Fortinet Continues Commitment to Cyber Skills Gap Though its NSE Institute Training and Certification Program

With nearly 200,000 certifications awarded globally, Fortinet expands offerings and rolls out additional certifications, education and training initiatives

Taguig City Philippines, 3 May 2019

News Summary:

Fortinet® (NASDAQ: FTNT), a global leader in broad, integrated and automated cybersecurity solutions, today announced it continues to lead the way on training and educationin the company’s ongoing efforts to close the cyber security skills gap by rolling out even further expanded training and education initiatives. Recent additions to the company’s education and training programming includes additional Fortinet Network Security Expert (NSE) Institute cloud certifications and the offering of its cyber security awareness training –at no cost – for individuals or organizations seeking to deploy a cyber security awareness training program.

The cyber skills gap

A 2019 Gartner survey shows the global talent shortage is now the top emerging risk facing organizations. The expansion of the digital marketplace has generated more jobs than the current supply of security professionals can meet. A problem of scale; there is currently not an efficient way to create skilled security practitioners at the same rate. Unfortunately, there are not enough skilled humans available to properly plan, manage, integrate, and optimize security devices, strategies, and protocols. For example, according to a recent workforce development survey, 59% of organizations have unfilled cybersecurity positions, with Frost & Sullivan forecasting a shortfall of 1.5 million by 2020. 

Fortinet continues commitment to bridge the cyber skills gap

In today’s global cybersecurity threat landscape, education is crucial to the success of organizations. Creating and executing a strategy with a wide scope can be a daunting task, but this is precisely the mandate and strategy of the Fortinet NSE Institute. The Fortinet NSE Institute was created to provide broad-based training that arms participants with a foundational understanding of the threat landscape, as well as the cyber security fundamentals and skills to implement strategies and technical concepts that are in high demand.While the Institute’s flagship NSE Training and Certification program has issued nearly 200,000 certifications, it is equally focused on education programs such as the Fortinet Network Security Academy program for high schools, colleges and universities, the FortiVets program that facilitates the transition of exceptional military veterans into the cybersecurity industry by providing professional networking, training, and mentoring, as well as free publicly available awareness training that can be accessed by any company wishing to deploy an internal cyber security awareness program for employees.

Cyber security training & education milestones:

·       There are now over 140 academies in more than 50 different countries. 

·       Fortinet has provided nearly 200,000 NSE certifications, building a skilled workforce that will be recognized in the industry as an elite group of security professionals. 

·       The company recently made public cyber security awareness trainings NSE 1 and 2, whereby these free offerings are now available to the public at large. For example, any Security Operations (SecOps) team seeking to deploy a cyber security awareness training program now has an easy and no cost way to get started.

·       Fortinet introduced the NSE 7 Cloud certification, consisting of two training courses, “Public Cloud Security” and “Private Cloud Security,” and are both being offered as part of the training schedule at this year’s Fortinet Accelerate conference, held in Orlando from April 8 – 11, 2019. 

·       During the past year, the number of NSE8 certifications awarded has doubled, a certification designation that identifies a candidate’s comprehensive knowledge of network security design, configuration, and troubleshooting for complex networks.

·       The Fortinet Fast Track Program, launched at the company’s 2018 Accelerate conference, now has over 8,000 participating partners.

·       There has been an average of 300 – 600 student sessions around the world per week, based on recent company data.

“This unprecedented shortage in the cyber security workforce has resulted in security operations teams who are over worked and understaffed and it continues to benefit our cyber adversaries. Fortinet is more than a technology company; we’re also a learning organization. Fortinet is dedicated to closing the cyber skills gap and goes well beyond providing training on products and solutions as part of our commitment to deliver a response to the growing global cybersecurity threat.” - Ken Xie, Founder, Chairman of the Board, and CEO at Fortinet.

Addressing the skills gap at scale

In addition to the established company-led training and education programs, a comprehensive training and education strategy must include strategic partnerships within government, academia and NGOs, such as Fortinet’s strategic relationships with organization such as the World Economic Forum (WEF) and its Centre for Cybersecurity, the Global Threat Alliance, CompTIA, and various university research programs. Fortinet will continue its efforts to broadly and globally collaborate, innovate and develop powerful global solutions to reduce global cyberattacks, contain current and future cyberattacks, and deter cybercrime.

Additional Resources

·       Learn more about Fortinet’s education and training initiatives and efforts to close the cyber security skills gap in this blog post and video.

·       Read more about our Network Security Expert program and Network Security Academy program.

·       Find out more information about our FortiVets program.

·       Read more about the Fortinet Security Fabric or the Third Generation of Cybersecurity.

·       Learn more about FortiGuard Labs and the FortiGuard Security Services portfolio. Sign up for the weekly FortiGuard Threat Intelligence Briefs.

·       Follow Fortinet on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. 

