Introduction
As cyber threats grow more advanced and prolific, antivirus protection remains a critical component of security defense across endpoints and networks. Fortinet offers robust antivirus capabilities as part of its cybersecurity platform to stop malware, ransomware, spyware and other attacks targeting systems and data.
Leveraging insights from over 400,000 customers worldwide, Fortinet’s FortiGuard threat intelligence informs proactive protection enforced by Fortinet solutions. Integrated offerings detect known and unknown threats through signatures, heuristics and machine learning techniques applied across endpoints, email, web traffic, networks and clouds.
Staying on top of the evolving threat landscape is crucial as the World Economic Forum highlights cyber attacks as a top 10 global risk in terms of likelihood and impact, meriting vigilance by all individuals and organizations.
FortiGuard Antivirus Service
At the core of Fortinet’s antivirus capabilities is the FortiGuard Antivirus service, providing continuously updated detection models and signatures to all Fortinet platform products. With over 1 billion sensors worldwide supplying telemetry data, cloud-based FortiGuard AI engines rapidly identify emerging threats across the global attack surface.
By processing over 145 billion security updates daily, new defense signatures and updates can be pushed to customer endpoints in minutes to halt fast-spreading threats. The FortiGuard antivirus service leverages Fortinet’s Content Pattern Recognition Language (CPRL) for identifying malware characteristics efficiently with minimal false positives.
Broad Protection
FortiGuard protections shield against viruses, spyware, botnets, ransomware, rootkits plus variations of threats specifically designed to evade typical defenses. Outbreak prevention blocks newly identified sophisticated attacks and zero-day threats based on cloud analysis before local signature packages fully update.
Automated Updates
Signatures and detection models update automatically without any administrative effort. Real-time updates via FortiManager ensure customers continuously stay ahead of new attack campaigns as they emerge. FortiGate, FortiWeb, FortiMail and other Fortinet platforms seamlessly tap into FortiGuard data.
Technology Stack
Fortinet’s antivirus approach combines multiple techniques for maximum accuracy:
- Signature-based scanning detects known malicious code patterns
- Heuristic analysis identifies variants using suspicious characteristics
- Behavioral detection spots new threats based on abnormal process actions
- Cloud queries and machine learning models catch emerging attacks missed by traditional methods
Bringing together capabilities across endpoint, network and cloud is key to protect across today’s complex digital environments prone to attack.
FortiClient Fabric Agent for Endpoint Security
FortiClient extends Fortinet’s integrated cybersecurity platform to local devices using a lightweight agent providing enterprise-grade protections plus visibility and control:
Next-Generation Antivirus
Utilizing both signatures and AI-powered techniques focused on abnormal behaviors, FortiClient can stop malware before it executes. Linkage with FortiSandbox performs deeper inspection of unrecognized files.
Quarantine and Disinfection
Detected threats can be isolated locally before remediation steps disable and remove malware. Centralized visibility allows coordinated responses across security teams and devices.
Software Inventory
Detailed hardware and software inventory accelerated incident response with improved system integrity monitoring to detect unauthorized changes.
***Access Controls ***
Administrators can define policies around external devices, web filters, firewall rules and application access controls tailored to users, groups or devices. Controls restrict access to unauthorized cloud applications.
Automated Remediation
Remediation processes execute automatically containing outbreaks by isolating infected endpoints until threats are neutralized and systems restored. Orchestration eliminates reliance on manual reimaging.
FortiOS Antivirus
FortiOS provides core network security for Fortinet solutions across SD-WAN, switches, wireless access points and routers. Its integrated antivirus engine offers flexible deployment options:
Flow and Proxy Modes
Flow-based mode performs high speed scanning by extracting content from real-time traffic streams without proxying sessions. Proxy-based mode fully decrypts traffic for deeper analysis which is more thorough yet can impact performance.
Database types likewise tradeoff throughput versus detection rate. The Quick mode focuses on metadata for efficient scanning while Full mode fully unpacks and reconstructs content for maximum accuracy.
Configuration
Administrators can define antivirus profiles tailored to specific interfaces, user groups or traffic types. Different settings balance security versus connectivity needs for corporate networks, guest WiFi, employee devices etc.
Advanced Processing
Proxy mode enables specialized handling like decompressing files, decoding protocols, unpacking nested contents and more for detecting threats within encrypted traffic and obfuscated files. Stream-based scanning in proxy mode further boosts throughput.
Database options include cleaning infected files or more strict blocking. Content disarm and reconstruction removes detected threats from files while allowing safe contents. Outbreak prevention uses external threat feeds for quick identification of emerging attacks between signature updates.
Integration
FortiOS shares feeds with FortiSandbox for advanced analysis of suspicious files using isolated virtual environments. Sandbox integration allows flexible deployment modes – either redirection for non-intrusive inspection without delaying users, or inline blocking of suspicious traffic until sandbox results confirm safety.
Advanced Malware Protection Subscription
Fortinet offers bundled subscriptions which combine FortiGuard Antivirus with FortiSandbox Cloud sandboxing and Blended Threat Protection for countering known and zero-day threats:
Robust Protection
Together FortiGuard signatures, sandbox detonation, breach prevention and content reconstruction defend across the full attack chain from infiltration to exploitation to data exfiltration – stopping threats early before damage or loss occurs.
Key Features
- Antivirus detects known malicious code via signatures and heuristic analysis
- Sandboxing inspects unknown files by detonating them safely in a virtual environment
- Botnet IP/Domain security blocks communications with known bad sites/infrastructure
- Outbreak Prevention uses external threat intelligence to stay ahead of emerging attacks
- Content Disarm and Reconstruction removes exploits and allows safe file contents
This layered approach spanning FortiGuard and FortiSandbox provides trained professionals peace of mind their defenses are keeping pace with the threat landscape.
Conclusion
As cyberattacks grow more frequent, sophisticated and costly, the need for robust antivirus defenses has never been greater. Yet no single technique can catch all threats in today’s landscape – optimal protection requires a platform melding signature-based detection, cloud analytics, isolation sandboxes, outbreak prevention and content disarming together.
Fortinet provides exactly this integrated solution via the FortiGuard antivirus service augmenting scanning across FortiSandbox, FortiClient, FortiGate and the Fortinet Security Fabric. Seamless updates ensure customers maintain reliable protection against constantly evolving attacks. With over a billion threats identified yearly by FortiGuard Labs research, Fortinet security powered by machine learning gives organizations and individuals the capabilities needed to defend their critical systems and sensitive data.