As more organizations transition to a remote worker model, many of the in-person activities individuals have been engaged in have been disrupted. The cybersecurity skills gap has been a critical issue for many organizations, but during this time of transition the need for cybersecurity awareness is more critical than ever as employees are online from home.
The reality is that security is being moved from the network perimeter to the laptops, desktops and home networks of their remote end users. Unfortunately, many of these individuals do not have the necessary cybersecurity skills or awareness to protect themselves or their devices, and cybercriminals are all too willing to take advantage of this knowledge and skills gap. Our FortiGuard Labs threat research teams, for example, have observed significant increase in emails exploiting Coronavirus-related themes and social engineering tricks from attackers.
Building on our longstanding dedication to raising cybersecurity awareness and addressing the cybersecurity skills gap, Fortinet has added a new training course, FortiGate Essentials, to its Network Security Expert (NSE) Institute training and certification program.
Free FortiGate Essentials Training Course Provides Critical Skills
Today, we’re introducing a new, free of charge FortiGate Essentials Training Course designed to ensure that anyone looking to improve their cybersecurity skillsets has a way to advance their training from the comfort of their own home. This new course will be of interest to existing cybersecurity professionals, as well as IT professionals looking to expand their skillset with cybersecurity training. Using self-paced guided recordings, course participants will learn how to configure firewall policies, user authentication, routing and SSL VPNs. Participants will be shown how to deploy and maintain a basic network security solution as they learn to operate and administrate fundamental features of the FortiGate Next Generation Firewall.
The course includes approximately eight hours of online, self-paced training and one hour of daily live online sessions for lab demos. There’s an additional hour of daily live online sessions for Q&A (following the lab demo), as well as online discussion forums. These daily video sessions allow our Fortinet Certified Instructors (FCTs) to demonstrate how to configure and use the FortiGate features in a live network environment. They also offer an opportunity for course participants to interact with our instructors so they can ask questions and expand their knowledge of the concepts learned during the lessons.
The FortiGate Essentials training course leverages curriculum from our existing NSE level 4 certification program. Participants of other NSE Insitute programs, including the Fortinet Network Security Academy (FNSA) – comprised of academic insitutions and nonprofits – as well as FortiVet program, helping veterans and veteran spouses enter the workforce through training and mentoring, also have the opportunity to further upskill in cybersecurity through this new course.
Continued Commitment to Cybersecurity Awareness for All
Fortinet has maintained a longstanding commitment to making everyone cyber aware through our cybersecurity awareness courses – NSE1 and NSE2 – that have been available to everyone online already. These courses provide a basic understanding of today’s threat landscape, including common tricks and strategies used by cybercriminals, a familiarity with essential cybersecurity concepts, and an introduction to critical security principles and technologies. The courses are helpful in providing a baseline understanding of the threats they may face, especially now more than ever with more people accessing the internet from home. We encourage people to take the time to educate themselves and their families on safe ways to conduct themselves online using these free materials.
Cybersecurity is Everyone’s Job
At the end of the day, cybersecurity is everyone’s job. Through our FortiGate Essentials training course and our cybersecurity awareness training courses, Fortinet is hoping to raise the bar for security awareness and skills across the board.
As the workforce moves to a remote model, students move to e-learning, and we all rely on the security of our home networks to provide internet access, gaming and entertainment, it has become abundantly clear that we are only as secure as the most vulnerable device or user in our vast, integrated networks. In this new environment, security is paramount, and knowledge is the key to successfully protecting our personal, public and corporate resources.
Written by Rob Rashotte
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