Check Point Harmony Endpoint Reviews

We use Harmony on every PC to add additional protection primarily to file downloads. We use it alongside our classic AV solution (non-Check Point). Every file is scanned via Threat Emulation (virtual sandboxing) and Threat Extraction (sanitizing files by removal of active content).

The anti-phishing module scans every new web form, that the user is trying to enter data in. Based on visual similarities to known sign-in websites (like Microsoft Azure's) it blocks the phishing ones that are similar.

The forensics module allows us to retrospectively search for a wide number of events on all PCs (for example for now-known malicious URLs or files)

Harmony mainly filled the gap in e-mail security, allowing us to check what the user has clicked (and blocks it when needed).

It also has a nice phishing form detection blocking users from entering their credentials on many real-life phishing websites.

The forensic log search (as described above) allows us to quickly do a retrospective search for a file or URL that we found malicious.

The features come in handy during Covid-related extended remote work times, when we were able to provide better security to our employees working off-premises.

The most valuable features are threat emulation and threat extraction. Despite some false positives, it gives quite good security for file downloading.

Phishing form detection based on on-site similarity (not only on URL) has at least 50% efficiency in real-life examples that passed our antispam systems (and most of the false negatives are pretty general forms, which are not so convincing to the user).

The forensics allows us to search retrospectively for an URL or file opened by users, for example, when you need to quickly check who else has clicked on a phishing link.

Unfortunately, the web (cloud) management system and log search performance are quite bad. Sometimes it takes longer to perform simple tasks and scrolling the results of the log is annoying due to frequent refreshes.

The exception management was always the Achilles' heel of Check Point products. It was a bit improved in Harmony, still, you can't for example exclude a site from anti-phishing form checks (which could take a few secs) while not excluding it from attachment scanning.

The forensics module still doesn't allow for HTTPS URLs entered by users. You are limited to DNS search or IP lookup. This doesn't make sense from a technical standpoint as the URLs are passing Harmony checks so they are known to the solution.

Anti-phishing cannot scan a form located inside an HTML e-mail attachment (which is a common practice in real-life attacks).

I've used the solution for one year.

Cloud management performance is sometimes quite bad for day-to-day tasks, although it is not related to the number of endpoints.

If you limit browser extension via GPO, there might be conflicts with Harmony's that generally overwrites your config in some modes (per user vs per device enforcement).

Pricing isn't cheap, especially if you want to extend forensic log retention period from default one week.

It's still being actively developed and still needs some improvement.

In general, it's quite good now regarding security and might get even better.

We primarily use the solution as antivirus, antimalware, et cetera. It's standard antivirus software. Every PC must have an antivirus on it in our organization.

It just has standard antivirus. It does what it needs to.

The solution offers good performance. 

Its stability has been good.

The initial setup is easy.

There is no real scalability.

We'd like to see a friendlier user interface.

I've been using the solution for one year.

The stability is decent and the performance is good. There are no bugs or glitches and it doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable. 

This solution does not scale. It's only installed on your PC and it has nothing to do with scale.

We have 2,000 users right now. We do plan to increase usage within a year.

We have never reached out to technical support. I can't speak to how helpful or responsive they are. 

I've also used Microsoft Defender.

I'm not sure if the company used a different solution previously. I just joined this company one year and they had already started using Check Point.

The installation process is very simple and straightforward. The deployment is quick. It only takes a few minutes. 

We have individuals in our department that can handle deployment and maintenance tasks. It only takes about 3% of our personnel.

I handled the initial setup myself. I did not need the assistance of any consultants or integrators. 

Users need to pay a yearly licensing fee.

We are using the latest version of the solution. 

I'm much more likely to suggest Microsoft Defender to other users. 

I'd rate the solution at a seven out of ten.

The solution is primarily used for protecting endpoints.

Harmony Endpoint is a complete endpoint security solution built to protect the remote workforce from today’s complex threat landscape. 

