Speak about Fortinet’s capacities to offer comprehensive protection for enterprises in times of rising cyber attacks

To fight today’s evolving threats, organizations should look into a security platform based on a cybersecurity mesh architecture with security solutions that are designed to work together. A cybersecurity mesh architecture integrates security controls into, and across, widely distributed networks and assets. Defenders will need to plan now by leveraging the power of AI and machine learning (ML) to speed threat prevention, detection, and response. Advanced endpoint technologies like endpoint detection and response (EDR) can help to identify malicious threats based on behavior. Also, zero-trust network access (ZTNA) will be critical for secure application access to extend protections to mobile workers and learners, while Secure SD-WAN is important to protect evolving WAN edges.

Alain Penel, Regional Vice President – ME at Fortinet

Together with the Fortinet Security Fabric, organizations can benefit from an integrated security platform that secures all assets on-premises, in the data center, and in the cloud or at the edge.

What advice do you give to enterprises to secure their network and reduce vulnerabilities?

Today’s threat environment is constantly changing, and from distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks to ransomware, the frequency, volume, and sophistication of cyberattacks show no signs of slowing down. Every organization, from small businesses to the largest enterprises and service providers, in every industry, requires network security to protect critical assets and infrastructure from a rapidly expanding attack surface.

Organizations need to develop a Security-driven Networking strategy that tightly integrates an organization’s network infrastructure and security architecture, enabling the network to scale and change without compromising security operations. This next-generation approach is essential for effectively defending today’s highly dynamic environments – not only by providing consistent enforcement across today’s highly flexible perimeters but by also weaving security deep into the network itself.

SMEs face large-scale cyber threats than large enterprises. How can they defend their physical and cloud networks? What are the solutions Fortinet offers to them in order to protect their digital ecosystem?

SMEs struggle to implement strong, holistic security across their business for a variety of reasons and too often rely on piecemeal security cobbled together with multiple vendors’ point products that do not operate cohesively. Ultimately, this results in inflated costs and stagnating growth, as investing in technology that would help the business be more productive is delayed by security. Cybersecurity for SMEs must therefore be simple, cost-effective, and easy to deploy.

Fortinet’s small and mid-size business security solutions deliver a path to complete protection. Clear ROI is delivered without sacrificing security with tight integration, automation, and visibility across the entire cybersecurity footprint to improve effectiveness, reduce cycles, and scale as the company grows. Cloud-based, centralized management simplifies ongoing operations with business-driven rules and policies so businesses can quickly consume new technology while keeping the business safe from attack.

Give insights into the partner collaboration Fortinet has made globally in the last two years

Fortinet is committed to helping partners be able to meet new and changing customer demands created by the work-from-anywhere models through Fortinet’s Engage Partner Program and enablement tools for partners.

As an example, last year Fortinet introduced new Specializations focused on high growth areas with additions, including “zero trust” access, operational technology, and security operations. Specializations help partners further distinguish their expertise among current and potential customers as trusted partners who have the knowledge, services, and technologies to fulfill customer business needs.

Elaborate on Fortinet’s business strategies in the Middle East?

In the region, we see strong interest in secure SD-WAN, cloud, and OT areas. By transforming their WAN architectures with SD-WAN, organizations can leverage such functions as dynamic path selection, optimized application delivery, and accelerated cloud on-ramp to deliver business-critical applications to the WAN edge – even for the most bandwidth-hungry applications – all while delivering instant ROI benefits. A secure SD-WAN solution goes further as it also includes a full stack of integrated, enterprise-class security features, and centralized management so it can be seamlessly incorporated into the larger corporate security framework. In 2021, we saw many attacks on critical infrastructure. Attacks against OT systems and critical infrastructure can have dire consequences for the lives and safety of both workers and consumers. OT organizations need to deploy cohesive solutions across their converging IT and OT networks. A platform approach is essential for OT organizations since their security considerations must extend beyond the on-premises system. Now they also must cover the operating system, the network infrastructure, and take the increased dependence on enabled Internet of Things (IoT) and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) devices into account as well. Cybercriminals certainly aren’t going to let up in 2022. As digital innovation accelerates, organizations are increasingly reliant on secure cloud solutions and infrastructures. Fortinet Adaptive Cloud Security Solutions provide the necessary visibility and control across cloud infrastructures, enabling secure applications and connectivity from the data center to the cloud.

How do you react to the increasing competition in the security solutions market?

Competing in today’s highly dynamic digital marketplace requires tools built around security-driven Networking principles that are designed to adapt to constantly changing requirements. We tightly integrate security with networking and connectivity solutions to ensure that even the most dynamic environments and edges are always protected. By weaving security and networking together, security no longer functions as an overlay.

Enterprises need more than siloed solutions in today’s complex environment. This is why the Fortinet Security Fabric is the answer to their security challenges: it ensures that solutions deployed anywhere, regardless of their form factor or the network they run on, can see each other, share threat intelligence, and coordinate a unified response to threats. It supports our unique security-driven networking approach that blends security, networking, and connectivity into a unified solution. Our advances in AI-based security technology are woven into the Security Fabric, helping ensure that organizations can receive essential, actionable threat intelligence, identify, and investigate unusual behavior, and coordinate a unified response across the entire distributed network to neutralize threats in seconds.

COVER STORY

The significance of artificial intelligence (AI) is being accepted across industries. The cover story examines how does AI influence financial, logistics, hospitality, education, and other sectors.

