Fortinet enhances the industry’s most comprehensive operational technology security platform to protect cyber-physical systems

Updates across the Fortinet OT security platform include new ruggedised appliances, advanced secure networking and security operations capabilities, and expanded partnerships with leading OT vendors 

John Maddison, chief marketing officer, Fortinet, said, “As more operational infrastructure becomes connected, the attack surface increases, leading to greater cyber risk. Traditional information technology (IT) security tools are ineffective and worse, cannot even be deployed in an operational technology (OT) environment. Fortinet has been building an industry-leading OT security platform for 20+ years and today we are proud to announce many enhancements across the platform.” 

News summary 

Fortinet® (NASDAQ: FTNT), the global cybersecurity leader driving the convergence of networking and security, has announced updates to its OT security platform, which already stands as the industry’s most comprehensive. This news provides customers with enhanced secure networking and security operations (SecOps) capabilities and expands Fortinet’s strategic partnerships with leading OT vendors, reflecting Fortinet’s commitment to security for the growing cyber-physical systems (CPS) market and dedication to protecting critical infrastructure in verticals spanning energy, defence, water supply systems, manufacturing, food, transportation, and more. In fact, Fortinet was recently recognised as a Representative Vendor in the 2023 Gartner® Market Guide for CPS Protection Platforms. 

According to the Fortinet 2024 State of Operational Technology and Cybersecurity Report, cyberattacks that compromise OT systems are on the rise, with nearly three-fourths (73 per cent) of organisations experiencing an intrusion that impacted either OT systems only or both IT and OT systems (up from 49 per cent in 2023). As a result, it’s more critical than ever for organisations to deploy cybersecurity solutions specifically engineered for OT environments, including critical infrastructure. 

Building upon its legacy of more than two decades as a global cybersecurity leader, Fortinet’s OT security platform was designed to mitigate industrial risk and accelerate and optimise customers’ OT security journeys. The latest updates to the platform include: 

New advanced capabilities in OT secure networking 

• Enhanced asset identification and OT network topology in the FortiOS OT View with configurable asset location to improve asset identity, location, and communication pathways. 

• Expanded virtual patching capabilities and new capabilities in FortiOS: The introduction of virtual patching signatures in the FortiGuard OT Security Service provides wide-ranging vulnerability protection and unpatched OT asset shielding. 

• Two new series of rugged switches: the FortiSwitch Rugged 216F-POE (power over Ethernet) is designed to support bandwidth-intensive industrial environments and redundant architectures, and the FortiSwitch Rugged 424F-POE has features designed to power Industrial-Internet-of-Things (IIoT) devices. 

• FortiSRA enables secure remote access to support remote third-party contractors, auditors, and employees, protecting critical OT systems against threats from remote access and untrusted networks. 

• FortiExtender Vehicle update enables fleet management in a ruggedised form factor to withstand harsh environmental conditions and offers secure local area network (LAN) extension from remote FortiGate Next-Generation Firewalls to create a truly unified platform for vehicles and first responders. 

Expanding AI-driven OT security operations capabilities to defend against growing OT threats 

• Expanded OT capabilities in FortiSOAR, including the introduction of OT View – an IT/OT overview dashboard with OT asset management – and new compliance playbooks to increase OT network and asset visibility and remediation for OT. 

• Increased analytics and reporting capabilities in FortiAnalyzer by creating NERC CIP, IEC 62443-3-3, and IT/OT risk reports. An upcoming Internet-of-Things (IoT)/IIoT/OT dashboard includes analytics support for Internet-of-Medical-Things (IoMT) to further assist with regulatory compliance and security posture evaluations. 

• FortiNDR for OT provides network behaviour analysis to identify known and unknown threats across the IT/OT infrastructure and detect OT network anomalies. 

• FortiDeceptor-as-a-Service offers expanded deception for OT and IoT with additional devices and protocols and simplified deployments to streamline user experiences. 

Enhancing Fortinet’s OT partnerships 

Fortinet’s global partner ecosystem brings together organisations with specialised OT expertise to help customers maximise cyber resiliency and improve operational efficiency. 

Recent collaborations with Fortinet Alliance partners Armis and Claroty, as part of the Fortinet Open Ecosystem, have produced new and enhanced integrations with FortiManager, FortiSIEM, FortiSOAR, and FortiNAC to maximise actionable OT asset information, simplify OT network operations for customers, and improve customers’ security postures. 