It prevents the most imminent threats to the endpoint such as ransomware, phishing or drive-by malware, while quickly minimizing breach impact with autonomous detection and response. This way, your organization gets all the endpoint protection it needs, at the quality it deserves, in a single, efficient, and cost-effective solution and able to detect/block/monitor and response to any malicious activity happening on the endpoint. With the single agent deployed on the endpoint, it's able to provide complete EDPR functionality with help of multiple security features/modules.

Harmony Endpoint provides complete EDPR functionality using multiple modules/features which are available with the solution such as Compliance, Anti-Malware, Media Encryption and Port Protection, Firewall and Application Control, Full Disk Encryption, Remote access VPN, Capsule DOC, URL Filtering. Anti-Bot, Anti-Ransomware, Behaviour Guard, Forensic, Threat Emulation, and Anit-Exploit.

We are able to protect endpoints from any next generation of attack and modules can be enabled/disabled based on organization requirements. Harmony Endpoint is able to detect/block/monitor and mitigate attacks at an endpoint using logs which is been captured by an agent installed on the endpoint. 

Agents send telemetry/metadata to a centralized console for forensic purposes. Policies for the endpoints can be created based on the user name or endpoint. 

Integration with a threat intel platform for blocking any attack at an early stage is great. The complete solution can be hosted on-prem or via SaaS - a cloud remote access VPN is provided as default in base licence. 

Different policy servers can be configured and hosted at each location so the agent does not have to reach a central location to take policy updates. Policy servers are created using OVF file which can be installed on any virtual platform such as VMware. This offers a more secure way of communication between the policy server and the management console (using certificate/SIC communication). 

Agent footprints are low on endpoints and integration with other security solutions is great for sharing threat intel within an organizational network or over the cloud. Anti-ransomware modules are very strong and are able to detect any ransomware attacks at a very early stage. 

The host-based firewall policy configuration is simple. 

The solution allows us to reduce the attack surface via:

• Host Firewall
• Application Control
• Compliance
NGAV: Prevent Attacks Before They Run

• Anti-Malware
• ML based NGAV
  GAV: Runtime Detection and Protection
  
  • Anti-Ransomware
  • Behavioral Guard
  • Anti-Bot
  • Anti-Exploit
    Web Protection
    
    • Zero-day Phishing site protection
    • Corporate Password Reuse Protection
    • URL Filtering
    • Malicious site protection
      Attack Investigation and Response
      
      • Forensics collection and detection
      • Forensics report – incident visibility, MITRE mapping
      • Automated attack chain full sterilization
      • Ransomware encrypted files restoration
      • Threat Hunting
        Data Protection
        
        • Host Encryption
        • Media encryption and port protection
          Mobile Protection
          
          • iOS Protection
          • Android Protection
            Centralized Management
            
            • Cloud Management
            • On-Prem Management 

The solution has limitations if it's hosted on-premise or as a SaaS. You need to plan accordingly on the model that suits the organization. On-Premise, for example, does not support threat hunting. Hosting on the cloud will have an impact on the user who is connecting to a central location for internet access as it will add infra cost. 

We also need to look over the expertise of the support executives who require more training and focus as well in this service area and if we can think over the cost of the product.

We were looking for a solution as complete as possible to replace the existing antivirus and, if possible, integrate it with other products that we have, such as the CheckPoint firewall.

We decided to use the Check Point SandBlast agent to prevent ransomware on users' computers.

We subsequently expanded the scope of the solution to detect malicious activity on our network.

It is a very complete product but you have to know how to parameterize it well to avoid high CPU consumption.

It is also missed that it does not have a client for Linux.

Check Point SandBlast Agent allows us to centralize all the security software used in a console and avoid, mainly, ransomware in the company.

Many of our users have laptops to carry out teleworking, with this tool we can secure their web browsing, and in the event of suffering some type of attack, the computer is notified by SandBlast Agent and provides information about it and the security actions carried out. It even allows you to restore files modified during the attack.

