AI Governance & Security Vendor Wiki

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Check Point Software

Primary category: network-security-sase. Also listed in dlp and ai-runtime-security. Parent of lakera (closed 2025-10-22).

One-liner — The Israeli firewall incumbent (Quantum gateways, Harmony SASE/workspace, CloudGuard). In 2025–26 it spent heavily to become an AI-security platform: it bought Lakera, Cyata and others, and it now ships prompt-injection blocking and shadow-AI and MCP discovery in its firewall software.

What it does — Three product families on one management layer (the Infinity Platform):

  • Quantum. Network firewalls (physical and virtual NGFW). This is the installed base and still a large share of revenue, though appliance demand was soft in Q2 2026.
  • Harmony. Workspace security: endpoint, email, browser, Harmony SASE (the cloud-delivered SSE/ZTNA), and Harmony DLP (endpoint plus browser DLP that covers “endpoints, browsers, web applications, and GenAI tools”, with copy-paste blocking and AI-assisted classification).
  • CloudGuard. Cloud and WAF.

The AI Defense Plane sits across all three. It is “a unified control plane for discovering, governing, and protecting AI”. Its first flagship is the AI Network Firewall, shipped 2026-07-30 in firewall release R82.20. It discovers shadow and sanctioned AI apps and agents, discovers MCP traffic and the servers and tools in use, blocks prompt injection inline “before they reach the LLM”, and can stop sensitive data leaving based on a prompt’s intent. Other enforcement points are a standalone API (the lakera Guard lineage), an endpoint agent, a containerised firewall for AI data centres, and the WAF.

Naming / provenance — Company: Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. Product names change often (Quantum, Harmony, CloudGuard, Infinity, GenAI Protect, and now AI Defense Plane), so match quotes to the current SKU. Founding year is not verified this pass; the lakera page notes a “©1994” copyright line in Check Point’s boilerplate.

Ownership & viability — public, NASDAQ: CHKP. FY2025 revenue was $2,725M (+6%). Q2 2026 revenue was $674M, up only 1%. Security subscriptions grew 12% while product (appliance) revenue fell. Management says email security, CTEM and AI security together grew ARR by more than 40% (call commentary, secondary). It is a profitable, slow-growing incumbent buying growth in AI security. AI-security M&A ledger:

  • lakera: announced 2025-09-16, closed 2025-10-22. The audited 20-F gives ~$201.8M total consideration and the results release says ~$190M net cash. These are different measures, not a contradiction.
  • Cyata (AI-agent discovery and governance) and Cyclops (exposure management / CAASM): announced 2026-02-12, completed in Q1 2026 for ~$92M net cash combined.
  • Rotate: talent acquisition, Q1 2026.
  • Deepchecks (LLM evaluation): definitive agreement for the team and IP, ~2026-05-19, est. ~$20M. Secondary sources only. Closing not confirmed by Check Point primary material.

Positioning & differentiators —

  • AI controls on the firewall you already run. Against zscaler and netskope, which put AI controls in a cloud proxy, Check Point puts them in the on-prem or virtual firewall through a software upgrade (R82.20). If you already run Quantum gateways, you need no new infrastructure.
  • Owns a prompt-injection engine. With lakera it owns a dedicated AI guardrail engine, as palo-alto-networks (Prisma AIRS / Protect AI), cisco (cisco-ai-defense) and zscaler (SPLX) do. This is the 2025 pattern of platforms buying their guardrails.
  • DLP is a module, not a standalone franchise. Harmony DLP covers endpoint, browser and GenAI prompt paths. It does not have the depth of forcepoint, microsoft-purview or Digital Guardian in classification and incident workflow. It makes sense when you are consolidating on Harmony.
  • MCP visibility at the network layer. Network-level MCP discovery is uncommon among firewall vendors as of mid-2026 (vendor-stated). It gives visibility, not authorization. Compare dedicated mcp-gateway products.

Who should choose them / anti-fit — Fits a firm already standardised on Check Point firewalls or Harmony that wants AI-usage visibility, prompt-level data controls and prompt-injection defence without adding a new inline vendor. It is the natural choice for a Check Point estate. Anti-fit: a cloud-first firm with no on-prem perimeter. A cloud SSE (zscaler, netskope) matches that architecture better. Also a firm that needs a best-of-breed DLP program (classification, case management, insider-risk workflows) rather than DLP as a feature, and one that wants a model-neutral guardrail vendor with no network-security incumbent attached.

Known weaknesses / gotchas — Revenue growth is low and appliance revenue is shrinking, so the AI push is partly defensive. Many recent acquisitions are being integrated at once (Lakera, Cyata, Cyclops, Deepchecks). Expect product renames and roadmap churn. The Lakera trademark has a 1-year useful life in the 20-F (see lakera). As with every edge-appliance vendor, firewall CVEs are patch-critical. Specific KEV entries not verified here. DLP was written in by only 1 survey respondent (in production), so evidence that it is used as a primary DLP at hedge funds is thin.

Deployment & data handling — Firewalls are on-prem or virtual. Harmony SASE and the Infinity Portal are SaaS. DLP runs on endpoint and browser. Enforcement (firewall, endpoint) is local, while management, threat intelligence and some classification are cloud-based, hence data_leaves_tenancy: partial. Whether AI Network Firewall prompt inspection runs entirely on the gateway or calls a Check Point cloud model is unverified and is the key question for MNPI-sensitive traffic. TLS inspection is required for any prompt-content control.

Integrations & partnerships — Infinity Platform across network, cloud and workspace. Standalone AI guardrail API (Lakera). mcp_support: gateway refers to MCP discovery and visibility at the firewall (vendor-stated, 2026-07-30), not a full MCP gateway with per-tool authorization. SIEM export and IdP integrations exist but are not itemised here.

Compliance & FS traction — Unverified for named hedge-fund or asset-manager customers. Check Point firewalls are common in financial services generally. Not evidenced here.

Commercial — Appliances plus subscriptions, increasingly sold as Infinity enterprise agreements. AI Network Firewall is “available now” (packaging and price not public).

Open questions

  • Does AI Network Firewall / AI Defense Plane prompt inspection run locally on the gateway or in Check Point’s cloud? What retention applies?
  • Closing status and price of Deepchecks (primary source).
  • How Lakera Guard, GenAI Protect and AI Defense Plane SKUs map to each other after integration.
  • Harmony DLP depth vs dedicated DLP (EDM/fingerprinting, OCR, case management): not evaluated.
  • Founding year and certifications (SOC 2 / ISO 27001 / FedRAMP for SaaS products), not checked this pass.

Sources

History

  • [2026-10-23] Page created and researched. Added because of an Oct-2026 CTO survey write-in under DLP (1 in production). Primary network-security-sase (firewall/SASE core). Cross-listed dlp (Harmony DLP incl. GenAI prompts) and ai-runtime-security (Lakera ownership + AI Defense Plane / AI Network Firewall prompt-injection blocking, GA 2026-07-30). Linked to existing lakera page.

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