Recently, Fortinet, a global cybersecurity leader focused on promoting the integration of network and security, officially signed a cooperation agreement with Schneider Electric at the closing ceremony of the fourth quarter of the "Green Intelligent Manufacturing Win Program" held by Schneider Electric, becoming an "ecological partner" of Schneider Electric. The two parties will rely on the joint solution of "micro-isolation protection based on critical devices/devices" to jointly promote the application of zero trust security architecture in OT environments. Freesia Wang, Director of Marketing & Ecosystem Strategic Partnerships for Fortinet North Asia, attended the signing ceremony.
Fortinet and Schneider Electric signed a joint innovation agreement agreement
(The picture on the right is Wang Na, Director of Marketing and Ecological Strategic Cooperation, North Asia, Fortinet)
Concept fit: OT security challenges meet zero trust at the corner
With the rapid development of Industry 4.0 and intelligent manufacturing, the OT environment is becoming more and more open, and the information security of industrial customers is facing challenges such as increased exposure, high risk of threat spread, insufficient employee security awareness, difficult to repair vulnerabilities of industrial control products, and third-party operation and maintenance risks. In this context, "zero trust security architecture", as a new security concept, has become an effective way to solve OT security problems.
The core principle of Zero Trust architecture is "Never Trust, Continuous Verification", which emphasizes the need for authentication and permission control when accessing network resources. The zero trust architecture includes identity (human and non-human entities), credentials, access management, operations, terminals, host environments, and interconnection infrastructure, which requires the collaborative implementation of ecological partners such as enterprises, OT equipment vendors, and security vendors.
Powerful Alliance: Fortinet and Schneider Electric launch joint innovations
The zero-trust concept is highly compatible with the security requirements of the OT environment, and it also lays the foundation for the cooperation between Fortinet and Schneider Electric. As a leader in the field of Universal ZTNA technology, Fortinet has been committed to promoting the implementation of zero trust concepts for many years, and has continued to deliver Universal ZTNA capabilities to a wide range of users, and its products have been widely recognized. At the same time, Fortinet's experienced OT Security Fabric architecture can help manufacturers protect their industrial control networks.
With so many OT security vendors competing in the world, Fortinet accounted for 10.7% of the global OT market share in 2022, according to Westlands Advisory statistics, and Fortinet is the only security vendor to enter the Leaders quadrant in the 2023 IT/OT Network Protection Platform Evaluation. It can be seen that Fortinet is highly recognized, both from the perspective of the market and from the perspective of evaluation agencies.
Fortinet's success in the IT/OT field is mainly due to Fortinet's unique IT/OT/IIoT converged network security framework. The network security convergence solution module, zero trust module, security operation module and security service module of OT network, among which the network security convergence and zero trust module, which is the current innovative solution jointly created by Schneider Electric and Fortinet, can help users carry out micro-isolation of key equipment of industrial control systems, reduce the attack surface, minimize network security risks, and ensure production uptime and security standards.
Rising to the challenge: Complementing each other's strengths to drive digital transformation
Fortinet and Schneider Electric's Zero Trust Joint Innovation Solution provides enterprises with a robust and reliable OT security solution that will drive their digital transformation journey. The success of this collaboration will not only help improve the competitiveness and profitability of enterprises, but will also have a positive impact on the development of the entire OT security landscape.
Yanjing Wang, Senior Security Consultant of Fortinet, demonstrated the results of the joint creation at the scene: "This joint innovation solution can give full play to the advantages of Fortinet's OT Security Fabric architecture and Schneider Electric's industrial automation technology, and carry out security breach protection and more fine-grained and flexible security protection without interrupting production and operation control." In the future, Fortinet hopes to integrate security operations solutions into Schneider Electric's OT protection system to reduce the security burden of OT teams and form OT&IT best practices. ”
Yanjing Wang, Senior Security Consultant, Fortinet
Pei Yuandou, head of Schneider Electric's industrial automation information security business, also said, "Fortinet and Schneider Electric's zero trust joint innovation solution can integrate the technology and resource advantages of both parties to jointly address security challenges in the OT environment. This cooperation will not only help enhance the core competitiveness of the enterprise, but also effectively ensure the safe development of Schneider Electric's core products and core business, and will inject new impetus into the digital transformation of the entire industry. ”
Pei Yuandou, head of Schneider Electric's industrial automation information security business
Customer recognition: the global implementation of the joint creation solution has been verified
At present, Fortinet and Schneider Electric have jointly created the innovative solution of "Micro Isolation Protection Based on Critical Devices/Key Equipment", which has been verified in PoC projects in many typical scenarios at home and abroad, and has been unanimously recognized by customers. As a result, Fortinet was also awarded the "2023 Schneider Electric Green Intelligent Manufacturing Program Outstanding Innovation Ecosystem Partner" and the "2023 Schneider Electric Green Intelligent Manufacturing Winning Program Bronze Award" at this event.
Fortinet's partnership with Schneider Electric marks a major breakthrough in OT security. Through this alliance, the two companies will jointly address the complex challenges facing the OT environment and provide enterprises with more comprehensive, intelligent, and resilient OT security solutions. This cooperation will further promote the application of zero trust security architecture in industrial control environments and escort the digital transformation of global manufacturing enterprises.