Fortinet unifies zero trust, endpoint, network security to lead work-from-anywhere era

John Maddison, EVP of Products and CMO at Fortinet:

“Empowering users to move seamlessly between different work environments has critical implications for maintaining user productivity as well as security. Cyber criminals have been quick to exploit the expanded attack surface and security gaps created by this shift in work patterns to get a foothold into the corporate network.

"Today’s enterprise organisations require work-from-anywhere security that is as flexible and dynamic as today’s business demands. Fortinet is the only vendor capable of delivering unified security built for the work-from-anywhere era that seamlessly adapts based on a user’s environment and risk profile.”

News summary

Fortinet (NASDAQ: FTNT), a global leader in broad, integrated and automated cyber security solutions, today announced the industry’s most complete solution to enable organisations to secure and connect work-from-anywhere. By unifying Fortinet’s broad portfolio of zero trust, endpoint, and network security solutions within the Fortinet Security Fabric, Fortinet delivers security, services, and threat intelligence that seamlessly follow users whether on the road, at home, or in the office to provide enterprise-grade protection and productivity. These capabilities – designed for the way business is done in the work-from-anywhere era – are available now.

Work-from-anywhere expands to benefit workers and cyber criminals

The COVID-19 pandemic has surfaced as the forcing function that greatly expanded the work-from-anywhere model. A forecast analysis from Gartner (1) reveals, “by the end of 2024, the change in the nature of work will increase the total available remote worker market to 60% of all employees, up from 52% in 2020”. Also according to Gartner (2), “Organisations are facing a hybrid future, with 75% of hybrid or remote knowledge workers saying their expectations for working flexibly have increased.”

At the same time, multi-stage sophisticated attacks like ransomware are plaguing organisations at an increasing rate. According to the 1H Global Threat Landscape Report from FortiGuard Labs, ransomware incidents have increased nearly 1 100% from June 2020 to June 2021. And in a recent global ransomware survey conducted by Fortinet, an astonishing 67% of organisations report having been a ransomware target.

It’s clear that remote and hybrid work is now the status quo and cyber criminals will continue to take advantage of this expanded attack surface. To address the shift in the workforce and threat landscape, enterprises must now take a “work-from-anywhere” approach to their security by deploying solutions capable of following, enabling and protecting users no matter where they are located.

Fortinet delivers security built for work-from-anywhere

As users move between travel, office and home, they access applications from the cloud, data centre or SaaS. Because of this continual flux, it’s imperative that zero trust, endpoint and network security are all unified by a common set of APIs and integration points to ensure users can seamlessly shift from one location to another, enjoying a consistent user experience that is adequately protected with contextual security.

Fortinet is the only vendor capable of delivering this unification to enable security customised depending on where users are and what they are accessing. Here’s how Fortinet enables the three use cases of work-from-anywhere:

Travel: Users working outside the office or primary remote space (and the layered security it provides) potentially introduce unique threat exposure when connecting to the applications and resources necessary for work while using unknown and often unsecured networks and locations. This enables cyber criminals to snoop on exposed communications or launch attacks from inadequately protected devices. To secure users on the go, Fortinet delivers an integrated combination of:

• Endpoint security: EPP, EDR, XDR (FortiEDR, FortiXDR)
• Zero trust access: ZTNA (FortiClient, FortiOS, FortiGate) + Identity (FortiAuthenticator, FortiToken)
• Network security: SASE (FortiSASE Remote)

Work-from-home: Remote and hybrid employees typically log in from a set remote location that has some infrastructure to enable work, such as a monitor, home network, and external webcam and microphone. However, home networks are full of non-secure IOT devices as well as other users who might be consuming bandwidth with productivity-reducing video streaming or online gaming. They are also often outside the security of the corporate network and its controls. To provide managed, enterprise-grade security to users at home, Fortinet delivers an integrated combination of:

• Endpoint security: EPP, EDR, XDR (FortiEDR, FortiXDR)
• Zero trust access: ZTNA (FortiClient, FortiOS, FortiGate) + Identity (FortiAuthenticator, FortiToken)
• Network security: Linksys HomeWRK for Business | Secured by Fortinet

Office: Even when users are working from a location managed by the organisation that provides networking and security to employees, strong endpoint security remains an important part of a layered defense given the potential for vulnerabilities to be exploited or third parties to be compromised, providing an entry point for cyber criminals to bypass corporate controls. To secure users, devices and servers in the office, Fortinet delivers an integrated combination of:

