Fortinet Security Day Hosted By Fortinet On June 13th With Steve Mulhearn

With Steve Mulhearn, Director of Enhanced Technologies UK & I, Fortinet.

One-minute pitch for what you are doing now?

We are focusing on ensuring that products and solutions are communicating with each other autonomously, to speed up efficient, intelligent responses to cyber threats and reduce cyber risks for our users. At present, the areas that are benefitting the most from this automation are Operational Technologies (OT) and software-defined networking in wide area networks (SD-WAN).

How was the last year, what worked well, what didn’t move as quickly as you would have liked?

Our financial results were extremely successful. Fortinet saw great growth globally and within EMEA, and particularly within the OT environment. Organisations in that space are keen to understand the risks they face, and are increasingly turning to us for insights and advice.
What didn’t move as quickly as we expected was interest in cybersecurity from organisations implementing SD-WAN. However, we are now seeing increased momentum in this regard, which is set to grow over the next few months.

What are your plans for the future?

Continued investment in our existing portfolio of solutions; increasing our number of partners; and further enhancing and expanding our intelligence gathering capabilities to ensure the information we collect is relevant and actionable.

What will you be talking about at this event? (brief taster)

I’ll be talking about how “Digital Transformation (DX) and Security Transformation (SX) need to walk hand-in-hand”. The business benefits of DX are generally well known but if organisations are moving into the digital future, they need to make sure that their security infrastructure is not stuck in the past.

What inspired you to attend it?

Our Security Days are an ideal platform to share our vision, where we believe challenges are changing and how the global threat landscape is evolving. These sessions enable us to share those insights not just with current customers, but also with prospects who are looking at reducing their risk and want to know how we can help.

Which influencers and websites do you follow to keep up to date with the latest developments?

I get daily news reports on breaking cybersecurity events from all over the world. That provides me with a good view of what all is happening within this space. We also have our own labs, who supply us with internal insights which are not yet available to the media.

How can people find out more about what you are working on?

Fortinet’s website is an excellent resource. Our press announcements and blog posts cover our current news and product announcements, and provide insights from our internal experts, covering a range of topics, from the risks to IoT and 5G, to the issues underlying the cyber skills gap. We also have a dedicated team in Ireland, purely focused on Irish businesses, and who are more than happy to answer queries and keep people updated on what we’re doing.

Linkedin.

Anything else you’d like to add / we should have asked?

We find many people aren’t aware of the amount of intelligence we gather globally. We have more than 1.8 million devices collecting and building anonymised information about the global threat landscape. That provides us with a unique view of what’s changing, how it’s changing, and how it can pose a risk to businesses.

Author Bio:

Steve Mulhearn has over 10 years of experience in cyber security. He has a wealth of experience in providing cyber security advice to companies seeking to protect themselves from a number of threats. Steve is also an expert on IoT security and how companies can best protect themselves from emerging threats.

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