WTF?! AI agents are increasingly becoming the driving force behind large-scale cyber-swatting campaigns and dangerous security incidents. Israeli cybersecurity company Check Point believes an AI-powered firewall could be the answer to this emerging agent threat — and hopes customers will pay for it indefinitely.
Check Point recently introduced its new Firewall-as-a-Subscription offering, giving organizations access to comprehensive network protection designed for the AI era. The Israeli cybersecurity company says customers will no longer need to purchase expensive hardware appliances before getting started with the new platform. However, they are locked into monthly or annual payments for at least three years before they can switch to something else.
Simply put, Check Point has transformed one of the most basic network services into a cloud-based subscription – and expects customers to be grateful for it, too. The Firewall-as-a-Subscription service is based on R82.20, Check Point’s latest firewall platform designed to provide enhanced protection and management capabilities for bots, chatbots and AI agents.
The R82.20 platform includes an “agent console” for managing firewall devices and services. Check Point uses AI-powered technology to mitigate AI-powered attacks, a strategy that is becoming a common refrain among organizations facing increasingly aggressive AI agents and bots.
The Firewall-as-a-Subscription package also includes additional features such as Check Point Force hardware firewalls tailored to an organization’s needs, SandBlast’s AI-powered threat prevention, and security updates that can be applied on the fly. The company also promises “premium” support, meaning a (competent) human agent is available to respond to customer support tickets.
Check Point’s proposal for subscription-based firewalls revolves around rising hardware costs. Companies are seeing their budgets shrink while security devices often go long periods without significant upgrades. According to Check Point, if a current AI firewall can be bundled into a single subscription with a predictable monthly cost, businesses will be more inclined to upgrade and take advantage of the latest features of the all-in-one R82.20 platform.
Avi Rembaum, president of global technical sales at Check Point, said: “With Firewall-as-a-Subscription, we are making our most advanced AI security, threat prevention and agent management available through a simple subscription so organizations can secure their AI transformation today.”
According to the company, customers must commit to the firewall subscription for at least 36 months. In return, they can expect significant feature upgrades – and potentially hardware upgrades – over the same period.
Check Point’s subscription-based approach to network security may sound crazy, but AI agents are becoming a real threat that internet services will have to deal with in one way or another. Big tech companies like Amazon and Meta are fighting over the ability of their agents to shop freely online, while Nvidia is proposing a security platform to keep fraudulent AI agents at bay. AI agents are bombarding the servers of some of the most popular Internet services, including Wikipedia. Meanwhile, someone in Delaware thinks letting AI agents run entire companies is the best idea in the world.
