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level security fabric down to the customdesigned FortiGate firewalls, which utilize proprietary chip technology to maximize performance and energy efficiency. Beyond technology, Fortinet is driven by the mission of safeguarding the world’ s critical infrastructure, including the processes that deliver our food and water, reflecting the company’ s commitment to protecting the essential systems society depends on.
The winning innovation: protecting production loss
The winning recognition is for the Fortinet OT Security Platform, a suite of 20-plus solution specifically engineered for industrial environments.
The solution directly addresses the critical security gap created by IT / OT convergence and the risk posed by aging, unpatched industrial control systems( ICS). According to the company’ s research, manufacturing has risen to become the most targeted vertical over the last two to three years, as detailed in the Global Threat Landscape Report. This shift was triggered by the understanding among ransom groups that they could monetize production loss or stoppage, adding a new variable to their ransom calculus.
The OT Security Platform is structured around three pillars:
■ Secure Networking: Provides the backbone for modernization using ruggedized, fanless, and temperatureresistant FortiGate Next-Generation Firewalls and FortiSwitches, which are essential for segmenting flat industrial networks
■ Zero Trust & Secure Access Service Edge( SASE): Leverages tools like FortiPAM( Privileged Access Management) and multi-factor authentication( MFA) to ensure that remote employees, service providers, and contractors connect safely under a Zero Trust model
■ Security Operations( SecOps): Augments traditional security tools( like SIEM, SOAR, EDR) to digest and understand OT traffic. These tools are embedded with the Purdue Model( a vertical reference architecture) and the MITRE ATT & CK for ICS matrix, providing OT-specific threat mapping and asset identification that allow users to seamlessly click between IT and OT views Ultimately, the platform enables manufacturers to build operational resilience and transition away from the costly cycle of paying ransoms, empowering them to rebuild and restore their network faster and cheaper than succumbing to extortion.
Built for the harsh reality of industrial cabinets
Fortinet has the world’ s largest install base of secure networking products, giving it unparalleled insight into customer environments and creating a continuous feedback loop that shapes product development. This is especially important in OT, where customers consistently need rugged, size-constrained devices that can operate reliably in harsh conditions.
“ The challenge is there’ s a continual process of adding feature sets into these security devices, and in OT, the added challenge is that you are limited on space,” explains Richard Springer.“ Legacy factories built decades ago aren’ t bringing in brand new cabinets, so new devices with vastly more processing power must fit into the old, smaller footprints.”
Fortinet addresses this by using intense, highly specialized engineering- a commitment exemplified by the company winning the 2025 Red Dot Product Design Award for the FortiGate Rugged Series.
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