Fortinet enhances OT Security Platform with new updates

Fortinet has announced advancements to its Operational Technology (OT) Security Platform to enhance the protection of critical infrastructure and industrial sites from emerging cyberthreats.

The new developments to the OT Security Platform transcend traditional OT visibility solutions by introducing greater OT-specific threat visibility via the FortiGuard OT Security Service and extending ruggedised solutions for segmentation and 5G in demanding environments. Additionally, an enhanced OT SecOps portfolio facilitates automated threat response and tracking of regulatory compliance.

Senior Vice President of Products and Solutions at Fortinet, Nirav Shah, commented on the expansion: "Fortinet has been building an industry-leading OT Security Platform for 20-plus years and remains at the forefront of OT security innovation. As cyberthreats against critical infrastructure and across industries such as energy, transportation, and manufacturing continue to grow, Fortinet remains committed to delivering comprehensive security solutions tailored for operational technology environments. These latest enhancements give organisations the tools they need to improve their OT security posture and adhere to regulatory requirements—all managed through a single, unified platform."

Key updates include the introduction of New FortiGate Rugged NGFWs, augmented with enhanced FortiGuard OT Security Service, offering security enforcement capabilities across over 3,300 OT protocol rules, nearly 750 OT IPS rules, and 1,500 virtual patching rules. These updates aim to safeguard OT environments against known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs) and other risks while enabling advanced threat protection through virtual patching for legacy OT systems.

The company has also updated FortiSRA to enhance secure remote access by improving secrets and password management. In efforts to secure segmentation further, Fortinet has released the FortiSwitch Rugged 108F and FortiSwitch Rugged 112F-POE, expanding its suite of industrial-grade, small form-factor switches. These new switches allow for detailed security enforcement at the port level and prevent unwanted lateral movement within OT networks, ensuring smooth integration with Fortinet's comprehensive security framework.

In response to the need for secure and resilient connectivity, Fortinet has launched two ruggedised 5G solutions: the FortiExtender Rugged 511G, a high-speed secure connectivity solution for remote OT sites, and the FortiExtender Vehicle 511G, tailored for fleet operations. Both devices include embedded Wi-Fi 6 and eSIM functionalities, which do away with physical SIM cards and simplify carrier selection.

Further strengthening its artificial intelligence-driven security operations, Fortinet has enhanced FortiAnalyzer and FortiDeceptor, providing deeper insights into security threats and simplifying compliance reporting for OT security teams. Additional contributions to FortiNDR Cloud are offered, including new OT protocol support for exploring threats, and several new features in the on-premises FortiNDR system.

The revised Fortinet OT Security Platform offers unified visibility and security functionalities for OT and remote-site security, facilitating the ability to assess, secure, and report on risks, including complex regulatory compliance requirements. Fortinet's solution claims to provide the "most comprehensive" offering for OT security and compliance beyond the industry standard due to its deep integration with the Fortinet Security Fabric.

The platform is well-regarded globally, with recognition such as being named the sole leader in the Westlands Advisory 2023 IT/OT Network Protection Platforms Navigator. Manish Goyal, General Manager of Honeywell Connected Cybersecurity, spoke of the collaboration: "Together, Fortinet and Honeywell help strengthen cybersecurity for critical infrastructure and operational technology environments. As cyberthreats intensify, industrial and commercial buildings operators need integrated end-to-end protection more than ever. Our relationship with Fortinet enhances Honeywell's cybersecurity and ICT offering portfolio providing several strategic advantages in securing and managing risk for remote and on-campus customer sites; as well, reinforcing our commitment with Fortinet."

Echoing the platform's positive impact, Chris Lubinski, Network Security Engineer at Alleima, stated: "Management at remote Alleima locations has been very complimentary of the Fortinet infrastructure. Their connections are much faster and more stable, and our response time for their support tickets is around tenfold quicker. Everyone at Alleima is much, much happier with the global network and security infrastructure we now have."

Also commenting on Fortinet's impact, Wolfgang Bitomsky, Ph.D., Chief Information Officer at FCC Environment CEE, said: "The increased performance and resilience of the new network, combined with simpler management, reporting, and analytics, has reduced the workload on our security team by at least 15 per cent, which means we now have the bandwidth to move on to the next phases of our digital transformation, things like zero trust, and IT/OT convergence, and given our experience so far, we fully expect to be making these transitions with Fortinet."