Fortinet has unveiled FortiOS 8.0, a significant upgrade to the operating system that underpins the Fortinet Security Fabric.
This new release, launched during Fortinet Accelerate 2026, introduces cutting-edge AI-driven security, next-generation SASE, and quantum-safe features, aimed at simplifying organisational security frameworks while ensuring consistent protection and performance across digital ecosystems.
"FortiOS 8.0 reflects more than 25 years of continued innovation at the intersection of networking and security. As organisations embrace AI, cloud, and increasingly encrypted environments, a unified operating system is essential to reduce complexity, improve visibility, and ensure security can scale without slowing the business," said Ken Xie, Founder, Chairman of the Board, and Chief Executive Officer at Fortinet.
A unified approach for advanced secure networking
The rapid digital transformation, including the adoption of generative AI (GenAI), hybrid work, and cloud-centric strategies, compels security teams to escalate protection while minimizing complexity. FortiOS 8.0 addresses these requirements through an integrated operating system enabling enhanced visibility, robust control, and state-of-the-art security across network boundaries, cloud environments, and data centres.
FortiOS 8.0 enhances three principal innovation areas: AI-driven security, advanced SASE, and quantum-resistant protection, assisting organisations in securely navigating contemporary connectivity landscapes while preparing for future challenges.
Enhancing AI utilisation with improved security measures
With the increasing implementation of GenAI and autonomous agents, FortiOS 8.0 offers capabilities to understand, manage, and secure AI deployment across networks. Key developments in AI-driven security include:
- FortiView for AI: Offers real-time insights into AI application usage, helping identify unauthorised tools to mitigate compliance risks.
- AI-aware application control: Allows approved GenAI tools, preventing risky actions that could disclose sensitive information.
- Model Context Protocol (MCP) and A2A visibility: Uncovers hidden AI interactions, enhancing data flow control.
- Advanced data loss prevention (DLP): Uses optical character recognition (OCR) to detect sensitive data in non-text formats, reducing data breach risks.
- AI agents in Fortinet Security Fabric: Facilitates troubleshooting and configuration through interactive workflows, decreasing response times and operational complexity.
Strengthening Fortinet’s SASE capabilities
FortiOS 8.0 enhances Fortinet’s next-generation SASE capabilities to cater to demanding, regulated, and mission-critical settings. New SASE features include:
- SASE Outpost: Expands enforcement close to users by deploying SASE points of presence (POPs) at customer locations, coupled with central cloud management.
- Sovereign SASE deployment options: Provides a multifaceted data sovereignty model for controlled regional log retention and sovereign deployments, aligning with stringent privacy regulations.
- Unified SD-WAN bundles: Integrates connectivity solutions with central management, enhancing application performance and simplifying procurement.
- Multipath IPsec tunnels: Bolsters resiliency and performance across distributed settings, supporting critical operations.
Advancing quantum-safe security
FortiOS 8.0 maintains Fortinet’s commitment to preparing organisations for a quantum-secure future, broadening quantum-safe cryptographic protocols. Enhanced measures include:
- Quantum-resilient cryptographic controls: Secures vital management pathways using Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) for authentication and key exchanges.
- Strengthened SSL inspection: Enhances encrypted traffic analysis through hybrid key exchange, maintaining robust encryption.
- Quantum-safe SASE capabilities: Improves inspection of encrypted traffic while protecting crucial access paths with quantum-resilient measures.
FortiOS 8.0 exemplifies Fortinet's continued progress in advancing Secure Networking by delivering a cohesive platform that evolves alongside business needs. By reducing complexity and boosting operational efficiency, it supports organisations in embracing digital transformation, AI implementation, and ensuring resilience against the backdrop of an increasingly dynamic threat landscape.
Fortinet, the global cybersecurity pioneer driving the convergence of networking and security, announced FortiOS 8.0, the latest release of the operating system that powers the Fortinet Security Fabric. Introduced as part of Fortinet’s Secure Networking innovation at Fortinet Accelerate 2026, FortiOS 8.0 delivers powerful new AI-driven security, next-generation SASE, and quantum-safe capabilities to help organisations simplify their security architectures while delivering consistent protection and performance across the entire digital infrastructure.
