SUNNYVALE, Calif., Oct. 03, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

John Maddison, EVP of Products and CMO at Fortinet
“Fortinet has a long history of working to close the cyber skills gap, and we are proud to share we recently hit a significant milestone by achieving more than 1 million Network Security Expert (NSE) certifications issued to date. Continued learning through training and certifications is a critical way to stay ahead of cyber adversaries who are constantly evolving their attack strategies and methods. This is why Fortinet’s Training Institute is dedicated to offering award-winning cyber training and certifications for security professionals to upskill and advance their knowledge or for those considering reskilling. At the same time, for organizations looking to build cyber awareness in their employees and strengthen their security posture, the Fortinet Training Institute offers its Security Awareness and Training service.”

News Summary
Fortinet® (NASDAQ: FTNT), a global leader in broad, integrated and automated cybersecurity solutions, today announced it has issued more than 1 million Network Security Expert (NSE) certifications to date, further advancing its commitment to close the cybersecurity skills gap. Adding to this milestone, Fortinet continues to expand the global impact of its training and certification programs with the addition of new courses in priority cybersecurity areas, new training partners, and by expanding access to cyber training to empower untapped talent. Fortinet also continues to help organizations build a cyber-aware workforce through its existing Security Awareness and Training Service and through a recent initiative tied to the 2022 White House National Cyber Workforce and Education Summit, by providing a tailored version of the service available for K-12 school districts in the United States free of charge.

Advancing Skill Sets in Cybersecurity Professionals to Keep Up with Threats
With more than 80% of breaches being attributed to a lack of cyber skills according to a global 2022 Fortinet report, the cybersecurity skills gap continues to be a top-of-mind concern for organizations. In an effort to help close the cyber skills gap, Fortinet – through its Training Advancement Agenda (TAA) and Fortinet Training Institute initiatives – is focused on upskilling security professionals to stay ahead of threats with the following efforts:

• Validating Skills and Experience with NSE Certifications: As part of Fortinet’s progress to close the skills gap, the Fortinet Training Institute achieved the milestone of over 1 million NSE certifications issued to date. The eight-level training and certification program is designed to provide technical professionals with independent validation of their security and networking skills as well as work experience. Fortinet’s 2022 Global Skills Gap report revealed that 95% of leaders believe technology-focused certifications positively impact their role and their team, while 81% of leaders prefer to hire people with certifications. The Fortinet Training Institute aims to provide professionals the opportunity not only to gain skills to ward off cyber threats, but also career growth opportunities, as leaders value certifications. In addition, the NSE training curriculum is easily accessible to empower access to learning and is offered in instructor-led, virtual instructor-led, and free self-paced training formats.
  
  
• Developing Courses in Key Cybersecurity Areas Across all Industries: The Fortinet Training Institute is continuously updating its training with content that is relevant and dynamic for the issues and challenges cyber professionals face today. For example, the OT Security curriculum, as part of NSE level 7, provides a solid understanding of how to design, implement and operate an OT security solution for critical infrastructures. Other topic areas where the Fortinet Training Institute has expanded its curriculum include Zero Trust Network Access and Secure SD-WAN, among others. Additionally, Fortinet offers low-cost labs to further advance skill sets for anyone taking technical, advanced or expert level training.
  
  
• Leveraging Threat Intelligence from FortiGuard Labs in Curriculum: The Fortinet Training Institute curriculum is developed by Fortinet’s world-class trainers and curriculum developers with an in-depth knowledge of industry-leading technology and the evolving threat landscape. The training curriculum is augmented with threat intelligence from FortiGuard Labs, a global research team comprised of experienced threat hunters, researchers, analysts, engineers, and data scientists. In addition, the curriculum is designed to evolve based on the latest threat intelligence from FortiGuard Labs, ensuring that anyone taking training or pursuing certifications obtains the most relevant skills and knowledge.
  
