TORONTO – Founded in 1993 by three computer geeks fresh out
of the army, Check Point makes systems that are considered
the industry standard in Internet security.
Amnon Bar-Lev
TORONTO – Israel’s status as a leader in high tech can in part
be attributed to such Israeli companies as Check Point
Software Technologies Ltd.
Founded in 1993 by three computer geeks fresh out
of the army, Check Point makes systems that are considered
the industry standard in Internet security.
Amnon Bar-Lev
“The company has grown from scratch into a billion
dollar enterprise with more than 1,000 employees,” said
Check Point’s vice-president of global field operations,
Amnon Bar-Lev, who was in Toronto last week.
Sales last year were $924 million and are expected to
top $1 billion this year, he said.
Check Point, a world leader in network
security software,
sells 40 per cent of its products in North America, 40
per cent in Europe and 20 per cent in Asia and Oceania.
Its firewall software has been bought by almost every
Fortune 500 company, as well as by the Israel Defence
Forces.
Check Point hasn’t been affected by the boycott campaign
against Israel, he noted in an interview, after a
presentation in which he introduced two new products.
“We’re a global company with a global community
of customers,” he said.
A public company with headquarters in Israel, Check
Point has 80 offices around the globe and trades on the
NASDAQ exchange.
The Canadian branch, established in the late 1990s,
is headed by Paul Comessotti.
Check Point was founded by Gil Shwed and two
army buddies, Shlomo Kramer and Marius Nacht, who
worked in a top-secret computer unit.
At the time, the Internet was used mainly by academics
and the military.
After leaving the army, they used their knowledge
and experience to build a security system that allowed
users to tap into confidential information while denying
access to others.
Check Point’s Firewall-1 and VPN-1 software took
the computer world by storm.
“We created a total security solution,” said Bar-Lev,
47, a Tel Aviv University graduate in computer science
and management who has been a Check Point employee
for the past five years.
In his presentation, Bar-Lev unveiled two security
systems: Abra, a plug-and-play device that lets users
gain access to corporate data from any PC, while DLP
(Data Loss Prevention) ensures that e-mails aren’t accidentally
sent to unintended recipients.
Bar-Lev described both products as easy to install,
simple and straightforward to use and reasonably priced.
Observing that the high-tech sector has been a major
driver of Israel’s economy,
Bar-Lev said it continues
to attract investors from both inside and outside
the country.