20 Apr Fortinet launches new workforce security awareness and training service
Leading cybersecurity company Fortinet has announced the launch of their new workforce security awareness and training service.
The new service will allow companies to further protect their security by advancing their employees’ cybersecurity skillsets and knowledge. A Fortinet survey found that 73 percent of organisations had at least one intrusion or breach that can be partially attributed to a gap in cybersecurity skills.
As threat sophistication only continues to rise, it is especially crucial that employees have a good understanding of cybersecurity best practices. With attack methods changing constantly, employees’ education and awareness of the threat landscape needs to keep up. Fortinet has designed its new service to address security, IT and compliance leaders’ growing concerns around threats and their workforce maintaining proper cyber hygiene. The Fortinet Security Awareness and Training service reduces the likelihood of a breach caused by an employee falling for a phishing email, clicking on a malicious link or becoming the victim of a social engineering attempt.
The service is designed by the Fortinet Training Institute which provides cybersecurity certification and training through its various programs. The Fortinet Training Institute has received multiple industry awards for its curriculum, and the new service will help organisations educate users globally on the importance of vigilance against increasingly sophisticated cyberthreats and how to recognise and avoid falling victim to cyberattacks.
The service is aligned to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) guidelines – NIST 800-50 and NIST 800-16. It also will provide training and awareness on topics such as information security, data privacy, physical security, password protection and internet security.
John Maddison, EVP of Products and CMO at Fortinet said: “Fortinet is committed to keeping organisations secure through our industry-leading technology and award-winning training and certifications curriculum. Designed by the Fortinet Training Institute, we’re introducing the new Security Awareness and Training service, offering any organisation the ability to further protect their critical digital assets from cyber threats by building employee cybersecurity awareness.
“This service uniquely is informed by Fortinet’s FortiGuard Labs threat intelligence so that employees are learning and keeping up with the latest evolving cyberattack methods.”
Employees can be a strong line of defence at their organisations, but at the same time if they aren’t aware of the methods threat actors use, they can introduce risks and make their organisation vulnerable to attacks. A robust security architecture is only part of a company’s security strategy. Employees also need to be cyber aware to truly protect a company’s valuable digital assets. This is especially critical as Fortinet’s FortiGuard Labs observed a 10.7 times increase in ransomware attacks in 2021.
Additionally, in a global ransomware survey conducted by Fortinet, 67% of organisations report suffering a ransomware attack. And according to the 2021 Gartner Market Report, “people directly affect security outcomes more than technology, policies or processes.”
Furthermore, in the last 12 months, the “human element” has been involved in 85% of breaches, and in nearly half of them (36%) phishing was the primary mode of attack.