Check Point总裁：光靠防火墙还不够

    一年一度汇聚美国顶尖信息安全公司高管的信息安全大会（RSA Conference）今年引起了不小的争议（路透社报道称，信息安全大会与美国国家安全局合作，在加密产品中留下“后门”，以方便政府更容易地窃取用户信息。这一消息引起许多专家对大会的抵制——译注）。不过无论规模大小，大多数公司来到这里，只是为了展示他们在防范网络犯罪方面最新、最好的技术。

    这些公司很幸运，因为如今引人瞩目的网络攻击越来越多，使得各企业在安全工具上的花费越来越高。根据研究公司高德纳（Gartner）的数据，信息安全市场的规模将会从去年的约6,700万美元增长至2017年的9,500万美元。不过防火墙——对，就算是下一代防火墙——和杀毒软件已经不够用了。这也是为什么思科（Cisco）、瞻博网络（Juniper Networks）这样的服务提供商，还有帕洛阿尔托网络公司（Palo Alto Networks）这样的后起之秀都已经开始拓展业务范围。

    为了更深入地了解不断变化的客户购买模式，探索更开放的新一代“威胁智能感知数据”的收集和共享方式，《财富》采访了阿姆农•巴勒夫。他是信息安全业居于领先地位的以色列供应商、Check Point软件技术公司（Check Point Software Technologies）的总裁。

    《财富》：顾客希望你们做些什么？你在信息安全大会上听到了什么？

    巴勒夫：这个行业现在有两大趋势。其中之一是从单纯的防火墙（依靠防火墙的保护措施）转变为更多地阻挡威胁。当今世界上所有的防火墙提供商都拥有了下一代防火墙，它已经变成了商品。但是大家已经意识到，光有防火墙还不够。所以他们在其中加入了越来越多的技术——反木马程序、各种阻挡威胁的工具、威胁模拟功能，当然还有入侵防御系统（intrusion prevention system）。

    第二个趋势是明显的功能整合。我相信人们曾经有过许多单功能产品，他们认为把它们组合起来使用是最好的防护方法。不过现在已经不同了。我们有着市场上最好的入侵防御系统，而且它不仅是个专用工具，还整合了其他防护功能。我们认为它不应该是个功能单一的软件。我们预计在功能整合方面，这个行业还有大量的发展空间。人们在寻求更多的保护，他们的安全感还不够。

    哪个行业最害怕遭到攻击？

    我不知道他们有没有害怕，但显然，金融业在应对安全问题上可能是最先进的一个行业。他们在寻找和采用新型安全措施和技术上都走在最前面。排名第二的可能是电信公司。这些公司拥有两个不同的网络，运营网络和信息技术网络。他们的信息技术网络与其他的企业一样，不过非常先进。而运营网络的保护措施严密得多，不过它一旦遭遇攻击瘫痪，就会变成非常严重的问题。

    不过，基于IP地址的长期演进技术（LTE，第四代无线技术）的问世给信息安全领域带来了巨大变化。如此一来，信息安全公司就得保护基站，还有各基站之间的连接，现在他们开始采取越来越严密的安全措施。不过，我们总共有超过10万的客户，分布在你能想到的任何行业。

    在人们购买的各种各样的产品中，哪些是你们没有、而且想要拥有的？

    我认为我们拥有大多数种类的产品。有一种产品叫做网络应用防火墙，我们还没有在这个领域施展拳脚。我们正在研发许多东西，比如更好地保护移动产品。

    你是因为听说这方面（移动产品安全防护）存在很大的需求吗？

    我不知道我有没有提到“需求”，但肯定提到了“议论声”。因为没有人能有简单直接的办法解决这个问题。现在的大多数产品都太容易被入侵了。

    总的来说，安全领域并不是个公司投资的好选择，因为他们看不到回报，也不知道应当如何评估安全领域的回报。这就像军队一样——一支军队应当葆有多少架战斗机？不知道。你得自己去设想。安全领域也是一样。它取决于有多少预算，然后把它们花掉。

    另一个角度来看，人们想做他们能做的任何事，而有时候安全性和功能性不可兼得。最大的挑战之一就是，确保安全防护能起到促进作用，而不是阻碍作用。（财富中文网）

    译者：严匡正

    This year's RSA Conference, an annual gathering of the nation's top information security executives, has already had its share of controversy. But most of the companies in attendance -- both big and small -- are there simply to show off their latest and greatest cybercrime-fighting technologies.

    Lucky for them, the growing number of high-profile cyber-attacks have led corporations to spend more and more on security tools. According to research firm Gartner, the information security market will grow from an estimated $67 billion last year to $95 billion by 2017. But firewalls -- yes, even next-generation firewalls -- and anti-virus software are no longer enough. That's why vendors like Cisco (CSCO), Juniper Networks (JNPR) and newer players like Palo Alto Networks (PANW) are branching out.

    To find out more about customers' changing buying patterns and the rise of new, more open approaches to gather and share threat-intelligence data, Fortune caught up with Amnon Bar-Lev, the president of Israel-based Check Point Software Technologies (CHKP), one of the IT security industry's leading providers.

    Fortune: What are customers asking you for? What are you hearing here at RSA?

    Bar-Lev: There are a couple of trends happening in this industry. One is the move from purely firewall [-based protection] to more threat prevention. All of the firewall vendors in the world today have next-generation firewalls; it really became a commodity. But people understand that firewall is not enough. So they are adding more and more technology into that space -- anti-bots, different threat prevention activities, threat emulation, and IPS ["intrusion prevention system" --Ed.] for sure.

    The second trend is clearly consolidation. I think people used to have a lot of point products because they felt that's the best-of-breed approach. But this has changed. We have the best IPS in the market and it's integrated, not a dedicated box. We don't think it should be a dedicated box. There's a significant amount of growth that we're seeing coming from consolidation. People are looking for more protection, they don't feel secure enough.

    Which industries are most freaked out?

    I don't know if they're freaked out, but clearly the finance industry is probably the most advanced industry regarding security. They're quite advanced in looking for new solutions and technologies and implementing them. Second is probably telcos. They have two different networks, their operation part and their IT part. The IT part is like any other enterprise, but they're quite advanced. Operations are much more conservative, but down time is a very big issue.

    But there was a major change in the industry when LTE [the fourth-generation wireless technology --Ed.] came out, which is all IP-based. So they have to protect base stations and the connection between base stations and now they started implementing more and more security. But we have over 100,000 customers in any vertical you can think of.

    What piece of all of these various products people are buying today do you not have and want to have?

    I think we have most of it. There's something called a web application firewall and we don't really play in this space. There are a lot of things under development now, like to better secure mobile devices.

    Are you hearing a lot of demand for that [mobile device security solutions]?

    I don't know if I'd say "demand," but definitely "buzz." Because nobody has a very simple, straightforward solution to solve this. Most of the things are too much of an intrusion now.

    Overall, security is not a great thing for a business to invest in because they don't see a return and they don't know how to measure a return on security. It's like armies -- how many fighter jets should an army have? You don't know. You build your own assumption. It's the same thing here about security. It depends on how much budget they have and then they spend it.

    From the other side, people want to do everything that they can. and sometimes security and functionality doesn't go together. One of the biggest challenges is to make sure security is an enabler and not a disabler.