Wintec to offer Fortinet cyber security training

The Waikato Institute of Technology (Wintec) will offer the Fortinet Network Security Academy (FNSA) program, designed to develop and train “action-oriented cyber security experts to manage new and advanced threats on the horizon.”

According to Fortinet Wintec will be the first institution in New Zealand to offer the program, which will provide industry-recognised cyber security training and certification opportunities to students on how to protect organisations from cyber threats.

Wintec will offer its student the option of getting the FNSA certification alongside their degrees in Applied Information Technology, and will encourage participation through incentive, such as free course vouchers for students pursuing certification for the first time.

Fortinet says the Wintec team that will teach the program have achieved its NSE4 certification — which recognises the ability to install and manage the day-to-day configuration, monitoring and operation of a Fortinet FortiGate device to support specific corporate network security policies — and already possess a strong knowledge base.

“Students will be prepared at international FNSA sites for success in a career in network security, obtaining both the theoretical lectures and hands-on laboratory practice needed to achieve a Fortinet certification,” it says.

Wintec says it has seen an increase in the demand for courses aimed at careers in cyber security, and 80 percent of its IT students have enrolled for the FNSA certification program.

Fortinet’s Q4 2017 Threat Landscape Report flagged a 25 percent increase in malware families and an increase of 82 percent in the number of exploit detections per firm in a single quarter.

Fortinet says multiple studies demonstrate the cyber security labour shortage and the dire need for additional experts. “Current estimates show up to one million cybersecurity job openings with demand expected to rise to 6 million globally by 2019.”