You also have the option of performing a forensic analysis of the infected computer by providing a lot of information.

What we liked the most about the product, apart from detecting any attempted attack, is the graphical interface.

The graphical interface is very easy to use and intuitive, which greatly facilitates the work and greatly facilitates the work and the location of threats on the users' computers.

We also highly value the anti-ransomware functionality, which creates a copy of the files on the computers and in case of infection by ransomware is able to restore them to a date when the computer was not infected.

It is a very complete product but you have to know how to parameterize it well to avoid high CPU consumption.

SandBlast Agent had moments in which it had a high load, we escalated it to the CheckPoint support that helped us to stabilize it. We had a problem with the parameterization of the solution. Once corrected by following the CheckPoint instructions, everything worked normally again.

It is also missed that it does not have a Linux client since some administrators use this type of operating system.

I have been using SandBlast for over 1 year now.

It is a very mature product that provides great stability in service.

It is a very mature product with good performance. Currently we have not needed to use its scalability.

Our experience with customer service and support is very good, the support is totally professional and responds quickly.

Positive

Previously, we used third-party antivirus software and switched to Check Point SandBlast Agent for its ease of integration with other Check Point products and to improve protection against ransomware.

Initial setup is easy, policies and user groups are defined and then applied. Then we adjusted the policies until we got what we needed.

We implemented it with an internal team and when we had doubts, we consulted the manufacturer's support with a totally satisfactory result due to their great experience.

Currently we have not quantified our ROI but we have avoided the loss of information on user computers due to viruses, ransomware, ...

The cost of the solution is similar to other products on the market.

We have been evaluating other products, such as Bitdefender and Broadcom (Symantec Enterprise).

It is a very complete product but you have to know how to parameterize it well to avoid high CPU consumption.

It is also missed that it has no client for linux.

We wanted to consolidate a several-point solution to one endpoint. With so many new cyber threats and having a growing environment, what we had in place had too many gaps or grey areas between solutions and vendors. 

Also, with a rapid transition to hybrid working, we needed to reconsider our end point protection. Having used Check Point NGFW for five years, it seemed like a good fit. Also, the experience and long term position of Check Point in the security market gave us good confidence. This mature position in the market also helped with finding several resellers and experience.

There is one pane of glass to all end points, events, and incidents which is providing our team with a clear picture of the environment. We have already experienced several items that previously just got lost in the greyness of a multi-solution environment.

The rollout and management of devices were very simple. It allowed for a rollout of 200+ devices - all remote - in just a couple of weeks. Having cloud-based management also really helped get started, as, within the day, we had a POC running and just started to grow from there.

Cloud management and reporting are great. The management interface is very simple and easy to navigate. Just getting a logon to start is very helpful. The Check Point support at this stage was great. While it was very simple and intuitive, having someone talk over the defaults provided recommendations that helped us jump forward very easily.

Again, the cloud management service has a several inbuilt default reports which are easy to customize and provide more visibility than we have had previously with several solutions. 

The web filter service could be improved. It would be great to have a self-service user request for sites. An administrator would still need to approve, however. 

The block screen could have a nicer screen or allow it to be customized.

The list of exceptions for URLs could be improved with a separate screen for a large list of exceptions. Having the same exception list for mobile and endpoints would be great. 

We are hoping to transition to the SOC based service. Think this is still new; we're looking forward to get more information and test.

We just transitioned to Check Point Harmony, and have been running it now for six weeks.

Stability seems very strong, however, it's early days.

Scalability seems very strong, however, it is early days.

We don't know yet.

Positive

The move to hybrids has been working well during Covid.

The initial setup was not complex. 

We did both - we implemented through a vendor and in-house.

The product offers a great lower cost than previous solutions.

I'd advise users to talk to your Check Point partners or find a good one.

We spent a long time reviewing the marketplace and comparison sites however, we did not test anything.

I am very positive in terms of the solution and Check Point in general.

