Fortinet Expands its Services and Training Offerings for SOCs

Global cybersecurity solutions provider Fortinet has introduced new security operations center (SOC) augmentation services. These are intended to support teams who are understaffed due to a talent shortage and help improve an organization’s cyber resilience.

Fortinet’s new and improved cybersecurity services for SOCs would allow SOC teams to lower their organizations’ cyber risk while freeing up their time to concentrate on higher-priority tasks.

Additionally, the Fortinet Training Institute has expanded activities across all of its programs to broaden access to its widely accepted training and certifications.

Updates to Fortinet’s services for SOCs would include the following:

• SOC-as-a-Service (SOCaaS) – By incorporating more artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) capabilities into new use cases, Fortinet has extended its SOCaaS solution, which combines FortiGuard cybersecurity expertise with Fortinet advanced SOC technology. With these updates, the service is now better able to consolidate security alerts into a single cloud-based dashboard where customers can view actionable intelligence and quicken resolution. Security operations teams are also now able to delegate monitoring and detection to Fortinet security specialists. By using this method, Fortinet expedites alert triage, escalates security events quickly, and lowers the number of false-positive alerts sent to customers.
• Outbreak Detection Service – Customers now have access to a brand-new outbreak detection service that notifies subscribers of significant breaking cybersecurity events that may have far-reaching effects through email and automatically inside key product user interfaces. These notifications would provide crucial details concerning security incidents, such as the sequence of events leading up to an attack and the specific technologies that were impacted. The warnings would also give firms tips on how to strengthen their security posture for future protection as well as bespoke threat hunting to run against logs and evaluate the possible effect of an attack.
• Incident Response and Readiness (IR&R) Services – Fortinet recently changed its purchasing methodology to place a higher priority on prevention and introduced cybersecurity preparation services to its Incident Response offering. Organizations can improve their cyber preparedness, SOC effectiveness, and reduce cyber risk by taking advantage of a range of proactive prevention-oriented services offered as part of the Incident Response and Readiness Services retainer, such as risk assessments, playbook development, and tabletop exercises, while still having access to a team of FortiGuard experts who can assist with quick containment and remediation in the event of a cyberattack. Fortinet is also increasing its staff devoted to IR&R and SOC automation capabilities to make the service available to more businesses in response to an increased demand for these services across the world.

Expanding Cyber Skills

While the new and improved SOC augmentation services give stressed teams instant respite, a long-term investment in ongoing education and the development of cyber capabilities would be equally important to stay up with the always shifting threat landscape.

The Fortinet Training Institute provides multi-level training and certifications to security professionals looking to expand and upskill their expertise in important cybersecurity areas as part of Fortinet’s ongoing commitment to closing the skills gap. These initiatives focus on giving women, veterans, students, and underserved groups training opportunities in order to assist develop the cyber workforce of the future.

 

Some recent updates across training and certifications programs include:

• Increasing Access to Advanced Technical Training – Fortinet has lowered the barrier to entry for NSE level 8 practical test candidates worldwide. Now that the written and practical test components are now offered in an online, proctored format, security professionals from all over the world may more easily get the highest and most prestigious level of the Network Security Expert (NSE) Certification program.
• Supporting the Advancement of Women Professionals in Cybersecurity – The Fortinet and Women in Cybersecurity (WiCyS) bootcamp’s first female cohort has successfully finished the course, which provided 100 WiCyS members with free access to NSE level 4 training and labs from Fortinet as well as technical mentors, exam vouchers, and other benefits. Additionally, five program participants have received scholarships from Fortinet to attend the annual WiCyS Conference March 16–18, where they will meet cyber leaders and employers.
• Developing Cybersecurity Skills in Youth – Fortinet is supporting numerous cybersecurity-based competitions for kids in varying academic levels, from middle school to college, in an effort to better build the cyber workforce of the future. This includes serving as a category sponsor for the Carnegie Mellon Capture the Flag tournament as well as a platinum sponsor of MITRE Engenuity’s 12-week Embedded Capture the Flag (eCTF) competition.

Fortinet is making headway toward its goal of training 1 million individuals in cybersecurity by 2026 thanks to these programs. Additionally, Fortinet’s expanded services offering supported by FortiGuard Labs is expanded by its new and improved SOC augmentation services. With this latest announcement, Fortinet would reaffirm its commitment to assisting businesses in better managing cyber risks through ML-driven automation, services, and expanded access to training. This may help address the issues brought on by the cybersecurity skill shortage.

“Fortinet builds ML-driven automation into all of its SOC offerings to support short-staffed teams affected by the cybersecurity skills shortage,” said John Maddison, EVP of Products and CMO at Fortinet. “But technology alone won’t solve this issue, which is why we are dedicated to also delivering human-based SOC augmentation services to provide immediate support, while investing in an industry-leading training institute to close the cybersecurity skills gap. This combination of technology, services, and training enables SOC professionals to better protect their organizations from detection to incident recovery.”