Cyber resiliency is a challenge that crosses political, geographic, and technology borders and protecting the ever-expanding attack surface will require an integrated response involving government and the private sector. There is no one singular organization that can secure cyberspace. Defending against cybercriminals requires a coordinated and unified front that brings valuable insights from private company and public agency partnerships. To be strong and effective, these partnerships need to include the bi-directional sharing of knowledge and information.  Fortinet is not alone in this thinking.  The White House directly called out public-private collaboration as a key tenet of the National Cybersecurity Strategy.

Security professionals need a comprehensive view of the threat landscape to make the best decisions about securing their organization's networks. By sharing threat intelligence and working with other threat intelligence organizations-private or public-we can improve protections for organizations of all sizes and across all industries, enhancing the effectiveness of the entire cybersecurity industry. We must all work together to disrupt adversaries at as many points in their ecosystem as possible. Every individual and organization in our industry has a role to play.

The Fortinet Track Record

Fortinet has a long track record of supporting and contributing to mission-critical public-private partnerships. This is why in April 2023, our company proudly became a member of the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative (JCDC), deepening our commitment to fortifying the United States' security posture and cybersecurity resilience. When collaborating with JCDC, we are sharing our:

• Expertise in cybersecurity
• Broad visibility into threat activity
• Actionable threat intelligence we generate

In 2021, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) established JCDC to bring together public and private entities with the goal of gathering, analyzing, and sharing actionable information to proactively protect and defend against cyberthreats.

Fortinet applauds the work JCDC has accomplished in forging cross-sector collaboration since its founding. We see firsthand the focus and dedication of CISA and JCDC partners and the nation's resiliency is stronger because of it.  We look forward to helping JCDC grow and mature its capabilities and continuing to contribute to enhancing America's cyber resiliency. These types of collaborative efforts help build systemic resilience by both coordinating incident response and addressing vulnerabilities and other cyber risks before they can be exploited.

Enhancing OT Security

Operational technology (OT) has a vital role in manufacturing, defense, emergency services, food and agriculture, financial systems, and critical infrastructure. In the past, OT systems were air-gapped and not very vulnerable to cyberthreats, but with the convergence of OT networks with IT networks that is no longer the case. In fact, according to Fortinet's 2023 Operational Technology and Cybersecurity Report, 75% of OT organizations experienced at least one intrusion in the last year.

Recently, JCDC-in collaboration with CISA, the NSA, the Department of Treasury, and the FBI-published a new fact sheet titled "Improving Security of Open Source Software (OSS) in Operational Technology (OT) and Industrial Control Systems (ICS)." It was developed using input from industry and government partners (including Fortinet), senior leadership and operations personnel at OT vendors, and critical infrastructure facilities. FortiGuard Labs, Fortinet's global threat intelligence and research organization, tracks attacks on Open Source Software (OSS) and delivers insightful learnings and protection guidance input via Outbreak Alerts to offer insights into what happened, the technical details of an attack, and how an organization can protect itself. This fact sheet promotes a deeper understanding of OT security and highlights best practices and considerations for the secure use of OSS in OT and ICS environments.

Leveraging Two Decades of Expertise

Fortinet has been working with JCDC to provide the organization our company's 20+ years of cybersecurity leadership and expertise, including actionable threat research from FortiGuard Labs. FortiGuard Labs continuously monitors the worldwide attack surface using mature artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technology to neutralize events and issue actionable updates. 

Since becoming a member, Fortinet has shared timely and actionable threat intelligence and cybersecurity best practices with the JCDC community to prevent risks and mitigate the greatest cyberthreats and vulnerabilities faced by the United States and its international partners. This collaboration further expands our long-standing commitment to cross-industry and cross-sector partnerships with many international organizations, including INTERPOL and the World Economic Forum's Centre for Cybersecurity. 

There is nothing more important than helping organizations combat today's most dangerous cyberthreats and disrupting cyberattackers. For more information about the latest defenses in the battle against cybercrime for the OT and ICS ecosystem, please read the Joint Fact Sheet and visit CISA's new webpage, Securing Open Source Software in Operational Technology.