SUNNYVALE, Calif, 9th March, 2009 - Fortinet® - a pioneer and leading provider of Unified Threat Management (UTM) solutions - today announced it has achieved Becta Accreditation of Internet Services to Education for its FortiGate® multi-threat security appliances and FortiGuard® subscription services. The accreditation enables educational establishments to benefit from simplified procurement of ICT solutions, guaranteeing EU-compliant and approved levels of service defined to meet the needs of education networks.

To achieve Becta accreditation, Fortinet has proven its commercial and technical capabilities through rigorous assessment in all aspects of its business credentials. During testing of its web content filtering functionality Fortinet performed high above Becta's benchmark, achieving a hundred percent catch rate in numerous categories including adult content, violence sites and racial material. Paul Judd, Regional Director, UK and Ireland at Fortinet comments;

"Becta has achieved significant success in safeguarding students from harmful and malicious internet content through its stringent regulations and standards. This accreditation is a major achievement for Fortinet, and highlights the performance and efficiency of our web-filtering products and services.

"With millions of websites accessible to students every day, blocking potentially harmful and illegal content with the right security solution is critical to schools and local authorities. Security companies hold a moral responsibility to its education customers, and this accreditation is setting that Ôe-safety' standard. With this Becta approval, our customers can be sure students are fully protected from exposure to dangerous online content, monitoring and blocking unsafe web content comprehensively and responsibly."

Fortinet holds extensive knowledge and experience in the education sector, with customers including Liverpool Direct Limited, Hertfordshire Grid for Learning and Ireland's national education and research network, HEAnet. Fortinet's understanding of the sector's requirements played a key role in its accreditation success, Judd explains:

Working closely with our customers, we understand the key for e-safety in the education sector is controlling access to inappropriate web sites that can expose students to potentially harmful material. With granular and flexible security policies, FortiGate's categorised ratings allow administrators to quickly and easily apply specific web access policies as and when needed. With the ability to choose the level of security they require for individual users and groups, school networks can be sure they are providing the most appropriate service for different learning needs.Ó

As a part of its FortiGate integrated multi-threat security platform, Fortinet's web-filtering service comes fully integrated with anti-virus functionality, eliminating the need for multiple point products and providing low Total Cost of Ownership. All FortiGate systems deliver comprehensive network and content protection through the integration of eight essential security services - including antivirus, firewall, VPN, intrusion prevention (IPS), antispam, antispyware, Web filtering and traffic shaping. The systems are kept up to date automatically by Fortinet's FortiGuard® subscription services, which provide continuous updates to help protect against the latest viruses, worms, Trojans, and other threats - around the clock, and around the world.

Becta is the government agency leading the national drive to ensure the effective use of technology throughout learning. This accreditation complements the initiatives by developing standards for service providers to the education sector. Fortinet's accredited web-filtering solutions can be found on the Becta website: http://industry.becta.org.uk/

Fortinet is also a member of the Internet Watch Foundation in the UK working to combat potentially illegal online content and prevent access to child sexual abuse. The IWF is an independent body operating the only authorised non police 'Hotline' in the UK for the public and IT professionals to report their inadvertent exposure to illegal content on the internet.