  
• Offering Opportunities for Professionals to Upskill Through Fortinet’s Global Authorized Training Centers: Fortinet Authorized Training Centers (ATCs) are a network of accredited training organizations in more than 130 countries and territories around the world, teaching in 26 different languages. ATCs deliver the Fortinet Training Institute’s cybersecurity training in local languages. New ATCs that have recently joined the program, extend the availability of Fortinet’s training to security professionals around the world, including: Exclusive Networks (USA), Wavelink (Australia), HRP (Hungary), and DACAS (The Caribbean).

Expanding Access to Cyber Training and Empowering Untapped Talent
Fortinet is increasing access to its cybersecurity training so that more people, regardless of their educational background, current career or life experience, can access cyber courses and help kickstart a career in cybersecurity. Fortinet is also empowering untapped talent pools, including women, students, veterans and more, to reskill or expand their skills for a career in cyber, helping to address the industry talent shortage. As part of this focus, Fortinet made a commitment in September of 2021 to train 1 million people in cybersecurity over 5 years between 2022-2026 and is on track to meet this through various initiatives, including:

• Enhancing organizations’ cybersecurity awareness training for all employees with the Security Awareness and Training Service: Any company can easily deploy the Fortinet Training Institute’s Security Awareness and Training Service to further protect their security posture by advancing all their employees’ cyber skill sets and knowledge. This service introduced earlier this year is a SaaS-based offering that delivers timely awareness training on today’s cybersecurity threats. It helps IT, security, and compliance leaders build a cyber-aware culture where employees recognize and avoid falling victim to cyberattacks.
  
  
• Offering a Free Security Awareness and Training Service for K-12 School Districts in the U.S.: Fortinet announced that it has made its Security Awareness and Training Service available to K-12 school districts across the United States free of cost, making the training available to approximately 8 million faculty and staff. Educational institutions have seen an increase in bring your own devices (BYOD) making schools and students more vulnerable to cyber threats due to the expanding attack surface and, thus, must ensure they are securing their critical digital assets and sensitive information. With the tailored service, school districts can implement training for staff and faculty to expand their cyber knowledge and skills, so they don’t fall victim to popular threat methods as part of the overall school cybersecurity strategies.
  
  
• Expanding Academic Partner and Education Outreach Programs Partnerships: With more than 470 Authorized Academic Partners worldwide across more than 90 countries and territories, the Fortinet Training Institute continues to work with education institutions globally to help prepare the cyber workforce of the future. Among the new institutions worldwide that have joined the Academic Partner Program are: Universidad Panamericana (UP) in Mexico,Technological University of Queretaro (UTEQ) in Mexico, KLE Tech University in India, South Regional TAFE in Australia, Università of Tor Vergata of Roma in Italy, Cybersecurity Business School in France, UIB - Universitat de les Illes Balears in Spain, Polytechnic Institute of Guarda in Portugal, University West - Högskolan Väst in Sweden, South Texas College in the United States and more. As Authorized Academic Partners, these institutions are using Fortinet’s award-winning technical training in their classrooms and providing students with valuable industry certifications to add to their resumes upon graduation.
  
  Similarly, the Education Outreach Program is expanding Fortinet’s reach by partnering with additional organizations that represent traditionally underrepresented groups in the high-tech sector such as women, veterans, economically disadvantaged and more. New outreach partners include Cerco IT and National Economic Education Trust (NEET).
  

Supporting Quotes

“The number of skilled cybersecurity professionals is not growing fast enough to fill the nearly 3 million unfilled cybersecurity positions worldwide. To help solve this critical issue, I co-founded the Cybersecurity Business School in France, which is delivering two programs: a Bachelor of Cybersecurity Specialist and a Master of Cybersecurity Manager. A key part of our program is the Fortinet Training Institute’s Network Security Expert (NSE) training and certifications developed by industry experts, which we are leveraging to incorporate real-world teachings about critical security areas. Implementing Fortinet’s training in our classes and Fortinet security devices in our SOC, IT & OT simulation platform is allowing us to provide a robust curriculum to our students and to further develop the cybersecurity workforce of the future.”        
-Thomas Guilloux, Co-Founder and Technical & Industrial Director at the Cybersecurity Business School in France

