Fortinet to Close the Cyber Skills Gap Through Its NSE Institute Training and Certification Program

Fortinet announced it continues to lead the way on training and education in 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.

Rajesh Maurya, Regional Vice President, India & SAARC at Fortinet, said “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.”

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.

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 cybersecurity 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.