Vocus and Fortinet partner to tackle shadow AI

Vocus and Fortinet are aiming to tackle the problem of 'shadow AI' with the launch of Vocus Secure Shield, a fully managed Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) platform.

Vocus Secure Shield uses Fortinet’s deep application awareness to see not just which AI tool an employee opened, but what they did inside it. Inline data loss prevention flags or blocks sensitive information before it reaches a public language model.

Customer traffic bypasses the internet and connects over Vocus’ private network into Fortinet’s Australian SASE infrastructure through direct peering. 

The product is backed by a Vocus-Fortinet partnership that stretches back 19 years, with approximately 10,000 Fortinet devices and customer end points already under Vocus management across Australian customer environments - one of the largest managed Fortinet footprints in the country.

It is the first major managed security product to emerge from the expanded Vocus business following the company’s integration of TPG Telecom’s fibre assets and fixed line enterprise operations, combining security engineering and deployment automation capabilities from across the combined group.

"Employees are using AI. The question isn't whether to allow it, but whether you have visibility into what they're feeding these tools and can put sensible guardrails in place," said Tom Sykes, Vocus’ general manager of products and marketing.

"CIOs and CISOs want visibility into what people are doing with AI, not another blocking policy that’s simply worked around. Secure Shield brings together Fortinet’s AI driven cybersecurity platform with the Vocus national network – fibre, mobile and satellite – as a fully managed service."

"You cannot block your way out of this problem," said Dale Nachman, Fortinet’s senior regional director for ANZ.

"The only durable answer is deep visibility into what applications your staff are actually using and what data is moving through them, combined with policy-based guardrails that coach users toward good decisions rather than just slamming a door in their face."

Vocus Secure Shield is available now.