In this ISJ exclusive, Tony Zabaneh, Director of Systems Engineering, Middle East South at Fortinet discusses remote working, ransomware and secure access.
Can you tell me about your role at Fortinet and how long you have worked at the company?
I’m Tony Zabaneh, a cybersecurity and technology professional focused on building practical, business-ready security solutions.
I enjoy turning complex challenges into clear, engaging experiences – whether that’s designing demos, building labs or creating interactive ways to help teams and customers adopt better security practices.
In my director role, I lead and mentor cross-functional teams, aligning strategy, execution and stakeholders to deliver measurable outcomes.
How do Fortinet’s security products protect hybrid and remote workers while still ensuring secure access to corporate networks and applications?
Fortinet delivers endpoint, network and remote access security integrated into the Fortinet Security Fabric that enables consistent security and user experience regardless of where the worker – or the application – is located.
While Fortinet’s Security Fabric provides a comprehensive web of security across the organisation, there are three areas worth highlighting in relation to hybrid and remote workers.
Firstly, Fortinet Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) allows for safe and secure access to applications by connecting users no matter where the user is located and no matter where the application is hosted.
Secondly, it’s worth addressing the issue of laptops moving between networks, which are prime targets for malware (including ransomware) used to gain access to corporate data.
FortiEDR detects novel attacks and automatically responds and remediates any unauthorised configuration changes.
Lastly, Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) ensures cloud-based security for work-from-anywhere and remote access.
FortiSASE provides secure internet access, secure corporate access and secure SaaS access with comprehensive AI-powered security.
As AI-driven cyber-threats continues to grow more advanced, how will Fortinet ensure its solutions will protect organisations?
AI lowers the barrier-to-entry to cyber-crime, enabling both novice and skilled threat actors to execute successful attacks.
AI also enhances the efficiency and scale of existing techniques like social engineering and malware deployment. To combat these, organisations need to take a platform approach to security to protect the ever expanding threat surface.
Operating in real time, Fortinet’s FortiAI secures organisations by proactively defending against emerging threats, enabling rapid detection and response to threats and automating security and network operations.
Differentiated by seamless integration within the Fortinet Security Fabric, FortiAI is built on a mature AI stack backed by over 15 years of research and development and over 500 AI patents and patent applications.
FortiAI is assisted by 40 million globally deployed sensors that drive real-time actionable insights and intelligence to deliver the best possible threat detection and response for organisations.
How does Fortinet address ransomware attacks across endpoints, networks and cloud workloads?
Ransomware protection is needed because without it, cyber-criminals can hijack systems and steal data, bringing operations to a halt, until the victims either pay the ransom or use extensive mitigation strategies to reclaim the data.
Businesses, regardless of their size, are favourite targets of ransomware from cyber-criminals. Many businesses depend on their computers for their daily operations, such as managing crucial files or communication.
Any downtime has an effect on the business’s bottom line. Cyber-criminals use this to manipulate business owners and employees into paying to regain access to their computers.
In many cases, they succeed in either extorting large sums of money or significantly disrupting operations.
Fortinet ransomware protection includes artificial intelligence and other advanced analytics across the digital attack surface and the cyber kill chain.
Organisations are provided multiple opportunities to prevent and/or detect ransomware campaigns and components when using solutions including FortiEDR/XDR, Fortimail, FortiGuard managed Detection and Response (MDR) and more.
Can you tell me about a time when the company’s solutions positively impacted the outcome of a major security incident?
Fortinet believes in the importance of close international cooperation and engagement in public-private partnerships (PPPs) to combat cyber-crime and is actively involved in cyber-crime prevention.
In addition to Fortinet’s involvement with the World Economic Forum PAC and Cybercrime Atlas initiative, Fortinet cooperates with global law enforcement agencies, government organisations and industry organisations.
Fortinet has been a trusted partner to INTERPOL and an active Global Cybercrime Expert Group member for nearly 10 years.
In 2025, for example, an unprecedented cyber-crime takedown by INTERPOL led to 1,209 arrests, the recovery of nearly $100 million and the dismantling of more than 11,000 malicious infrastructures across Africa.
Fortinet is also a long-standing member of the NATO Industry Cyber Partnership, a partner of NIST’s National Cybersecurity Excellence Partnership program, a founding member of the Cyber Threat Alliance, an official research partner with MITRE Engenuity’s Center for Threat-Informed Defense and more.
As the global cyber-crime landscape evolves, these collaborations will only become more critical to halting threat actors.
