From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fortinet is a private company that is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, that specializes in network security appliances.

Its main product is a range of enterprise security appliances sold under the brand name of "FortiGate." The FortiGate family of multi-threat security appliances are ASIC-accelerated, security hardened and has integrated network-based firewall, antivirus, intrusion prevention, VPN (IPSec and SSL), web filtering, antispam and other security features. The company is considered a leader in the Unified Threat Management (UTM) security appliance market; the "FortiGate" series of ASIC-accelerated multi-threat security appliances won the 2004 Security Product of the Year Award from Network Computing magazine and the 2003 Networking Industry Awards Firewall Product of the Year, and has been reviewed by PC Magazine [1].

Fortinet also delivers four primary security subscription services under the "FortiGuard" brand. These include antivirus, intrusion prevention, antispam and content-control software. The latter is used mainly to block access to undesirable web sites such as pornography, gambling, and other illegal or unwanted content. According to the OpenNet Initiative [2], FortiGuard is used by the dictatorship of Myanmar to block communications critical of the regime carried over the internet, a system known as the Myanmar Wide Web [3]. Fortinet has promised to investigate the allegations, and the implied violation of US Government sanctions against the regime, noting that the software may have been sold to the regime by a third party [4]; meanwhile, the Myanmar government features its adoption of the Fortinet firewall on its official website [5] with other photos showing a Fortinet VP presenting a gift to the Myanmar Prime Minister during a ceremony [6].

In 2005, the gpl-violations.org project uncovered evidence that Fortinet had used GPL code in its products against the terms of the license, and used cryptographic tools to conceal the violation. The violation was alleged to have occurred in the FortiOS system, which the gpl-violations.org project said contained elements of the linux kernel. In response, a Munich court granted a temporary injunction against the company, preventing it from selling products until they were in compliance with the necessary license terms [7]; Fortinet was forced to make their FortiOS available free in compliance with GPL licensing [8]. Fortinet later settled out of court [9]. Also in 2005 Fortinet was found guilty of Patent infringement against Trend Micro regarding AntiVirus code [10]

Fortinet has raised $100 million in five rounds of venture capital investment from Acorn Campus, DEFTA Partners, DCM-Doll Capital Management, Fortunetech Partners, LLC., Forval Creative Inc., Meritech Capital Partners and Redpoint Ventures.

• Fortinet Profile in Red Herring Magazine
• Fortinet Named One of the Ten Most Influential Security Companies by Computer Business Review
• Fortinet Co-Founders Ken Xie & Michael Xie Named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2006 Award Winners Ernst & Young
• Fortinet across the board ICSA certification
• Fortinet is Fastest Growing Security Appliance Vendor Worldwide According to the market research company IDC
• Fortinet's FortiGate Security Appliances Achieve NSS Certification for Unified Threat Management (UTM) Capabilities