Fortinet launches Fortinet Federal, Inc.

Fortinet of Sunnyvale, CA announced on May 15 the launch of Fortinet Federal, Inc., a subsidiary of Fortinet, Inc., with a newly-formed dedicated federal board of directors, further expanding the company’s strategic commitment to the public sector. The new federal subsidiary will operate as a specialized entity within Fortinet to focus on cybersecurity solutions specific to the federal market.

“The U.S. federal government is a top target for the most sophisticated adversaries that seek to impact national security, public safety, and civilian services,” said Phil Quade, chief information security officer at Fortinet. “To address the problems of speed and scale at which our adversaries are coming at us, we must adopt the strategies of automation and integration, to level the playing field. Fortinet is expanding its commitment to the federal sector with the launch of a public-sector subsidiary and a newly-appointed board of directors that will be focused on protecting U.S. federal government customers.”

IT modernization, data center optimization, and migration to the cloud are some of the biggest technology trends impacting the Federal sector. The Fortinet Security Fabric is architected to scale and adapt to the unique and complex security requirements of Federal entities and critical infrastructure sectors, including automated policies for regulatory and compliance mandates. Fortinet’s solutions are on the NSA Commercial Solutions for Classified (CSfC) approved vendors list and are protecting classified and unclassified Federal systems used by 12 of 15 cabinet-level agencies. Additionally, Fortinet is certified under relevant Federal certification programs focused on information assurance, including Common Criteria and FIPS 140-2.

Through the development of a standalone federal subsidiary and its new board of directors, Fortinet is building on its long-standing relationship with the US federal government. Fortinet has worked closely with federal agencies to define and deliver leading security solutions to address the sophisticated threat landscape targeted at its departments and organizations. The newly formed subsidiary and Board will provide the dedicated focus required to ensure that Fortinet’s cybersecurity innovation keeps pace with the complex and critical security requirements of the government.

The new Fortinet Federal board of directors is comprised of former senior government, national and global intelligence, and cybersecurity leaders who will steer and advise the subsidiary with insight on the evolving security challenges and technology needs of the government. The board will help the subsidiary achieve independence and specialization, while still leveraging significant support from Fortinet headquarters.

Initial board members include: Mike McConnell, former Director of National Intelligence, Director of the National Security Agency (NSA), and Vice Admiral to the United States Navy; Gary Locke, former two-term Governor of the State of Washington and former U.S. Department of Commerce Secretary; Phil Quade, CISO of Fortinet and former NSA Cyber Task Force executive; John Whittle, VP of Corporate Development, Strategic Alliances, and General Counsel at Fortinet; and Mike Bossert, VP of Sales for Fortinet.

Source: Fortinet