We're using the product to secure our endpoint users internally and for a hybrid workplace setting. 

We wanted to replace Windows Defender with a more professional solution and, after checking some vendors, we opted for Check Point since we've been using their firewall product for quite some time.

The license tier is also nice as we can buy licenses to specific cases and save some money on that end. 

The inclusion of URL filtering was a plus since we replaced another product we used in the company.

We're able to secure all endpoints and manage them from a single console. 

Being able to set policies linked to Active Directory objects made the administration of the platform much simpler and the documentation of those policies very easy. We can just change a setting on Active Directory and the computer gets a totally different policy in a matter of minutes. Of course, this syncronization time must be set up in advance on an agent machine. However, it is a very easy task to do.

The drive encryption was another feature we implemented with the product.

The management of all endpoint settings from a single portal does not need to use more than this one to set all the policies. We used the deployment of this product to push drive encryption to some of the more sensitive users of the company since we haven't had any solution to this problem.

We're also using application control to block some unwanted apps from being executed on clients, however, sometimes the management of those apps can be a little time-consuming due to newer versions being released often.

The lack of time setting for policy application, for example, from 8 am to 9 am, to have a policy applied and then from 9 am to 10 am for another one.

A more responsive UI would be nice. Sometimes, with a lot of clients (1,000) the UI is a bit sluggish.

The operation of reinstalling a machine also requires a bit of work since we have to delete the object before installing the app on a formatted operating system. It should be able to lock settings and licenses to the machine ID that never changes with an OS installation.

I've used the solution for one year.

In our organization, we are creating Trusted, Untrusted, and DMZ zones. 

We use URL filtering, antivirus and threat prevention, as well as detect and monitoring of all the outside traffic that enters the organization. 

It downloads the latest signature from the Check Point database for anti-malware and it keeps my laptop clear from malware files and attacks. 

We are now able to regularly scan after implementing this product and now we feel happy. In many ways, it made us feel safe. 

We have installed this tool for every user.

The Harmony vendor is excellent at providing various features and updates regularly. 

The main advantage of the solution is the ability to implement complete security policies for the terminals in order to address how apps are installed on corporate devices. 

It secures our organization from attacks from ransomware, malware, et cetera. 

The most important feature is the file scan capability. It saves us from attacks by modified files. In this way, we secure our internal traffic from outside attackers.

The below features are most valuable:

1) Anti-malware

2) Threat protection with signature

3) Anti-ransomware

4) Anti-phishing (support for all leading browsers)

1) Anti-malware (to detect and prevent malicious activity)

2)  Threat protection with signatures to prevent the threat on the basis of a signature. Signatures are stored in the database. 

I would suggest that the Check Point team always allocates an SME to all the vendors before implementation. This will help when the endpoint agent cannot integrate with another product or third party. It could expand the functionalities too. In addition to security functionality, they could incorporate Mobile Device Management (MDM) functionalities such as remote device management, administration of installed applications, et cetera. 

The solution needs more alerts to warn of attacks. 

I have used this product for the last two years.

We did not use a different solution previously.

The setup is somewhat complex the first time, however, it is not too complicated or difficult.

We implemented this product as per the organization's requirements. We did it ourselves.

Our ROI has definitely improved after installing this product.

It is a fair price and according to the quality of the product offered.

There have been improvements in the way our organization functions, as, from an administrative perspective, and being available and taking upgrades out of our court if our users need it, it's going to be out there hanging off of AWS's internet or environment. There is no downtime.  

Theirs (AWS) is probably more highly available than ours. Other than that, it's supposed to be the same product that we were using. It's a Check Point Management Station to a Check Point Management Station in the cloud. Basically, it's not that much of a difference. We have upgraded all the clients since, and we're on one of the later versions of the VPN clients that are supported by the new Management Station. The old Management Station wasn't supporting the newer clients anymore.

