Three Israeli engineers put ‘state’ into the firewall: how Check Point shaped network security

Gil Shwed, Marius Nacht and Shlomo Kramer founded Check Point Software in Israel in 1993.

The company’s breakthrough was stateful inspection, a firewall approach that tracked the context of network connections rather than evaluating each packet in isolation.

What followed was not a straight expansion into every adjacent market. Check Point Software moved through specific technical and commercial turning points that gradually changed what customers expected from it.

FireWall-1 made stateful inspection commercially important

Check Point’s FireWall-1 product helped popularise software-based enterprise firewalls as commercial internet use accelerated.

Cybersecurity markets change as applications, users and infrastructure move. The significance of this step was therefore not only the product itself, but the way it allowed the company to follow customers into a broader threat environment.

The 1996 Nasdaq IPO arrived before cybersecurity became a giant sector

Check Point went public in June 1996 and expanded globally as businesses connected more systems to the internet.

For Check Point Software, access to public markets was more than a branding milestone. It increased financial transparency and created another route to fund expansion, acquisitions or long-term product development.

VPN technology joined perimeter security

The company broadened from firewalling into virtual private networking and unified gateway products as remote connectivity grew.

Cybersecurity markets change as applications, users and infrastructure move. The significance of this step was therefore not only the product itself, but the way it allowed the company to follow customers into a broader threat environment.

Cloud and mobile forced the portfolio beyond the network edge

Check Point expanded into cloud security, endpoint protection, mobile security and security operations as applications moved outside traditional corporate networks.

This shift also changed how customers consumed the technology. Instead of treating software or infrastructure as a one-off purchase, the relationship became more continuous, with updates, capacity and services delivered over time.

Nadav Zafrir succeeded founder Gil Shwed as chief executive

Founder Gil Shwed moved to executive chairman while Nadav Zafrir became CEO, marking a major leadership transition after more than three decades.

The AI era increased the value of capabilities Check Point Software had already been developing. Compute, data, networking, software or infrastructure that once served narrower workloads became relevant to much larger AI systems.

The firewall company had to learn there is no single perimeter

As of 18 September 2026, check Point now sells a broad cybersecurity platform spanning network, cloud, endpoint, email and security operations.

The distance between “FireWall-1 made stateful inspection commercially important” and “Nadav Zafrir succeeded founder Gil Shwed as chief executive” captures the larger story: Check Point Software kept extending the value of its original expertise into new products, markets or infrastructure.

For TechnologyBlog.co.za, this page is intended to serve as the company-history cornerstone for future Check Point Software coverage, so product and company-news articles can link back to one factual brand background instead of repeating the full origin story.

Primary sources reviewed include Check Point’s official FAQ and corporate-history materials. Official company identity cross-checked against https://www.checkpoint.com.