Fortinet announces new OT solution for critical infrastructure

Fortinet has announced the availability of its Operational Technology (OT) Security solution for critical infrastructure and industrial organizations.The new solution integrates ruggedized firewall, switching, and wireless access point appliances with FortiGuard industrial threat intelligence to provide integrated cybersecurity protections for Industrial Control Systems (ICS) and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems deployed in the field and non-environmentally controlled facilities across an organization’s OT infrastructure.

• The Fortinet Security Fabric enables critical infrastructure and industrial organizations to deliver advanced segmentation, access control, and malware protection needed to unify their security architecture and defend their OT networks regardless of the operating environment.
• Fortinet’s ruggedized security products enable industrial organizations to protect their OT infrastructure and devices, even those deployed in harsh environments that would render other security devices inoperable.
• Fortinet’s industrial-grade appliances leverage its recently announced FortiGuard Industrial Security Services, which delivers application control and defensive signatures specific to critical infrastructure and industrial sector organizations, including utility, oil and gas, transportation, and manufacturing.

The Convergence of OT and IT Demands Unified, Automated Security

Critical infrastructure is being increasingly targeted by cyber criminals, with a reported 51% of organizations experiencing a SCADA/ICS security breach within the past 12 months. The consequences of a successful attack can lead to the disruption, and even destruction of physical assets and essential services like water, electricity, and fuel. 

As the utility, oil and gas, transportation, and manufacturing sectors increasingly adopt connected control systems and Industrial IoT devices, the attack surface is rapidly growing. The connected nature of these devices and systems poses serious challenges as they begin to utilize traditionally IT owned network infrastructure, wireless access points, and mobile networks. The specialized nature of OT infrastructure technologies means that most security and threat intelligence solutions don’t have visibility into, let alone the ability defend against attacks on critical infrastructures.

According to a 2014 Forrester report, “There are fundamental differences between traditional Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT)…S&R (security and risk) pros from IT and OT must respect and accept each other’s differences and learn to work together.”

Fortinet’s Operational Technology Security solution solves the unique security challenges specific to critical infrastructure and industrial organizations, while unifying the management and administration of both OT and traditional IT infrastructures through the Fortinet Security Fabric.

Security Fabric Protection Tailored for OT Infrastructure

Fortinet’s rugged and outdoor products are industrially-hardened appliances that deliver enterprise-class connectivity and security for critical control systems facing malicious attacks, as well as extreme weather and other demanding physical environments.

• FortiGate Rugged Series are all-in-one firewalls that deliver specialized threat protection for securing critical industrial and control networks against malicious attacks.
• FortiSwitch Rugged Series deliver all the performance and security of Fortinet’s trusted FortiSwitch line, but with added reinforcement that makes them ideal for deployments in harsh outdoor environments. Management by the FortiGate simplifies operation and extends security policies down to the switch ports.
• FortiAP Outdoor Series delivers secure, identity-driven WiFi accesspoints with management provided by the integrated wireless controller functionality within the FortiGate. Combined with FortiSwitch, this provides for a truly unified access layer with common security policies.
• Fortinet’s rugged and outdoor series devices are offered in various form factors with features like superior mean time between failure, electromagnetic inference protection, vibration tolerance, ingress protection waterproofing, wide thermal operating ranges, fanless cooling and power over ethernet.

These devices are controlled by Fortinet’s FortiOS security operating system and are backed by FortiGuard Industrial Security Service to protect the most widely-used ICS and SCADA devices and applications. FortiGuard Industrial Security Service delivers OT-specific, real-time threat intelligence for vulnerability protection, deep visibility and granular control over proprietary ICS and SCADA protocols.

The Fortinet Fabric-Ready Partner Program also enables organizations to seamlessly integrate complementary, third-party OT security solutions with the Fortinet Security Fabric. These deep technical integrations are pre-validated to ensure consistent interoperability, ease of deployment, reduced complexity, and increased automation.

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