• Endpoint security: EPP, EDR, XDR (FortiEDR, FortiXDR)
• Zero trust access: ZTNA (FortiClient, FortiOS, FortiGate) + Identity (FortiAuthenticator, FortiToken)
• Network security: Next-generation firewall (FortiGate + FortiGate-VM)

All of the above are available as part of the Fortinet Security Fabric for stronger security, easier management, and superior total cost of ownership. Fortinet is the only vendor to support ZTNA across travel, office and work-from-home, and is the only vendor capable of delivering all the required components to support the three use cases of work-from-anywhere as part of an integrated and automated cyber security platform.

Simplifying services to support work-from-anywhere

To further accelerate secure work-from-anywhere, Fortinet is committed to expanding its FortiTrust security as a service portfolio, which offers simplified consumption and unified licensing models designed for the way companies do business in the work-from-anywhere era. Unlike most complicated licensing that includes a mixture of device-based, appliance-based and cloud-based fees, FortiTrust brings everything together under one user-based licence that seamlessly follows users across any environment or form factor. This allows organisations to dynamically adapt to work-from-anywhere challenges such as shifting connectivity needs, hybrid workers, or resources that may need to move back and forth between physical and virtual environments and form factors. FortiTrust’s simplified licensing model allows true network flexibility and enables organisations to easily deploy new technologies designed for dynamic networks.

Work-from-anywhere security enhanced with AI/ML-driven threat intelligence

FortiGuard Labs is Fortinet’s elite cyber security threat intelligence and research organisation dedicated to developing and utilising leading-edge AI and machine learning technologies to provide customers with timely and consistently top-rated protection and actionable threat intelligence. FortiGuard Labs continuously monitors the worldwide attack surface using millions of network sensors and hundreds of intelligence-sharing partners to keep Fortinet security products armed with the best threat identification and protection information available. These efforts result in timely, actionable threat intelligence that enhances Fortinet’s ability to adjust security enforcement based on location, device and the application users are trying to connect to.

Supporting quotes

“Supporting a hybrid workforce has spawned significant investment across both IT and security teams. As organisations commit to the long-term use of this hybrid model, new access and security strategies have emerged, and it’s great to see Fortinet optimise their security and services portfolio to help implement these strategies.” Dave Gruber, Senior Analyst, ESG.

"As a national cloud communication service leader, we're focused on transforming the secure hybrid work experience for our commercial, enterprise and public sector clients. Our partnership with Fortinet is critical for helping our organisation deliver secure-by-design platform services that customers need to operate safely in today's work-from-anywhere environment." Jim Sullivan, President and CEO, NWN Carousel.

“The threat landscape has evolved to take advantage of the mobility of today’s workforce, which means security must evolve as well. Our partnership with industry-leader Fortinet ensures we bring the latest technology and innovation to our customers’ cyber security plans. With a broad set of solutions that integrate with not only their own products, but with other vendor products as well, Fortinet allows us to secure today’s workforce no matter where they are.” Shawn Waldman, CEO, Secure Cyber Defense.

Additional resources

Read our blog for more information on securing the work-from-anywhere era.

Watch how Fortinet makes possible a digital world you can always trust, and view how the Fortinet Security Fabric platform delivers broad, integrated and automated protection across an organisation’s entire digital infrastructure.

Read more about how Fortinet customers are securing their organisations.

Learn more about Fortinet’s free cybersecurity training, an initiative of Fortinet’s Training Advancement Agenda (TAA), or discover the training and certifications that best support zero trust access, endpoint security and network security through our dedicated Education Pathways.

Learn more about FortiGuard Labs threat intelligence and research or Outbreak Alerts, which provide timely steps to mitigate breaking cyber security attacks. Read more about Fortinet’s FortiGuard security services portfolio.

Engage in the Fortinet User Community (Fuse). Share ideas and feedback, learn more about our products and technology, and connect with peers.

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1 Gartner, Forecast Analysis: Information Security and Risk Management, Worldwide, 12 August 2021

2 Gartner, Infographic: Redesigning Work for the Hybrid World, HR Practitioner Research Team, 1 June 2021

GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc and/or its affiliates in the US and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.