Murphy’s role will focus on helping organizations build cyber resilience for operational technology (OT) and help them understand how to achieve strong outcomes for OT security.
According to the company, this includes demystifying and clarifying the different requirements of the OT and IT environments, reducing friction points, and finding mutually beneficial objectives, solutions, and incident responses in the cybersecurity landscape of organizations.
This newly created role plays an important role as critical infrastructure (CI) organizations are increasingly threatened by malicious actors, Fortinet said.
The Australian government has enacted the Security Legislation Amendment (Critical Infrastructure) Act 2021, which came into effect in December 2021. Further changes are likely.
Initially, in two separate bills, the Critical Infrastructure Act covers three main aspects: registration of critical assets, reporting compromised assets, and systems of national importance.
As such, CI organizations must conduct vulnerability assessments for these assets, apply automatic shutdown (ASD) sensors to monitor and protect assets and conduct incident response plans and scenario testing.
The new law covers 11 sectors and more organizations than before, increasing the need for targeted cybersecurity within these organizations, Fortinet said.
Murphy has fulfilled cybersecurity professional roles and built OT incident response teams in organizations such as Hewlett Packard Enterprise in APAC and NTT Ltd. in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and Singapore.
He then returned to Australia, taking on a senior sales engineer role at McAfee Enterprise, followed by a solution architect role at Trellix before joining Fortinet in May 2022.
Jon McGettigan, Regional Director of Fortinet, Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands, comments: “Cyber attacks are increasingly affecting CI operators, and the threats come from many sources. This complex issue is even more challenging because traditional IT security methods and approaches don’t work for OT in a CI environment.
“Fortinet has created the role of head of operations technology and critical infrastructure in response to the changing regulatory environment and threat landscape coupled with the significant and rapid growth in this area at Fortinet. The goal is to help CI operators create real and sustainable cyber resilience in the face of escalating cyber attacks.”
He says: “Fortinet is delighted to have Michael Murphy in this role. He brings a wealth of experience in responding to cyber incidents in critical OT environments. He clearly understands how CI operators can advance their security agenda, complementing Fortinet’s position as a leader in securing OT environments.”
Michael Murphy, Australia’s chief operating technology and critical infrastructure, Fortinet, said: “Critical infrastructure law has changed the landscape for many organizations, so it’s important to help those organizations understand what is needed and how to address them effectively. Can meet the requirements.
“It is essential to proactively identify and address the friction points between the company’s IT and OT objectives and then map out an approach to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes in the cybersecurity landscape.
“Fortinet brings a unique perspective to this challenge, which excites me to take on this new role. I look forward to offering my strong results-oriented approach, complemented by practical, technically supported experience and familiarity with her clients in Australia.
“This combination is ideal for OT and CI organizations facing an advanced new world of threats with diverse motivations. I am excited to be part of the Fortinet team and look forward to helping make real progress.” in the field of cyber resilience.”
