Fortinet Expands OT Security with New Networking and SecOps Tools

Fortinet®, the global cybersecurity leader driving the convergence of networking and security, today announced updates to its OT security platform, which already stands as the industry’s most comprehensive. Today’s 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 recognized 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%) of organizations experiencing an intrusion that impacted either OT systems only or both IT and OT systems (up from 49% in 2023). As a result, it’s more critical than ever for organizations 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 optimize 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 ruggedized form factor to withstand harsh environmental conditions and offers secure 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 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 organizations with specialized OT expertise to help customers maximize 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 maximize 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 maximization 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 CTO, 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