Events , Governance & Risk Management , Network Detection & Response

Network and Security Convergence: How It's Evolving

Networking was created as a "trust everything" approach that "doesn't know who you are, doesn't know your content or why you're doing it." In the future, according to John Maddison, CMO of Fortinet, all that connectivity will be secure, and the market for secure networking will become bigger.

See Also: Alleviating Compliance Pain Points in the Cloud Era

Citing Gartner statistics, Maddison said the market for secure networking will become bigger than traditional networking by 2030. Many organizations currently use multiple vendors for different applications or security features that do not work well together. To address this issue, he suggests automating communication and connectivity between security elements, such as email, endpoints and networks.

"A lot of people are now talking about platform and consolidation. The key in the future is to automate where, for example, if I do find something in my email, like a phishing email, they then talk to the endpoint, talk to the network to maybe stop it from coming in," said Maddison. "And so the communication or automation, the connectivity of the security elements, is going to be very important going forward because things move very fast."

In this video interview with Information Security Media Group at RSA Conference 2023, Maddison also discusses:

• How CISOs can navigate the expanding area of secure networking;
• How Fortinet is narrowing the skills gap;
• Challenges organizations face with distributed workforces.

Maddison has more than 30 years of executive management experience in the cybersecurity and telecommunications industries. He previously held executive leadership positions at Trend Micro focused on advanced threat research and cloud-delivered security services.