“Polytechnic Institute of Guarda (IPG) is excited to partner with Fortinet as part of its Academic Partner Program. In a world amid digital transition, cybersecurity is a big issue today, and its global importance goes beyond impacting only IT teams. Therefore, for the teachers and researchers of the Polytechnic Institute of Guarda, having access to training from an industry-leading company like Fortinet is a very enriching experience. At the same, our students are acquiring know-how and certifications to work in an area with a huge shortage of qualified human resources directly from the current world leader in the area. As a result of this collaboration, Polytechnic Institute of Guarda will have a very relevant impact on the region and across the country in helping address the skills gap by preparing the future workforce. According to a report prepared by Fortinet in 2021, 80% of organizations that suffered cyberattacks attributed it to the lack of skills of their staff in the area of ​​cybersecurity. In Portugal, at the Polytechnic Institute of Guarda, the Fortinet Academy is contributing to making the country digitally safer.”
- Joaquim Brigas, President at the Polytechnic Institute of Guarda

“Today's organizations need professionals knowledgeable on topics related to digital security so that, with the advancement of technology, they know how to mitigate the growing number of threats and vulnerabilities. We have the responsibility to prepare our students in Mexico to take on the task of preventing cyberattacks to protect important information and organizations. Our collaboration with Fortinet is a testament of this commitment. With this agreement, the Universidad Panamericana (UP) further provides high-level training in IT and reiterates its commitment to continue preparing its students for digital transformation in areas related to cybersecurity”.
- Juan Carlos García, director of Digital Transformation at the Universidad Panamericana in Mexico

“To grant our candidates (ex-military or otherwise) access to the NSE training curriculum is a huge step forward in creating highly skilled IT professionals and enables us to further address the shortfall in the UK’s cybersecurity talent pool. We are thrilled to collaborate with the global leader in network security and are excited to be working with such a strong, internationally recognised training programme focused on closing the cyber skills gap.”
- Chris Barlow, MD of Cerco IT

“To address the skills gaps and provide training for skills that are in high demand, NEET has identified a need for training the unemployed youth in Forth Industrial Revolutions (4IR) skills and paying immediate attention to addressing cybersecurity skills gaps, which will be carried out by NEET 4IR Academy. Fortinet, as a global leader in broad, integrated and automated cybersecurity solutions, aligns quite perfectly as a strategic partner to help us achieve our organizational mission and vision in a manner that is both meaningful and impactful to our communities.”
- Thomas Sithole, Chairman at National Economic Education Trust (NEET)

Additional Resources

• Read more about Fortinet’s NSE certification milestone and why certifications are critical to closing the skills gap in this blog.
• Learn more about Fortinet’s free cybersecurity training, which includes broad cyber awareness and product training. As part of the Fortinet Training Advancement Agenda (TAA), the Fortinet Training Institute also provides training and certification through the Network Security Expert (NSE) Certification, Academic Partner, and Education Outreach programs.
• Learn more about FortiGuard Labs threat intelligence and research and Outbreak Alerts, which provide timely steps to mitigate breaking cybersecurity attacks.
• Learn more about Fortinet’s FortiGuard Security Services portfolio.
• Read more about how Fortinet customers are securing their organizations.
• Follow Fortinet on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. Subscribe to Fortinet on our blog or YouTube.

About Fortinet
Fortinet (NASDAQ: FTNT) makes possible a digital world that we can always trust through its mission to protect people, devices, and data everywhere. This is why the world’s largest enterprises, service providers, and government organizations choose Fortinet to securely accelerate their digital journey. The Fortinet Security Fabric platform delivers broad, integrated, and automated protections across the entire digital attack surface, securing critical devices, data, applications, and connections from the data center to the cloud to the home office. Ranking #1 in the most security appliances shipped worldwide, more than 595,000 customers trust Fortinet to protect their businesses. And the Fortinet NSE Training Institute, an initiative of Fortinet’s Training Advancement Agenda (TAA), provides one of the largest and broadest training programs in the industry to make cyber training and new career opportunities available to everyone. Learn more at https://www.fortinet.com, the Fortinet Blog, and FortiGuard Labs.

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A video accompanying this announcement is available at: https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/446402a9-3c18-4c27-bc56-68455d6aa356