Fortinet resolves to help communities through new Corporate Foundation

Fortinet has established a Corporate Foundation with the intention of aiding communities around the world that have been adversely impacted by COVID-19 and extending the company's corporate social responsibility initiatives.

According to a statement, Fortinet Foundation has committed to matching multi-million dollars in employee contributions and in-kind to support global and local response to COVID-19 pandemic.

The foundation is designed to help businesses, governments and communities maintain continuity in the midst of many changes that have resulted from the global public health crisis, the company states. It will focus on growing its partnership efforts through public and private sector collaborations to further advance its philanthropic initiatives.

Furthermore, the Fortinet Foundation will support Fortinet's efforts focused on cybersecurity education and training, as well as global partner information-sharing initiatives to increase protection against cyber criminals.

Key initiatives include continued disaster relief support through collaborations with organisations such as the Information Technology Disaster Resource Center (ITDRC), focused on providing communities with the technical resources necessary to continue operations after disasters.

Fortinet Foundation is supporting ITDRC's projectConnect initiative by donating Fortinet's security technology to help securely set up WiFi and hotspots, connecting rural and underserved communities across the United States affected by COVID-19.

These efforts further support Fortinet's commitment to its customers, partners and communities impacted by COVID-19 by providing solutions, technology and resources that help maintain business continuity and keep remote workforces protected in the middle of the global pandemic, the company states.

When it comes to increasing cybersecurity awareness and addressing the skills gap, the Fortinet Corporate Foundation expands the company's corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, especially those focused on addressing the cybersecurity skills gap and collaborations to provide security to individuals, organisations and governments around the world.

Fortinet leverages its technology innovations, employees' technical and intellectual talents and strategic partnerships through key strategic endeavours. This includes free training through Fortinet's Network Security Expert (NSE) Institute.

As both a technology company and learning organisation, Fortinet is focused on closing the cyber skills gap through its NSE Institute programs. NSE Institute offers security training to IT professionals, students, nonprofits and veterans and their spouses, among others, to provide the security knowledge necessary to fill critical cybersecurity roles.

More recently, Fortinet made all its NSE Institute's self-paced security training courses available for free to help address the evolving needs of organisations securing highly distributed and remote workforces.

These courses also provide students and anyone looking to start a career in cybersecurity the opportunity to gain new knowledge or upskill, the company states.

Another key focus is the Fortinet Network Security Academy (FNSA) program. Part of NSE Institute, the FNSA supports more than 200 academic institutions and nonprofits around the world.

It gives its members access to Fortinet's NSE certification and training curricula to prepare students and participants for a career in cybersecurity. In addition to helping to develop cyber aware individuals, FNSA is helping to educate the future generation of security professionals.

Global collaborations is another crucial element of Fortinet's work in the cybersecurity skills space. The company has forged strategic partnerships to further address the cyber skills gap as well as advance information sharing critical to tackling today's sophisticated threats.

As a founding member of the World Economic Forum's (WEF) Centre for Cybersecurity and the Cyber Threat Alliance, Fortinet collaborates with global leaders from various sectors to help shape the future of cybersecurity and build new opportunities in the digital economy.

Fortinet also has a partnership with the NATO Communications and Information Agency, and is a member of an expert working group within INTERPOL.

Finally, Fortinet will continue to share threat intelligence through FortiGuard Labs. FortiGuard Labs has also been an important player in threat sharing and collaboration, leveraging machine learning and AI technologies to provide actionable threat intelligence to the industry.

FortiGuard Labs' partner ecosystem includes security vendor alliances, government agencies and international law enforcement organisations, enabling it to take a leadership role to ensure the industry is responding to global emerging security risks, the company states.

Fortinet founder, chairman of the board, and chief executive officer Ken Xie says, "Since the beginning when Fortinet was founded 20 years ago, we deliberately created a culture built on technology innovation and continued learning.

"Through the establishment of a Corporate Foundation, we are extending investments in security training and education, employee community engagement and disaster relief efforts to empower and protect our communities, as well as positively impact our business, employees, customers and shareholders.