The new clients seem to be faster and more stable. Those are improvements that everyone in the company can appreciate. They can VPN and connect faster. They're more resilient. I've noticed that they try to reconnect. If our internet goes out for 20 minutes and you VPN'd in, it will actually reconnect on its own at the same token, which is amazing. Before, if only the slightest instability of the internet connection disconnected you from VPN, you were then required to put in your RSA token and password, and username. That is annoying for people as a lot of people's WiFi's aren't that great and/or they're in some airport or something and might momentarily disconnect.

We love that we don't have to upgrade it anymore. They take care of that.

The upgrade process was nice with the new Management Station compared to the old one. I like how they have the clients already available. I didn't have to download them and upload them as I did with the old Management Station.

We're happy with the solution overall as it takes away the administrative overhead of operating it and patching it and being able to also sign in through the web browser anywhere as opposed to just having to VPN back to our work and connect to the Management Station in order to use it. We can just use the Check Point portal and just use any browser anywhere. That gives us more options, which we like. 

I've noticed they're constantly updating the interface and making it easier to use, which I appreciate. When we first started using it, it was really laggy and it was really slow and it was hard to sort some of the computers and users, however, they make updates almost every time that I log in. It gets better and better every day. It has gotten better and it's not as slow as it was.

There seem to be constant improvements happening, which you can't say for everything. We don't have to upgrade to get the benefits of the improvements, either. That takes a lot off of our plate and allows us to focus on other things. We're taking the good with the bad and the bad seem to be one-offs and we're looking forward to the future.

Therefore, the most valuable feature is its ability to take the management and the administration of the product off of our plate and onto their plate. We don't have to worry about upgrading it, creating downtime, working off-hours, doing all the research and stress of seeing if it's compatible, if there are problems, letting them test it. That's nice. Previously, we would upgrade our products or patch them maybe two to four times a year, depending on if there's a security vulnerability. Each time we do something like that, it was about three to four hours of downtime. Now, that process doesn't exist. 

Before, with on-premise, we had two Management Stations. One was primary, one was secondary and there were two different data centers in case one data center was down. The other one would come up and be the Management Station for all of the clients. Now, in this case, we only have one. It's in their cloud. Their cloud is in AWS. It's a great thing. It's resilient by design and it provides redundancy in a single source of administration for us. We like that too

It would be ideal if they had a migration tool of some sort.

There were some caveats that we encountered on the new Management Station. For example, they had some features that were not supported by older clients. There are the clients that are running on the laptops, and there are the Management Stations, and then we had one on-premise, which was older in terms of the clients that we were running. Then we had the new Management Station in the Cloud that Check Point is administering as it is a SaaS, which is a benefit.

The newer Management Station has features that it enforced on the clients that the clients weren't able to support. For example, Windows Service or Windows Subsystem Linux. Everyone in my company that uses Windows Subsystem Linux, which is about 15 or 20 people, that need it on a daily basis, were running the older clients of course, as they were migrated over the new Management Station and they weren't allowed to use that. It was being blocked automatically due to the fact that that was the new policy being enforced that was literally a tick box in the new Management Station that I didn't set. Even if I enabled WSL, it didn't matter. The older clients couldn't take advantage of the new newer Management Station telling them to use it. That was annoying trying to troubleshoot that and figure it out. tNo one at Check Point really knew that was the problem. It took a while to resolve. We finally figured out upgrading may solve the problem. When we did that, we upgraded those users, however, that created a little bit of an issue in the company, as we upgraded those users. We like to test them with a small group and make sure they're stable and make sure nothing weird happens. We were forced to upgrade them without testing first. 

One thing they still haven't improved on from the old Management Station to the new Management Station, which should totally be an improvement, is when you create a Site List for the VPN clients and you deploy it from the Management Station, you are not able to get that Site List. You have to play around with something called the Track File, which is a miserable process. You have to download the client, decrypt the Track File, edit it, then upload it again to the Management Station and download the client a second time and then test it and make sure the Track File's in the right order of sites as well, due to the fact that it's kind of random how it decides to order the Site List. The Site List is what the clients use to connect to the VPN Gateway, and if you have more than one gateway, for example, for disaster recovery, which we do, then they'll need that list.

