Fortinet FortiOS 4.0 operating system

The FortiOS 4.0 operating system has been added to the FortiGate product family. The operating system introduces wireless controller extensions that support automatic provisioning of wireless access points, detection and suppression of rogue access points, multiple authentication methods and strengthened unified management of both wired and wireless networks from a single FortiGate platform.

The upgrade also introduces active profiling and flow-based threat inspection enhancements to the robust OS that already integrates firewall, virtual private network (VPN), intrusion prevention (IPS), antivirus, application control and many other security technologies.

The operating system expands the wireless controller capabilities of any FortiGate running FortiOS 4.0 MR3, improving security by enabling role-based access control to limit access to regulated, proprietary or confidential data based on a user’s role, as well as allowing customers to meet wireless PCI DSS compliance with improved rogue AP on-wire detection and suppression, and integrated management and reporting for both wireless connectivity and security.

Also available is the FortiAP-222B outdoor wireless access point (AP) that completes the FortiAP family of access points and allows enterprise-wide Wi-Fi coverage across the campus with seamless roaming.

The operating system features active profiling that provides the ability to use a form of behavioural analysis to create and actively enforce policies based on deviations from corporate, group or individual baseline profiles. A range of policy enforcement options is available for suspicious behaviour, including monitoring, quarantining and/or outright blocking.

Included flow-based inspection enhancements enable more powerful web filtering and traffic shaping features, interface-based ‘one-arm’ IPS and advanced data loss prevention (DLP) capabilities. Flow-based inspection also leverages FortiASIC processors to further accelerate antivirus, application control, IPS and IPv6 firewall inspection. Users can now select the flow-based or proxy-based security technologies best suited to their unique network environment and risk tolerance.

Other features include: two-factor authentication via FortiToken, SMS messaging and email is enabled; extensions in vulnerability scanning added to support rogue access point detection and suppression in wireless networks; and HTML-based set-up wizards.