Fortinet Combines Zero Trust, Endpoint, and Network Security for its New Work-from-Anywhere Security Solution

Fortinet has launched a comprehensive solution to enable organizations to secure and connect work-from-anywhere. By unifying its portfolio of zero trust, endpoint, and network security solutions within the Fortinet Security Fabric, the company 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.

“Empowering users to move seamlessly between different work environments has critical implications for maintaining user productivity as well as security. Cybercriminals 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 organizations require work-from-anywhere security that is as flexible and dynamic as today’s business demands,” said Rajesh Maurya, Regional Vice President, India & SAARC, Fortinet.

As users move between travel, office, and home, they access applications from the cloud, data center 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. 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 cybercriminals 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 login 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 organization 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 cybercriminals 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 among the vendors to support ZTNA across travel, office, and work-from-home, and is capable of delivering all the required components to support the three use cases of work-from-anywhere as part of an integrated and automated cybersecurity platform.

To further accelerate securework-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 license that seamlessly follows users across any environment or form factor. This allows organizations 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 organizations to easily deploy new technologies designed for dynamic networks.

A forecast analysis from Gartner reveals, by the end of 2024, the change in the nature of work will increase the total available remote worker market to 60 percent of all employees, up from 52 percent in 2020. Also according to Gartner, Organizations are facing a hybrid future, with 75 percent 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 organizations at an increasing rate. According to the 1H Global Threat Landscape Report from FortiGuard Labs, ransomware incidents have increased nearly 1100 percent from June 2020 to June 2021. And in a recent global ransomware survey conducted by Fortinet, an astonishing 67 percent of organizations report having been a ransomware target.

It’s clear that remote and hybrid work is now the status quo and cybercriminals 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.