Segurança de redes de computadores: um estudo sobre firewall fortigate em ambientes corporativos

Abstract

This project aimed to identify and describe the functionalities of the FortiGate firewall and its application in corporate network security. Methodologically, the research is characterized as exploratory, with bibliographic and experimental approaches, complemented by documentary analysis and a comparative cost-benefit study between firewall solutions for small and medium-sized enterprises. The practical stage was carried out in a real corporate environment, involving the deployment of two FortiGate 60F appliances, one at the headquarters and the other at the branch office. The results demonstrated the feasibility of the solution through logical infrastructure segmentation, secure interconnection between units via IPsec VPN, connectivity redundancy, and the use of monitoring and visibility resources operated by FortiOS. The comparative analysis indicated that the adopted solution presented a better balance between performance, functional coverage, ease of administration, and total implementation cost. It is concluded that FortiGate constitutes an effective platform for perimeter protection, logical network organization, and support for security governance in small and medium-sized enterprises, provided that it is properly configured, monitored, and integrated with institutional information security policies. Keywords: FortiGate. Network security. Next-generation firewall. Network segmentation. IPsec VPN.