EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

Jony Fischbein, Check Point Software’s Chief Information Security Officer, has over 20 years of industry experience, and leads the company in maintaining a strong security posture, securing employees, securing partners, and securing customers.

In this second interview of our two-part interview series, Jony Fischbein offers additional insights into the world of remote work, and the state of cyber security post-lockdown. Did you miss part 1? Click here.

While teams remain remote, what are the keys to collaborating successfully and securely?

We have all heard about Zoom, MS Teams and many other cool collaboration platforms. Here’s my advice for protecting employees’ identities and personal data:

Use multi-factor authentication (MFA). This security system requires users to verify their identities. It adds another layer of security and is becoming a universal standard across enterprises.

Employ a data loss prevention (DLP) solution to help you track your data as it moves through cyber space. DLP solutions can send you alerts and engage in remediation activities upon observing a user maliciously or accidentally sharing organizational data. DLP solutions are especially useful for organizations that need to protect personally identifiable information (PPI) and that must comply with certain regulatory standards.

Organizations must take precautions to ensure that file sharing, when necessary, does not jeopardize the security of any sensitive information. Get web applications with secure file sharing options.

When it comes to policies and cyber security awareness, communicate with end-users and provide guidance. Simple security strategies delivered early-on can prevent major security problems later.

Together with SOC integration and monitoring tools, these measures will allow seamless and secure remote work.

In addition, read the news carefully, and work closely with cloud security providers to ensure that your corporate assets are as secure as possible. In my case, on more than one occasion, I consulted my incident response team to make sure that decisions and new directions wouldn’t endanger the organization’s security posture.

As businesses reopen, what do you think that the exit strategy from remote work will look like?

When the stay-at-home orders finally end, and employees start returning to the office, we’re going to have to take more of a hybrid approach to security. We’ll go back to traditional security plans, and we will also need to maintain the flexibility that we gained as a result of the coronavirus.

What should CISOs remember in the wake of this coronavirus-related transition to remote work? 

Rather than thinking of the coronavirus and stay-at-home orders as an obstacle, CISOs should see the situation as an opportunity to demonstrate our enabling approach and agile capabilities. We were able to react swiftly, to change systems, and to enable our enterprises to keep going.

Executives and the whole organization felt the importance and positive influence that the cyber security team has on day-to-day operations.

Did you gain new insights from this interview? Check back soon for additional content featuring Jony Fischbein.