CYBERCRIMINALS WILL EXPLOIT RELIANCE ON MOBILE DEVICES

INTERVIEW GIL SHWED cybersecurity expert

- ABHINAV SINGH

Gil Shwed, CEO of Check Point Software Technologies, is considered the inventor of the modern firewall and has authored several patents such as Check Point’s stateful inspection technology (dynamic filtering that monitors active connections to decide which packets to allow through the firewall). He has received numerous accolades, including the Israel Prize (the country’s highest cultural honour), honorary doctorates from Technion - Israel Institute of Technology and Tel Aviv University, and the Global Leader for Tomorrow award by the World Economic Forum. In an interaction with THE WEEK, Shwed shares insights about the latest trends in cybersecurity. Excerpts:

Q/ Covid-19 resulted in a steady increase in the number of cyberattacks. What new kinds of attacks did you observe?

A/ Globally, in 2021, one out of 61 organisations was being impacted by ransomware every week. We feel that threat actors will continue to target companies that can afford paying ransom. In May 2021, a US insurance giant paid $40 million in ransom to hackers. This was a record, and we can expect ransom demanded by attackers to increase in 2022. Ransomware attacks will become more sophisticated. Hackers will increasingly use penetration tools to customise attacks in real time and to live and work within victim networks.