I've been using Check Point Application Control since the last three years, where I've been an administrator for Check Point firewall. Within that span, I have encountered multiple clients where Application Control was being used.
My main use case for Check Point Application Control is mostly for granularization of what to access and what not to access, particularly for a client with more than 3,000 users. For such a large number of users, it's always a hectic task for the administrators to give granularization on what the client has access to and what they do not. So, with the help of Check Point Application Control, we can define the granularity that reduces the risk of unauthorized access and potential breaches. Additionally, it has helped us improve efficiency and enhance real-time threat prevention capability.
I have unique scenarios where Check Point Application Control made a difference in a client environment that wasn't categorized, resulting in bandwidth issues. When we implemented Check Point there, we granularized the teams by categorizing what all access each team needed, which helped us improve bandwidth efficiency overall.
The best features of Check Point Application Control are advanced threat detection, SSL inspection policies, application categorization, and custom application detection, all of which stand out due to the zero trust security model Check Point follows along with several other enhancements.
The custom application detection feature in Check Point Application Control has been helpful in my environment where we define access for different teams. For instance, the HR team needs access to Facebook and other social media platforms, while the marketing team requires access to promote new features and products we are implementing. By regulating application-centric access, we increase the overall productivity for users while restricting them from browsing non-essential sites.
Application categorization and SSL inspection are crucial because to achieve full effectiveness of application control, it is necessary to have HTTPS inspection enabled.
Check Point Application Control has positively impacted my organization by increasing productivity and optimizing bandwidth. By filtering out the level of access that users have, we limit potential threats from malicious links, ultimately increasing both security and user productivity.
I can share metrics reflecting the impact of Check Point Application Control, where we have seen a reduction in the number of tickets created, indicating fewer incidents. Also, bandwidth has been optimized, especially after categorization where we previously faced overutilization issues.