It's something they've never improved on, which I was hoping by going to the cloud and having this whole thing recreated. Since it's more advanced I thought they'd have that ability to edit the Site List with the initial download. You should be able to just add the sites and then that's it. That kind of sucks that you can't. 

Other than that, the only other thing I could complain about was that they did this process where they did some type of certificate update on the backend of all of their staff solutions. That created downtime for our VPN clients and they didn't notify us of the certificate update. We're using the product in their cloud as opposed to their product on-premise, which seemed to be more stable in that regard. They didn't communicate that out. However, when we spoke to support after about a week, they told us there was this thing they did the past week, and that's the reason why we had that problem. Everyone that had that product had that problem. That really wasn't ideal.

I've been using the solution for about a year. Maybe a little bit more. 

We've been a Check Point shop for approximately 15 years. We're very well versed in Check Point.

Seeing that it's in the Cloud, I think it's very scalable and I am impressed with that aspect of it.

For this solution, in particular, we are using 100% of the Cloud VPN Management Station and all users are phoning home up into the cloud. We're going to stick with it unless they have some severe outages or certificate updates without telling us like they did last time. Right now, there's no reason for us to change and I'm very pleased with the product.

To set it up, we relied heavily on technical support as it was new. That said, it's really the same ball of wax, so we're good now. It was just the initial setup we needed help with as it was new to us. We hadn't done much. We had to learn how to connect our software clients to the cloud. We had to use special cloud keys that were proprietary to Check Point. It's like learning a new suite from Check Point. 

We literally got on this as it was cutting edge. We're like one of their first customers using their SaaS. We were using their VPN and Smart-1 Cloud before most people. When we were setting it up, we're setting it up with their actual product engineers or whatever. It was interesting.

They changed it a lot since we started setting it up. 

I'd call them to their support and they didn't even know about anything due to the fact that the support wasn't even trained on the cloud yet. They weren't even trained on their Smart-1. They would just say "we don't know about that yet and/or we can't help you." It was kind of funny. I told our sales team that and they got pissed.

They called them and they're like, no one should ever tell the customer that you don't know about this yet and it became a big deal in Check Point. 

That said, I'd rate their service as pretty high. I respect those in the endpoint or firewall department as they largely understand what's going on. At the same time, they do need to get people more people trained up. They don't seem to have trouble keeping people around for a few years so that they learn.

After signing up with Check Point, the migration of users took about a month and a half. 

We had to build out the Management Station in Check Point too and that took from probably January to almost July as we had to build it from scratch. They didn't have a migration tool for our current policy, as it enforces firewall policy on the endpoints locally on the local firewall and that wasn't ideal. We had to build that whole Management Station from scratch.

I had to go back and forth between the on-premise Management Station and the Cloud Management Station and literally look at every single feature, every single function, every single rule. I had to recreate every single object. I had to recreate every single everything. That took a very long time.

It was very manual. It's literally two screens and comparing items. That took a couple of months while doing other things, of course. However, that was my priority for about a month and a half. I worked on that a lot. I wish they had a migration tool, like a migrate export for the policy and the features. Once that was created, however, everything pretty much worked. That said, there were a couple of caveats. 

We're customers of Check Point.

I've been working on setting it up and migrating users from the on-premise platform since January of this year. This is their Cloud Endpoint, VPN Management Station versus their on-premise VPN Management Station for Endpoint. We had to migrate the users from the on-premise version using a special tool that you have to ask them to make, which is kind of weird, however, their product is so new that that's the way that they do it. I had to deploy that tool to all the users in our company and that switched them over to their Cloud Management Station.

I'd rate the solution at an eight out of ten. There's room for improvement, however, I respect it and it works well.