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Fortinet

A cybersecurity company providing network security hardware, software, and services to enterprise, SMB, and government organizations.

Primary category: Security
About this data
This page reflects public online discussion, collected and scored by automated systems and summarized using AI. It is not a statement of fact, not an audit, and not our own opinion of the product. Automated analysis can be incomplete or wrong, and scores carry the limitations described in our methodology. Companies can respond with their own perspective. See how this is calculated.

Updated August 17, 2026

Overall Pulse Score

36
Pulse Score

-1 over this period

A 0-100 index summarizing the tone of 9 relevant public mentions gathered from public online communities across 7 weeks in the selected period. It measures online sentiment, not a rating of the product's quality.

Weekly Sentiment Trend

Pulse Score by week over the selected period. Each point is one complete week of mentions.

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This week in public discussion

Recent discussion around Fortinet skewed heavily negative over the past several weeks, with commenters repeatedly raising concerns about past security incidents including hard-coded passwords and backdoors. Several mentions questioned the reliability of using a security-focused vendor that has faced such vulnerabilities, with one commenter asking why companies continue using the product after a reported large-scale firewall exposure. A small number of posts offered praise, with one commenter noting good support experiences tied to FortiGate integrations.

Read the deeper analysis

AI-generated summary of public online discussion during this period. It reflects the tone of that discussion, not facts about the product or our views.

Sentiment mix by week

How the tone of public discussion splits each week.

Ringed points mark weeks with unusually high discussion volume, more than double this product's typical week.

Most-discussed praise

Helpful support1
Good integrations1
Feature requests1

Most-discussed complaints

Bugs3
Reliability3
Security praise3
Missing features2
Compared to rivals2

Themes across the selected period, with mention counts.

How Fortinet compares

Pulse Score over the selected period versus the top tracked competitors in Security.

Where the mentions come from

Share of the 9 relevant public mentions in the selected period, by source.

Hacker News100% (9)

Sample public mentions

Showing 5 of 9 analyzed public mentions in this period, with links to the original source. We do not reproduce full threads.

I know, I was being coy, but if I'm being honest using company devices makes me really anxious, it's always in the back of my head that someone is going to abuse that outdated and opaque VPN stack from Fortinet or that Kaspersky Daemon I needed to install using a script some guy ...

Hacker NewsAug 11, 2026

> In all my years of writing tools for other devsNot just tools for devs, this is true in a lot of cases.I used to work at Fortinet and every now and then we'd get an e-mail from information services letting us know that they would be installing a dev build of FortiOS on our inte...

Hacker NewsMar 31, 2026

I'll do better than a second case, here's three:Barracuda Networks: https://krebsonsecurity.com/2013/01/backdoors-found-in-barra...Fortinet: https://community.spiceworks.com/t/hard-coded-password-backd...Korenix: https://sec-consult.com/vulnerability-lab/advisory/backdoor-...The ...

Hacker NewsJul 8, 2026

Even security code. Fortinet, a vendor whose entire thing is security for your network, is consistently getting caught out with default passwords, backdoors, etc.https://community.spiceworks.com/t/hard-coded-password-backd...This sort of thing leads to every kind of exploit, like...

Hacker NewsJul 2, 2026

>The data comprises of roughly 50% of all Fortinet firewall devices facing the internet, based on polling from Shodan.Jesus wept. When will companies stop using garbage products like this?

Hacker NewsJun 17, 2026

Deeper analysis

  • Security credibility concerns dominated discussion, with commenters repeatedly citing past backdoor and default password incidents as evidence of a troubling pattern.
  • Sentiment trended downward over the window after mid-period volatility, with the most recent scores falling well below earlier highs.
  • Opinion divided not on whether problems existed but on whether Fortinet deserved special scrutiny given its identity as a dedicated security vendor.
  • Positive mentions were sparse and isolated, doing little to offset the skeptical and at times dismissive overall tone.
Praise themeMentions
Helpful support1
Good integrations1
Feature requests1
Complaint themeMentions
Bugs3
Reliability3
Security praise3
Missing features2
Compared to rivals2

Public discussion of Fortinet over the recent four-week window has been dominated almost entirely by security concerns, and the tone has been notably harsh. The most recurring theme in mentions was not praise or even balanced critique, but pointed skepticism about the company's core credibility as a security vendor. Several commenters referenced past incidents involving hard-coded passwords and backdoors, with one frequently cited thread framing these as a pattern rather than isolated failures. The sentiment was less that of frustrated customers and more that of observers questioning whether the product category itself holds up to scrutiny.

The score trajectory across the window has been volatile and ultimately downward-leaning. An early spike was followed by a sharp drop, then a partial recovery, before settling into lower territory in the most recent data points. The most recent readings suggest cooling sentiment after a brief uptick, and the overall arc reflects an unstable rather than improving public perception.

Where some positive signals appeared, they were narrow and peripheral. A single mention touched on support quality in a favorable light, and another referenced integration positively, though these were buried under the volume of skeptical commentary. There was also at least one mention reflecting generalized anxiety about using Fortinet products in a professional environment, framing VPN tooling from the vendor as opaque and potentially risky, which illustrates how trust concerns permeate even casual discussion.

Opinion was divided mainly in degree of alarm rather than in direction. Some commenters treated security incidents as expected and systemic across the industry, while others singled out Fortinet specifically as a vendor that should be held to a higher standard given its positioning. The discussion suggested no strong base of defenders stepping in to counter the critical tone.

AI-generated summary of public online discussion during this period. It reflects the tone of that discussion, not facts about the product or our views.

Member perspectives

Individual opinions from Pro members, posted over time. These are personal member views, not aggregated sentiment data.

Data summary

Total mentions analyzed (all time)
10
Mentions in selected period
9
Weeks in range
7
vs Security average (48)
Below by 12
Pricing
Custom pricing
Sources
Hacker News (9)

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