Johannesburg, 22 Feb 2024
Gil Shwed, co-founder and CEO of Check Point, delivers keynote at CPX 2024 in Vienna.
Gil Shwed, co-founder and CEO of Check Point, delivers keynote at CPX 2024 in Vienna.

Check Point Software Technologies made a bold promise at the launch of its Infinity AI copilot: no attacks will penetrate their defences.

Delivering the keynote at the Check Point Software Technologies CPX 2024 event in Vienna this week, founder and CEO Gil Shwed said the company’s strategy is to make AI ‘a powerful security teammate’ accessed via its AI-enabled, cloud-delivered Infinity platform.

He said the technology will help organisations to deal with cyber security challenges, from the scarcity of skilled practitioners to the escalating sophistication of threats.

According to Check Point, AI is used to enhance threat hunting, analysis, and resolution. “The intention is to bolster capacity to mitigate and respond to incidents more effectively”.

The copilot offers the ability to manage, modify, and automatically deploy security policies – and this will help to achieve a more structured and secure approach to cyber security. It can automate up to 90% of administrative security tasks, such as event analysis, implementation, and troubleshooting.

Shwed stressed the importance of collaboration between systems as the only way to gain advantage over attackers. “⁠This year, our focus is on elevating security through collaboration. It's about how every element of our platform interacts, ensuring our customers, and our enterprises achieve the highest level of security possible."

Rupal Hollenbeck, president at Check Point, said the threat attack surface today is huge and continues to grow. She emphasised the importance of elastic intelligent solutions, the need for businesses to integrate solutions that expand and contract in accordance with the growth of a business and its cyber security posture.

Spyware threat

Sergey Shykevich, threat intelligence lead, Check Point Research, spoke to the media about how spyware like Pegasus is used to access mobile devices covertly and remotely.

Shykevich said there is growing concern about the use of AI and deepfakes in conflict hotspots, in addition to the threat posed by the dark web in cyber warfare and nation-state activities.

This links up with the findings of the Check Point 2024 Annual Security Report, also released at CPX 2024.

According to the research, state-supported hacktivism has escalated, with notable increases in cyber activities tied to geopolitical conflicts. The use of destructive wipers for maximum impact underscores the evolving nature of cyber warfare.

Other findings include that attackers are refining their strategies and leveraging zero-day vulnerabilities and enhancing ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) with new extortion tactics.

The Check Point Incident Response Team (CPIRT) observed that nearly half of their cases involved ransomware, with the number of publicly shamed victims soaring to approximately 5 000, doubling from the previous year.

The research also warns that criminals are also targeting edge devices, which highlights the need for comprehensive security measures that encompass all network elements.

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