UAE Central Bank selects Fortinet Solutions to protect its online services

The Central Bank's main responsibility is to formulate and implement the banking, credit and monetary policy in the UAE; it also provides the core payment systems. Fortinet's enterprise class security appliances have been deployed as part of the Central Bank's primary firewall and antivirus solution to help safeguard data, online transactions and communications.

UAE Central Bank, which directs monetary, credit and banking policy and supervises its implementation by all banks operating in the UAE, was looking for a security solution that could help protect its main services. Those include its soon to be implemented Image Check Clearing System, which is the electronic system the Central Bank will use to clear all checks that are deposited through banks in UAE; its reporting services, which are an essential part of their role as supervisor of financial institutions in the UAE; and, its email servers confined in a closed internal network. After evaluating several security vendors' solutions, the UAE Central Bank chose Fortinet's FortiGate-800 integrated security appliances and worked with Data Processing Systems (DPS), Fortinet's regional value-added-reseller (VAR), on the implementation.

"We handle a lot of very confidential and time sensitive data for which security is absolutely essential. So, when we decided to move our existing services and systems online for more efficiency, we had to ensure that not only our data would be protected but also that our network would maintain its high performance, delivery throughput and high availability," said Bob Thomson, senior manager, IT projects at UAE Central Bank. "Fortinet's FortiGate-800 systems provided the performance, flexibility and security we were looking for. Combined with other networked solutions deployed by DPS, we felt that it was the most effective solution for us."

Mr. Nader Al Atout, ICT General Manager - Abu Dhabi at DPS, added,

"We always work with leading vendors to provide the right solutions for our clients. We recommended Fortinet's integrated network security appliances to UAE Central Bank because we needed a solution that was reliable and could fulfill the bank's need for high availability, flexible, security solution for its new Image Check Clearing System offering to the banks across the country."

UAE Central Bank deployed two FortiGate-800 multi-threat security appliances in a cluster at its central office in Abu Dhabi for automatic back-up without downtime and one FortiGate-200 appliance at its Dubai office, which works as the bank's disaster recovery center. Fortinet's security appliances are also providing granular security through multi-zone capabilities, allowing administrators to segment their network into zones and create specific policies between zones.

Fortinet's FortiGate multi-threat security appliances integrate essential security applications and services - including antivirus, firewall, VPN, intrusion prevention (IPS), anti-spam, anti-spyware, Web filtering and traffic shaping - into a purpose-built platform, to provide superior protection capabilities and deployment flexibility while reducing the operational burden and costs compared to managing multiple point solutions. All FortiGate systems are kept up to date automatically by Fortinet's FortiGuard Network, which provides continuous updates to protect against the latest threats around the clock and around the world.

"Between the high sensitivity of financial data and the banking industry's inevitable evolution towards online communications, financial institutions have more stringent network security requirements than ever," said Patrice Perche, vice president, EMEA and India for Fortinet. "Many enterprises, such as UAE Central Bank, realize that in-depth defense is what's needed to help prevent network compromise and choose FortiGate systems to help effectively protect themselves against blended security threats coming from both external and internal sources."