Additionally, Fortinet introduced a new Engage Preferred Services Partner (EPSP) OT Practice designation to empower OT channel partners with the tools they need to design and deploy OT network infrastructure. 

Supporting quotes 

Armis and Fortinet are a full stack best-in-class OT/IoT security solution that sees, protects, and manages every critical OT asset in the environment fully. The partnership between Armis and Fortinet is strategic and complementary for both our companies and our mutual customers. Being a partner in Fortinet’s industry-leading Fabric-Ready Alliance Program enables Armis to deepen the integrations between the Armis Centrix™ platform and the Fortinet Security Fabric, resulting in the broadest real-time visibility into IT/OT intersection risks and maximisation of policy-driven enforcement of zero-trust network access and segmentation. Together, we co-innovate to address our customers’ most consequential cyber risks in OT and enable protection at scale. 
– Nadir Izrael, co-founder and chief technology officer, Armis 

Claroty xDome combined with the Fortinet Security Fabric delivers a level of visibility, context, and network policy enforcement that is unmatched in securing cyber-physical systems. Claroty’s zone-based policy recommendations and unique planning capabilities leveraged within the Fortinet Security Fabric via our unique FortiManager integration enable tangible risk reduction and remediation action, at scale, that dramatically accelerate OT segmentation and policy enforcement projects. As a partner in Fortinet’s Open Ecosystem, we’re able to drive key integrations that harness these capabilities to deliver a faster time to value for our customers. 
– Stephan Goldberg, vice president of business development, Claroty 

With Fortinet, we centralised everything and brought all the management information we need into a single pane of glass. That enables us to quickly see what is happening across all our different units. Our Fortinet management systems consolidate information and do a good job of filtering through all the noise on the network to quickly identify issues. That streamlines my team’s processes, so we do not have to keep adding bodies just to look at logs. 
– Dustin Fischer, director of IT, Wunderlich-Malec Engineering 

The [Fortinet Security] Fabric allows us to operate a lean team as we do not need a large staff to manage our security and network infrastructure. It drives efficiency through a single-pane-of-glass approach to device management and the ability to centrally configure policies and push them out to all devices. This is particularly important when incorporating new locations, as we believe it will help us easily scale in the years ahead. 
– Chad Logan, senior director of IT and applications, McPherson Companies 

Additional resources 

• Learn more about the Fortinet OT Security Platform in the Fortinet blog. 

• Visit fortinet.com/trust to learn more about Fortinet innovation, collaboration partners, product security processes, and enterprise-grade products. 

• Learn more about Fortinet’s commitment to product security and integrity, including its responsible product development and vulnerability disclosure approach and policies. 

• Learn about Fortinet’s free cybersecurity training, which includes broad cyber awareness and product training. As part of the Fortinet Training Advancement Agenda (TAA), the Fortinet Training Institute also provides training and certification through the Network Security Expert (NSE) certification, Academic Partner, and Education Outreach programs. 

• Learn more about FortiGuard Labs threat intelligence and research and Outbreak Alerts, which provide timely steps to mitigate breaking cybersecurity attacks. 

• Learn more about Fortinet’s FortiGuard Security Services portfolio. 

• Read about how Fortinet customers are securing their organisations. 

• Follow Fortinet on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. Subscribe to Fortinet on our blog or YouTube. 

* Gartner, Gartner Market Guide for CPS Protection Platforms, Katell Thielemann, Wam Voster, 29 June 2023 

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About Fortinet 
Fortinet (NASDAQ: FTNT) is a driving force in the evolution of cybersecurity and the convergence of networking and security. Our mission is to secure people, devices, and data everywhere, and today we deliver cybersecurity everywhere you need it with the largest integrated portfolio of over 50 enterprise-grade products. Well over half a million customers trust Fortinet’s solutions, which are among the most deployed, most patented, and most validated in the industry. The Fortinet Training Institute, one of the largest and broadest training programs in the industry, is dedicated to making cybersecurity training and new career opportunities available to everyone. Collaboration with high-profile, well-respected organisations from both the public and private sectors, including CERTs, government entities, and academia, is a fundamental aspect of Fortinet’s commitment to enhance cyber resilience globally. FortiGuard Labs, Fortinet’s elite threat intelligence and research organisation, develops and utilises leading-edge machine learning and AI technologies to provide customers with timely and consistently top-rated protection and actionable threat intelligence. Learn more at https://www.fortinet.com, the Fortinet blog, and FortiGuard Labs. 

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