About Fortinet

Fortinet (NASDAQ: FTNT) secures the largest enterprise, service provider, and government organizations around the world. Fortinet empowers its customers with intelligent, seamless protection across the expanding attack surface and the power to take on ever-increasing performance requirements of the borderless network - today and into the future. Only the Fortinet Security Fabric architecture can deliver security without compromise to address the most critical security challenges, whether in networked, application, cloud, or mobile environments. Fortinet ranks #1 in the most security appliances shipped worldwide and more than 385,000 customers trust Fortinet to protect their businesses. Learn more at http://www.fortinet.com, the Fortinet Blog, or FortiGuard Labs.    

Read More

Kali Linux is now available on Windows 10 Microsoft App Store

Kali Linux, a very popular, free, and open-source Linux-based operating system widely used for hacking and penetration testing, is now natively available on Windows 10, without requiring dual boot or virtualization.

 Kali Linux is the latest Linux distribution to be made available on the Windows App Store for one-click installation, joining the list of other popular distribution such as Ubuntu, OpenSUSE and SUSE Enterprise Linux.

In Windows 10, Microsoft has provided a feature called "Windows Subsystem for Linux" (WSL) that allows users to run Linux applications directly on Windows.

How to Download and Run Kali Linux on Windows 10

 Installation is similar to Ubuntu Bash on Windows.




Turn ON "Developer Mode" via Settings → Update & security → For developers, as this new feature is specifically meant for developers.

If this is your first time using Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), you need to enable this optional Windows feature before getting the Kali Linux app.

 Follow these simple steps to enable WSL:

• Navigate to Control Panel and go to "Apps and features"
• Select "Programs and Features" from the right panel
• Click the "Turn Windows features on or off" from the left menu
• Select the "Windows Subsystem for Linux" and save it
• Reboot your system

You can even do the same by opening PowerShell as Administrator and running the following command and restart your computer.

Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux

Now search for Kali Linux on Windows Store, download it with just a single click. Once you launch the application, it automatically completes Kali installation and will open the console window.


Kali Linux on Windows does not come with any hacking or penetration testing tools pre-installed, but you can easily install them later.

It should be noted that your Antivirus application or Windows defender can trigger false-positive warning for hacking tools and exploits, but you need not worry about it.

Microsoft is following its commitment to the open source community. In 2013, the company launched Visual Studio, and a year later, it open-sourced .NET. In 2015, Microsoft open-sourced the Visual Studio Code Editor, as well.

Read More

NanoCore RAT Creator Arrested Gets 33 months in Prison

Taylor Huddleston, 26, of Hot Springs, Arkansas, pleaded guilty in July 2017 to one charge of aiding and abetting computer intrusions by building and intentionally selling a remote access trojan (RAT), called NanoCore, to hackers for $25.

Selling a remote access trojan that helped cyber criminals—has finally been sentenced to serve almost three years in prison.

Huddleston was arrested in March, almost two months before the FBI raided his house in Hot Springs, Arkansas and left with his computers after 90 minutes, only to return eight weeks later with handcuffs. 

This case is a rare example of the US Department of Justice (DOJ) charging someone not for actively using malware to hack victims' computers, but for developing and selling it to other cybercriminals.
Huddleston admitted to the court that he created his software knowing it would be used by other cybercriminals to break the law.
He initially started developing NanoCore in late 2012 with a motive to offer a low-budget remote management software for schools, IT-conscious businesses, and parents who desired to monitor their children's activities on the web. 

Huddleston marketed and sold the NanoCore RAT for $25 in underground hacking forums that were extremely popular with cybercriminals around the world from January 2014 to February 2016. He then sold ownership of NanoCore to a third-party in 2016.

NanoCore RAT happens to be popular among cybercriminals on underground hacking forums and has been linked to intrusions in at least ten countries. Among the victims was a high-profile assault on Middle Eastern energy firms in 2015.

Huddleston also agreed with prosecutors that NanoCore RAT and available third-party plugins offered a full set of features including:

• Stealing sensitive information from victim computers, such as passwords, emails, and instant messages.
• Remotely activating and controlling connected webcams on the victims' computers in order to spy on them.
• Ability to view, delete, and download files.
• Locking infected PCs and holding them to ransom.
• Using infected PCs to launch distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks on websites and similar services.

In July plea, Huddleston also took responsibility for creating and operating a software licensing system called "Net Seal" that was used by another suspect, Zachary Shames, to sell thousands of copies of Limitless keylogger.

Shames used Net Seal to infect 3,000 people that were, in turn, used it to infect 16,000 computers, according to the DoJ.

In his guilty plea, Huddleston admitted that he intended his products to be used maliciously.

Besides the 33-month prison sentence handed down by judges on Friday, Huddleston also gets two years of supervised release.

 You can download crack version --- here.


 

Read More