Regional Director, Africa, Check Point, Mr. Rick Rogers, who was in Nigeria recently for the Cybersecurity Forum 2017, spoke with Emma Okonji on the latest ransomware threats and how organisations could survive the global plague. Excerpts:
With 25 years of experience in information technology (IT), covering African markets, what is your view about IT development in Africa?
Yes I have been in the business of information and communications technology (ICT) management in the last 25 years and my first job was with Dimension Data in South Africa. I have been into software development as well.
25 years ago, the awareness on IT security was not as high as what it is today because there was less risk to IT business then, and the internet was not even an enterprise business at that time. But in the last 25 years, there has been exponential growth across all ICT segments globally. Across the African content, IT growth has been tremendous and many African countries are fast catching up with IT development.  Today, I can say that Africa is at the same level with the rest of the world in terms of technology usage to enhance productivity and boost economic development.
How has technology growth in Africa added value to African businesses?
All over the world, growth in technology is adding tremendous values to global businesses and Africa is not an exception. To be competitive and remain a global player from any part of the world, organisations must adopt global technology and global best practices. Â
Broadband is fast driving technology growth globally, what role should African governments play in enhancing broadband growth?
Broadband penetration across Africa is on the increase, especially the mobile broadband. In the area of fixed broadband growth, I think African government should create the right policies that will enable organisations to leapfrog the fixed broadband services through fibre optic.
What will you say is the biggest threat to IT security?
 Unknown malware and ransomware are the biggest threat to IT security and organisations must do well to deploy software solutions that address security challenges. At Check Point, we develop software for data security and we provide multi-layer protection of organisation’s data. It is true that we cannot stop attacks on data but one thing we can do as IT security company, is to stop the colossal damage such attacks could have on organisation’s data and infrastructure. Now at Check Point, we look at prevention as the best form of data protection. We have global scenario where organisations do not take IT security issues very seriously. What we do as IT security company is to prevent malicious attacks through our software solutions and our solutions help in preventing unknown malware and ransomware into the entire system of an organisation.
What should organisations do to protect their data from malicious attacks?
It is important that organisations are IT security conscious and ensure data protection at all times. Organisations must deploy latest software solutions that protect data from malicious attacks.
How can organisations with large number of staff control access to its infrastructure by way of protecting the organisation’s infrastructure?
The best thing to do in order to achieve this  is to look at the organisation’s architecture and then we determine the critical issues within the IT environment. The truth is that not all data are of equal importance to an organisation. For example, the financial records of an organisation may have higher level of importance than some other records and data. So for a large organisation to maintain maximum security, it should be able to look at its data profile, available information that is internal and then segment them. This will help the organisation to have its priorities right and invest in areas of high security value, and this will help to save huge cost, when compared with providing equal security measures to all sectors of an organisation, especially with large organisations.
So what is the latest security solution that Check Point is deploying to address IT security breaches?
We have SandBlast software solution with multiple system that addresses multiple challenges. Hackers are increasingly targeting enterprise networks using sophisticated tools such as new zero-day threats. A more proactive security approach is required to identify and stop such attacks. SandBlast Zero-Day Protection elevates network security to the next level with evasion-resistant malware detection, and complete protection from even the most dangerous attacks, ensuring quick delivery of safe content to users. It supports multiple options and provides cost effective solution to enterprise and small businesses.
We look at SandBlast in both physical and virtual network environment, and we have SandBlast for mobile devices.
Most times, software application fails. What could be responsible for this?
Security solutions are technology focused and if for any reason the solutions fail during deployment, then it could be as a result of various reasons, ranging from the method of deployment, to lack of technical knowhow. People need to be educated and trained on the deployment of latest security solutions.
Do you have solutions for small businesses?
Yes, we have solutions for small businesses. Most times people feel our solutions are targeted at enterprise markets only, but this is not true, because we have full swift of solutions that address the challenges of both small businesses and enterprise businesses.
High cost of security solution has been identified as one of the reasons why most organisations do not invest heavily in security solutions. What is your take on this?
My advice for any organisation is to continue to invest in security solutions, because the consequence of not investing is huge and far outweighs the cost of investment. So what we do with existing and potential customers is to do security check-ups of an organisation and from there we can analyse what is going on inside the network. Our solution checks the behaviour pattern of people working in an organisation and this helps organisations to take informed decision on IT security matters. So we present the information we gather from the security check-up and present it to the organisation, to guide their spending culture, which of course, helps to reduce cost.
Most organisations have the challenge of synchronising their data into a single platform for better management. Does Check Point have a solution that addresses several organisational challenges?
We see this as a global trend where organisations want to address their challenges from a single platform of solutions and what we have done is to provide such solution. Most organisations have different solutions from different vendors that address different challenges. So it makes more sense to have end-to-end infrastructure solution. Another area is about manageability because organisations have to effectively manage their data. When there is a breach, it becomes necessary for organisations to adopt check-up approach to find out the extent of damage and get advice from IT security experts on the best solution to deploy.
So what value does your IT solutions bring to organisations?
Our data protection solution brings a lot of value to the customer and one of them is peace of mind when managing the business because our solutions address downtime issues in an organisation. The value is also seen on the return on investments. We have seen many ransomware attacks and this year, the number of various attacks increased. So the deployment of the right solution will address all of these and bring peace of mind and business continuity in the face of competition.
What will organisations lose when they fail to deploy security solutions in terms of data protection?
Any organisation that refuses to invest in technology solution and to deploy latest IT security solutions will be losing not only vital data, but also incurring heavy financial losses. But again, the level of reporting in relation to data attacks, is still low in most organisations who think they are safe and their customers also safe, when they do not report malicious attacks on their data. Again, most organisations report fraud as breach and some report breach as fraud, but which ever, it is better to report IT security breaches.
What level of training do you have with your partners to enable customers understand your solutions better?
We do a lot of training for our customers through our partners. We also create a general awareness on want the IT security threats are and the level of vulnerability, which I think is important for business growth. We run two courses every quarter free of charge to educate clients on the latest malware and ransomware and how to prevent them.
As IT security organisation, what stands Check Point out from other IT security companies?
There is competition in providing IT security solutions, but what this means to us is that it keeps us on our toes to do more for our customers.
We have been investing in Nigeria for several years and we have a lot of partners that are working with us in the area of training.
What stands us out is our commitment to customers and we have local office in Lagos to enable us move closer to our customers and this is one area that stands us out, because we are readily available to address customers’ needs.
Again we have local partners in Nigeria that support the local businesses in Nigeria. So we are closer to our customers.
