Fortinet hires Andrew Sheedy to lead operational technology business

Cybersecurity vendor Fortinet has appointed Andrew Sheedy to lead its operational technology (OT) solutions business in Australia and New Zealand.

As director, the company said Sheedy would focus on its critical infrastructure systems security solutions. He will help clients shape a security framework to keep their operations safe, secure, compliant, and available.

“Cybersecurity strategy for critical infrastructure has been recognised by Australian state and federal governments as being of significant national interest," Sheedy said.

Maintaining strong OT security is essential to protecting this critical infrastructure. Fortinet incorporates capabilities that let organisations identify and deal with security threats while maintaining their safety systems’ integrity so they can keep operating safely. 

“Fortinet is continuing to innovate in this area, developing new capabilities that provide increased visibility into OT cybersecurity and providing clients with a decision-making system that doesn’t currently exist. This makes it an incredibly exciting time to become part of Fortinet.

"I’m looking forward to working with new and existing clients to improve the robustness of their security posture.”

Prior to joining Fortinet, Sheedy worked in a number of information security roles, including Speedcast Managed Services, Context Information Security, Splunk and Security Infrastructure Solutions.

In December 2020, Fortinet purchased Panopta to gain visibility into and automate management of enterprise network components like servers, containers, applications, databases, virtual appliances and cloud infrastructure.

The platform security vendor said its acquisition of Chicago-based Panopta would provide customers with a full picture of every service, network device and application in any deployment regardless of whether it’s on-premises, in the cloud, in a container or in a hybrid environment.

The vendor said Panopta’s network monitoring and diagnostics platform will strengthen its operations management muscle.