Fortinet has updated its FortiOS software with new features that the company says will help businesses more easily integrate their security and network controls. The new version of FortiOS, 7.2, has 300 new features, including support for Artificial Intelligence to help stop network threats faster, and sandboxing to help fight ransomware threats. . It also integrates enhancements related to SD-WAN, branch, and edge orchestration.
FortiOS is the operating system from the vendor manufacturer of the FortiGate family of hardware and virtual components. FortiOS has built-in Fortinet Security Fabric and includes various security elements, such as firewall, access control and authentication, as well as wireless, SD-WAN and switching services.
In the security section, Fortinet has incorporated security services FortiGuarddeveloped with Artificial Intelligence and machine learning, and based on telemetry information obtained from its security systems, applications and networks around the world.
One of the new services Forti OS 7.2 is inline-sandbox, which is responsible for taking a step beyond the traditional network detection sandbox capability, where administrators have to search for malicious traffic and sandbox it. Instead, this service uses the intelligence collected to empower customers to stop both known and unknown malware in real time, and with minimal impact to operations.
Advanced Device Protection is another new feature of FortiOS. Its mission is to enable the program to discover and segment OT and IoT devices based on their unique network features. The service also maintains an inventory of assets and uses pattern matching to enforce appropriate policies and automate remediation if necessary.
The service is offered on Fortinet NGFW and through integration with FortiNAC, the network access control software, capable of orchestrating automatic responses to network problems. In addition, Fortinet NGFW has cloud access to a security broker to bring zero trust network access traffic inspection to the service.
On the networking front, Fortinet has added support for advanced analytics to its SD-WAN service that can measure the performance of connected voice and video applications. FortiOS 7.2 also adds automated development and orchestration capabilities, with the goal of making it easier to deploy, secure, and manage branch networks.
