Check Point Software Technologies is keeping a close eye on what it describes as Gen V or fifth generation cyber-attacks, and has tailored specific offerings that it says will protect businesses and organisations.

The company defines Gen V cyber-attacks as large-scale, fast-moving attacks cross mobile, cloud and on-premise networks.

"These sophisticated attacks easily bypass the conventional, static detection-based defences being used by most organisations today. To protect networks and data against these attacks, organisations need to move up to Gen V cyber-security," the company stated.

It has underlined the value of its Infinity Total Protection and announced three new Smart-1 security management appliances, and the focus on Nano security and cloud infrastructure protection going forward.

This week the company launched CloudGuard to protect enterprises from attacks on cloud applications and infrastructure.

According to Check Point Software Technologies enterprise cloud adoption is accelerating, enabling greater business agility and efficiencies through both deployment of hybrid cloud infrastructures like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and VMWare NSX; and migration to cloud-based applications such as Microsoft Office365, Google G-Suite, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Slack, Box, Dropbox, Egnyte and more.

"There is also an increase in multi-vector attacks on cloud workloads and cloud applications including malware, as well as increasing incidences of account hijacking," it said.

Research suggests half of all breaches of enterprise SaaS applications are the result of account hijacks.

"With cloud adoption at an all-time high, cloud security is clearly a major concern for most enterprises," said Doug Cahill, group director and senior cybersecurity analyst at market research firm, Enterprise Strategy Group.

At the company's recent CPX360 event in Barcelona, company founder and CEO Gil Shwed described 2017 as an interesting year for those in cyber security, characterised by leaked personal data in the US (with break-ins to the cloud), the NSA and CIA toolkits leaked to the internet, the French election and UK parliament being hacked, as well as the Wannacry ransomware attack, among other global incidents.

Shwed referred to a World Economic Forum (WEF) report which stated that in terms of risk, cyber-attacks rank highly and are two out of the five attacks most likely to happen in the next year.

"That shows us how vulnerable we are in the world... we are now facing mega-attacks that we call the fifth generation of attacks or Gen V attacks. In 2018 we are at affliction point in cyber security, the attacks are sophisticated, complicated and we need security to combat that....and this is clearly the time to implement protections. Security professionals must step up."