Sending malware statistics to FortiGuard

FortiGate devices periodically send encrypted antivirus, IPS, botnet IP list, and application control statistics to FortiGuard. Included with these data is the IP address and serial number of the FortiGate, and the country that it is in. This information is never shared with external parties, Fortinet Privacy Policy.

The malware statistics are used to improve various aspects of FortiGate malware protection. For example, antivirus data allow FortiGuard to determine what viruses are currently active. Signatures for those viruses are kept in the Active AV Signature Database that is used by multiple Fortinet products.Inactive virus signatures are moved to the Extended AV Signature Database (see Configuring FortiGuard updates). When events for inactive viruses start appearing in the malware data, the signatures are moved back into the AV Signature Database.

The FortiGate and FortiGuard servers go through a 2-way SSL/TLS 1.2 authentication before any data is transmitted. The certificates used in this process must be trusted by each other and signed by the Fortinet CA server.

The FortiGate only accepts data from authorized FortiGuard severs. Fortinet products use DNS to find FortiGuard servers and periodically update their FortiGate server list. All other servers are provided by a list that is updated through the encrypted channel.

Malware statistics are accumulated and sent every 60 minutes by default.

To configure sharing this information, use the following CLI command:

config system global
    set fds-statistics {enable | disable}
    set fds-statistics-period <minutes>
end

The submission of malware data is in accordance with the Fortinet Privacy Policy. There is no sensitive or personal information included in these submissions. Only malware statistics are sent. Fortinet uses the malware statistics collected in this manner to improve the performance of the FortiGate services and to display statistics on the Fortinet Support website for customers registered FortiGate devices. Fortinet may also publish or share statistics or results derived from this malware data with various audiences. The malware statistics shared in this way do not include any customer data.