Paul Williams, country manager – Southern Africa at Fortinet, says global cyber attacks have become highly sophisticated and increasingly multi-modal. “You may find one form of attack is launched as a distraction, while another attack is launched from another point simultaneously,” he says. At the same time, the frequency and speed of attacks has increased. “Multiple attacks can happen within seconds of each-other. Plus, we are approaching a 5G wireless era, and 10Gbps pipes are becoming common. With access speeds like these, you could lose Gigs of customer data in a matter of seconds.”

Time to response has become crucial, and traditional network security approaches are simply not fast enough, Williams says. “Humans cannot react quickly enough to detect and counter today’s attacks; particularly in an environment where network speeds are fast increasing and data volumes are growing exponentially. Automation must become a top priority in combating security risks in this new environment.”

John Ward, Systems Engineer Manager, Africa at Fortinet, says in this new environment, slow is ‘broken’. “Complexity is the enemy of security, and any security system that slows traffic or applications is just not good enough. In fact, slow networks support the proliferation of shadow IT, where users simply find alternative resources to enable them to do their jobs. This adds to the organisation’s risk profile.”

Because information security is paramount, yet security cannot be allowed to slow the network down, Fortinet’s new Security Fabric and portfolio of network security solutions actually accelerates network traffic by integrating and automating the entire ecosystem, using artificial intelligence to identify and react to risks immediately. The Fortinet approach is to integrate with best of breed solutions from multiple vendors to deliver an integrated, intelligent solution with single pane of glass management. Fortinet Security Fabric delivers complete awareness across devices, users, content, and data flowing into and out of the network, as well as insight into traffic patterns.