The rise in level of cyber threats dictates that enterprises invest in new generation solutions to effectively protect assets. Essentially they should move from their current position of between Gen 2 and Gen 3, said Gil Shwed, Founder and CEO of Check Point Software Technologies.

Shwed spoke with ITWeb Africa on the sidelines of the company's annual customer and partner event, CPX 360 in Barcelona. He acknowledged that the IT security space has evolved since the company's inception in 1993, but the world has not yet lost its grip on communications security.

"In 93 the internet was smaller, the hackers were much less sophisticated, but it was much easier to get into a company's network... today it is a little bit more difficult. On the other hand the networks are much more complicated and computing systems more evolved, so there are many more and much more sophisticated ways to do so. So I don't think we are losing it, but I do think we are at an inflection point and as an industry, we need to make a generational leap into the Gen5," he said.

And where does Africa fit into the scheme of things? The company describes it as one of the fastest growing markets and it continues to focus on key hubs including Kenya and Nigeria.

Regional representatives from the company have urged businesses to avoid relying on outdated infrastructure to protect themselves from threats. Shwed acknowledges the challenges that exist.

"One of the challenges is that people don't always realise what is their first priority... 'is my first priority to secure my infrastructure, or to build infrastructure? When I build an infrastructure, how do I build it? It is really not that simple. I would imagine in Africa there are new infrastructures being built without the proper security and that is a real risk. In today's world we are all targets and you will be a target and you can be used by other people," Shwed added.

Shwed also gave his vision of cyber-security over the next five years: Nano Security, which can be embedded on every device, web or cloud service, applications and network, to protect tomorrow's hyper-connected world. "Our mission is to keep moving the cybersecurity world forward, to protect our world and our lives against all generations of cyber-attacks. Check Point Infinity delivers that protection against Gen V attacks, and we will continue to evolve our technologies to prevent the next generation of attacks," he said.

Futurist and hacker Pablos Holman showed in his keynote how hacking strategies used to infiltrate technology can be applied to creating radical solutions to global challenges, and Gioacchino Buscemi, Network Security Officer for the European Space Agency, described his approach to ensuring the security of the multi-billion dollar organisation.