On January 23, 2020, almost immediately after CNN reported the confirmation of the first Coronavirus case in Washington, United States, Diana J. Flaherty, a Huston-based entrepreneur, wanted to cancel her entire Singapore itinerary, scheduled for the first week of February. After several hours of tiring attempts, her flight, hotel bookings, and transfers got canceled. She had called and emailed travel agents, transfer service providers, and third parties to get the job completed.

None of the chatbots, IVR interactions, or online ticketing services, which she reached out responded appropriately – the time difference between countries added more stress to the job.

Now; two years later, intelligent IVR assistants, conversational automation systems, AI-powered chatbots, and data processing tools automated not just the travel booking process but nearly 70 percent of the customer-business engagements ranging from inquiry to service delivery, from issue registration to technical support, and from itinerary design to meeting schedules, and more.

Pandemic-Ready IT Systems and Hybrid Work

Even though most of these technologies have existed back then, their implementation has been fast-tracked due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Cost, reduced workforce, travel restrictions, and several other constraints have forced enterprises to invest in technology that reduces human involvement. Besides building pandemic-ready IT systems, most enterprises have permanently shifted to hybrid work mode and most of them are functioning with less than 25 percent of their workforce from offices.

It is already proven that the abilities of AI are incredible and beyond imaginable limits especially when it collaborates with human intelligence and thought processes. While solution providers accelerate the potential of their tools with the help of AI, cybercriminals use AI systems to infiltrate into both public and private networks. Most of the cyberattacks recently reported are facilitated by AI-powered agents and applications.

Traditionally, AI remained as a classy technology stood only by commercial segments that demanded quick return on investments (ROI). But when the unrelenting rampage of COVID-19 variants impacted nearly all verticals, the idea of creating resilience with modern technologies had popped up. Since then, the healthcare, research, and drug sectors started to get benefits out of AI.

Dr. Jassim Haji, President at International Group of Artificial Intelligence articulated, “the use of AI in healthcare wasn’t adequate and much less compared with commercial verticals especially in modern societies, such as the United States, China, and Europe. Had there been the modern technologies used efficiently in hospitals, research labs, patient care units, and drug development centers earlier, we could have saved many lives that the COVID-19 pandemic claimed.” Read his exclusive interview.

Referring to the early trends, positive impacts such as enhanced customer engagement and revenue growth have been witnessed in some of the key sectors including finance, manufacturing, aviation, hospitality, and logistics.

Unlocked Revenue Growth in Finance

Finance Institutions believe in the potential of AI. Hence, they started using AI-driven solutions for reducing operating expenses and automating intensive processes. Eventually, it led to revenue growth. A survey by NVIDIA titled “State of AI in Financial Services,” also showed a substantial financial impact of AI for enterprises with 34% of those who replied agreeing that AI will increase their company’s annual revenue by at least 20%.

FinTech and investment firms use AI for the following benefits:

• Algorithmic trading
• Fraud detection
• Improved productivity
• End-to-end trading infrastructure
• Anti-money laundering (AML) and KYC
• Accurate insurance policies
• Automated call centers
• Risk assessment and management

Robots Replace Workforces in Logistic Sector

The logistic sector had a major setback due to the pandemic. The entire supply-chain process got tarnished due to worldwide lockdowns and the absence of workers – the crisis was visible even to transfer medical supplies between countries. Solutions providers considering the option of replacing workers with robots, introducing self-driving cars, automation in documentation, inventory, warehouse, and clearance processes.

In the logistic sector, AI-powered systems are calibrated for:

• Big data analysis
• Better demand prediction
• Planning and resources management
• Real-time route optimization
• Warehouse automation
• Product inspection

Dynamic Pricing Options in Hospitality Sector

Hospitality probably conducts an increased amount of customer engagements and it is higher than most other sectors. Thus, automation and AI implementation have been done focusing on offering customers a unique experience.

Eg.,

• Chatbots and virtual assistants: Commonly used to handle inquiry and complaints
• Apps and sophisticated UIs: Provide hassle-free booking and easy cancellation
• Revision of customer reviews: AI-powered applications can evaluate customer reviews that help organizations learn better customer handling
• Prediction and data analysis: Customers are offered dynamic pricing based on their engagements

The market intelligence firm IDC estimated the adoption of AI up to 70 percent by online travel agencies and 60 percent by hotels, worldwide before 2020. The prediction of SITA, an IT solutions provider to the air transport industry, was hinted about the investments in AI and machine learning (ML)-based programs by 52 percent of airlines and 45 percent of airports by 2021.

Robot Teachers and On-Demand Tutoring

AI-powered solutions influenced EdTech space for some time. Studies predict nearly all learning management tools will be enabled with AI capabilities in the coming years and that will be a complete transformation of the education sector worldwide. Plus, AI gives a completely different perspective of education not only to students and teachers but also to parents and institutions. When experts predict it as the future of education, the following are the merits of AI in education:

• Personalized learning programs
• On-demand tutoring using AI chatbots
• 24/7 learning from anywhere
• Better time management and task division for teachers

Conclusion

AI and ML are on the scope of defining the future for individuals, groups, organizations, industries, professional sectors, and governments. Robots outperform the existing workforce across the planet, in a decade or less, and there is almost nothing they can’t do in terms of labor. While there are positive and productive impacts, there could be, certainly, adverse impacts as well. Experts forecast massive job losses, unlawful cyber activities, cyberwarfare, etc. Therefore, active intervention of governments in both the implementation and the practice of technology is highly desired. Governments should deliberate schemes for employment protection and social cohesion (e.g., universal basic income (UBI). Simultaneously, states should encourage AI groups, societies, and think tanks to join forums and engage in regular conversations for value exchanges to have the future bright for everyone!