Fortinet FortiSRA-VM
Fortinet Secure Remote Access

Overview:

Deploy secure remote access for critical systems, manage user access and privileges, monitor, log, and record user activity

FortiSRA assists operational technology (OT) organizations in implementing secure remote access (SRA), managing user access and privileges, and monitoring, logging, and recording user activity during remote sessions. Additionally, the solution ensures uptime for SRA services through high availability (HA) and active/standby HA capabilities.

FortiSRA supports privileged access management features that control user accounts with elevated privileges, manage access and permissions for remote users, accounts, processes, systems, and sensitive data across the OT infrastructure.

Furthermore, FortiSRA provides gated access to the most sensitive OT resources within an organization. It enables end-to-end management of remote accounts, controls privileged user access, and offers visibility of account usage, including monitoring and audit capabilities. These features allow FortiSRA to mitigate the risk associated with maintaining external access to critical OT resources.

OT enables factories, power generation and transmission facilities, public transportation networks, oil and gas facilities, and utilities to function. These organizations provide critical products and services through technologies such as industrial automation and control systems (IACS), including distributed control systems and supervisory control and data acquisition systems (DCS/SCADA). Therefore, it’s particularly important for them to have a business continuity plan in place. FortiSRA can enable these organizations to securely support remote work and maintain business continuity.

Highlights

Integrates, as part of Fortinet Security Fabric, with FortiAuthenticator, FortiToken, and a FortiSRA web browser extension, as a complete, clientless SRA solution for OT

Includes scheduled credential changing capabilities (LDAPS, Samba, SSH, SSH key)

Enables native program access with PuTTY and RDP along with browserbased access via Chrome, Firefox, and Edge

Features:

Typical FortiSRA Deployment

The components of Fortinet Secure Remote Access Solution.

Manage Account Credentials

In OT environments, effective management of privileged accounts for both users and third-party contractors is paramount to maintaining security and operational resilience. FortiSRA offers a comprehensive solution by automating the entire lifecycle of privileged accounts, which goes beyond mere credential storage. It facilitates automatic password changes based on predefined policies, reducing the risk of unauthorized access and addressing the challenge of orphaned accounts or outdated credential policies for both internal users and external contractors. Moreover, FortiSRA assumes control of the privileged credential vault for specific resources, eliminating the need for users and contractors to directly interact with sensitive credentials, thereby mitigating the potential for credential exposure. Additionally, by ensuring that sensitive privileged account information is not transmitted to end-user devices, FortiSRA strengthens overall security posture, enabling organizations to maintain operational continuity and safeguard critical infrastructure systems effectively.

Control Privileged User Access

Privileged accounts demand careful management due to their access to critical OT resources. FortiSRA addresses this need by ensuring that end users, including third-party contractors, are granted access to essential resources based on assigned roles, such as standard user or administrator, while consistently adhering to the principle of least privilege. It provides administrators with full control over resource secrets through centrally defined policies, including the option for automatic password changes upon check-in. OT organizations can also leverage FortiSRA to implement a hierarchical approval system and regulate potentially risky commands.

Monitor Privileged Access

In addition to managing and controlling privileged accounts, it’s equally crucial to provide monitoring capabilities for users, especially third-party contractors, accessing these highly sensitive resources remotely. FortiSRA offers reporting of privileged account usage in the event of a security incident. It also provides full-session video recordings to capture user activity on critical OT systems, including keystrokes and mouse events. When required for audit purposes, FortiSRA offers comprehensive tracking of all privileged account and target system usage.

Specifications:

Documentation:

Download the Fortinet Secure Remote Access (FortiSRA) Datasheet (PDF).