"FortiOS 8.0 reflects more than 25 years of continued innovation at the intersection of networking and security. As organisations embrace AI, cloud, and increasingly encrypted environments, a unified operating system is essential to reduce complexity, improve visibility, and ensure security can scale without slowing the business.” Ken Xie, Founder, Chairman of the Board, and Chief Executive Officer at Fortinet
A unified platform for the future of secure networking
As organisations accelerate digital transformation initiatives, including generative AI (GenAI) adoption, hybrid work, and cloud-first strategies, security teams face growing pressure to scale protection without increasing complexity. FortiOS 8.0 addresses these challenges by advancing Secure Networking through a unified operating system that provides deeper visibility, stronger control, and future-ready security across the network edge, cloud, and data center.
FortiOS 8.0 introduces advancements across three core areas of innovation, AI-driven security, next-generation SASE, and quantum-safe protection, helping organisations securely support modern connectivity models while preparing for what comes next.
Securing AI usage with deep visibility and AI-aware controls
As organisations rapidly adopt GenAI and autonomous agents, FortiOS 8.0 introduces new capabilities to help them understand, govern, and secure AI usage across the network. Key AI-driven enhancements include:
- FortiView for AI attack surface and shadow AI, providing real-time visibility into how AI applications and services are used across the organisation and distinguishing sanctioned from unsanctioned tools, enabling security teams quickly identify risky or unknown AI usage, reduce compliance exposure, and enable safe AI adoption without reacting after an incident.
- AI-aware application control, allowing approved GenAI tools while blocking risky actions that could expose sensitive data, so employees benefit from AI-driven productivity while protecting intellectual property, customer data, and regulated information.
- Model Context Protocol (MCP) and agent-to-agent (A2A) visibility, revealing hidden AI activity and interactions between applications, agents, and tools, reducing blind spots where data could be mishandled or exfiltrated and giving security teams greater control over how information flows across systems.
- Enhanced data loss prevention (DLP) with optical character recognition (OCR), detecting sensitive data embedded in images, scans, and screenshots that bypass traditional text-based inspection, closing a common data exfiltration loophole and helps organisations avoid breaches, fines, and reputational damage.
- AI agents across the Fortinet Security Fabric, simplifying troubleshooting and configuration through guided, conversational workflows for firewall and SD-WAN environments, reducing the operational burden on IT teams, shortening response times, and minimising configuration errors that can lead to outages or security gaps.
Advancing the edge with next-generation SASE
FortiOS 8.0 strengthens Fortinet’s next-generation SASE capabilities to support performance-sensitive, regulated, and mission-critical environments. New and enhanced SASE capabilities include:
- SASE Outpost, extending SASE enforcement closer to users and applications by deploying a SASE POP in customer-controlled locations, such as on-premises, private data centers, or co-location, while maintaining centralised cloud management. Users can maintain local enforcement where needed without building separate stacks.
- Sovereign SASE deployment options, offering a multilayer data sovereignty model for granular control over regional log retention, control-plane residency, sovereign points of presence (POPs), and fully sovereign deployments within customer data centers. This flexibility is increasingly essential as privacy, residency, and national security requirements expand across global markets.
- Unified SD-WAN bundles, including integrated overlay and underlay connectivity, centralised management, and reporting for improved availability and traffic optimisation as well as simplified procurement and support.
- Multipath IPsec tunnels, improving resiliency, availability, and performance across distributed environments for improved application performance, and stronger resiliency for critical sites.
Extending quantum-safe security
FortiOS 8.0 continues Fortinet's leadership in preparing organisations for a post-quantum future by expanding quantum-safe cryptography across products and protocols. Quantum-safe enhancements include:
- Quantum-resilient cryptographic controls, securing critical management access paths, including agentless VPN connectivity, using Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) certificates such as ML-DSA for authentication and key establishment.
- Enhanced SSL deep inspection strengthened by hybrid key exchange and post-quantum-safe cryptography, revealing threats concealed within encrypted traffic while maintaining strong end-to-end encryption without silently downgrading connections.
- Quantum-safe SASE capabilities, exposing threats hidden in encrypted traffic through enhanced SSL deep inspection with hybrid key exchange and post-quantum-safe cryptography, while protecting critical access paths, including management access and agentless VPN, with quantum-resilient security delivered directly through Fortinet firewalls.
Enabling secure growth today and tomorrow
With FortiOS 8.0, Fortinet continues to advance its Secure Networking vision by delivering a unified platform that evolves with the business.
By reducing complexity, improving operational efficiency, and embedding future-ready security directly into the network, FortiOS 8.0 provides organisations with a scalable foundation to support digital transformation, AI adoption, and long-term resilience in an increasingly dynamic threat landscape.
