Security Feature

NATO’s Communications and Information Agency has tapped security company Fortinet (News - Alert) to help protect against cyber attacks.

The aim of the relationship is to improve the security of NATO’s defense supply chain, facilitate participation of industry organizations in multinational Smart Defense projects, enhance information-sharing related to security, raise awareness and understanding of cyber risks, leverage private sector advances in security, and deliver support in the cases of cyber incidents.

A Q&A on the Fortinet blog with company President and CTO Michael Xie, and Koen Gijsbers, NCI agency general manager at NATO, said cyber criminals are now exhibiting fear via their attempts to cover their tracks. That’s because the community at large continues to pool intelligence to better combat advanced security threats and address them when breaches occur. Fortinet’s FortiGuard Labs helps with that researching and sharing, as its engineers, forensic specialists, and cybersecurity threat researchers deliver analytics, applied threat research, and intelligence.

“Organizations -- both public or private -- and everyday people are constantly under cyber attack,” said Xie. “The combination of the growth of threats, the ever-evolving attack surface, and the dramatic increase in the number of devices we use every day means the job of protecting ourselves will continue to be more and more difficult. If more organizations proactively share actionable intelligence, together we can better combat advanced threats and counteract the latest risks to deliver security without compromise today and in the future."

Gijsbers add that NATO "is facing cybersecurity threats across the world that could drastically affect national economies and citizens. To avoid it, NCI Agency strongly believes in early information sharing on threats and vulnerabilities with leading companies worldwide, such as Fortinet."

According to IDC (News - Alert) in an August 2015 communication, Fortinet shipped more security appliances each year than any other vendor since 2013, and has the largest market share of combined appliance shipments since 2012.