A firewall does not sleep, but the things that keep it effective often stop when the office closes: security updates that wait for someone to approve them, alerts sent to an inbox nobody reads until Monday, and a remote-access weakness that will not be patched until the IT contractor's next visit. Attacks, meanwhile, are automated and run around the clock. Mandiant's M-Trends 2026 report found the median time from an initial-access broker getting in to handing access to the next criminal group was 22 seconds in 2025, and FortiGuard Labs puts time-to-exploit for critical outbreaks at 24 to 48 hours. A weekend is long enough. Round-the-clock protection comes from four things: continuous threat-intelligence updates, a disciplined patching routine, alerts that reach a person, and a plan for what happens out of hours. A Fortinet FortiGate with an active FortiGuard bundle handles the first automatically; the FortiGate 70G with 1-year Unified Threat Protection is S$2,630.40 at SourceIT (listed 30 Oct 2026).
What runs 24/7, and what doesn't?
| Activity | Automatic on a subscribed FortiGate? | What you need to arrange |
|---|---|---|
| IPS, antivirus and botnet signature updates | Yes, from FortiGuard while the bundle is active | Renew before expiry |
| Web and DNS filtering lookups | Yes, in real time (UTP and Enterprise) | Renew; when it lapses, category filtering stops and web traffic is dropped by default |
| Blocking known exploits and malicious sites | Yes | Make sure the right security profiles are applied to every policy |
| FortiOS firmware patches | Depends on the device's upgrade settings | Check the automatic-upgrade setting, and a routine for checking Fortinet advisories and planning upgrades |
| Reading alerts and logs | No | Alerts routed to a person or a monitoring service |
| Responding to an incident | Partly, through automation rules | A written plan, contacts and authority to act |
Subscription behaviour from Fortinet's technical documentation on expired FortiGuard licences.
Why is the firewall itself a target out of hours?
Because it faces the internet. Verizon's 2025 breach report found edge devices and VPNs made up 22% of exploitation targets, up from 3%, and only about half of those vulnerabilities were fully fixed during the year, with a median of 32 days to patch. Fortinet's own advisories show why speed matters: CVE-2026-24858, an authentication bypass in FortiCloud single sign-on published in January 2026, was exploited in the wild, as were several earlier FortiOS flaws. When a critical advisory lands on a Friday, waiting until the next maintenance visit is a risk.
The attacker's schedule is "whenever a door is open". Yours should be "close it the day we hear about it".
How do you get alerts to someone who will act?
- Email or app alerts from the FortiGate. FortiOS can send alerts for events such as IPS detections, admin logins and configuration changes. Send them to a shared address that someone checks daily, not one person's inbox.
- Central logging. FortiAnalyzer, on premises or as a cloud service, keeps logs and highlights incidents across devices.
- Automation rules. FortiOS automation can take a first action, such as blocking an address or notifying a team, when a trigger fires.
- Managed monitoring. Fortinet offers SOC-as-a-Service as a separate subscription, and many IT providers offer monitoring. For companies with no IT staff, this is often the realistic option.
- 24/7 vendor support. Fortinet says all FortiGuard bundles include FortiCare Premium with 24x7x365 support, useful when something breaks on a Sunday.
What should the out-of-hours plan say?
- Who is called first, and their backup, with mobile numbers.
- Who may disconnect the internet or shut down a server without waiting for approval.
- Where the offline copy of the backup is and how to restore it.
- Who contacts the Cyber Resilience Centre helpline (6890 9555), the IT provider and, if personal data is involved, the PDPC within three calendar days.
- How staff will communicate if email is down. See When Ransomware Strikes, Can Your Business Still Communicate?
A weekly and monthly routine
- Weekly: review blocked threats and admin logins; check for new Fortinet PSIRT advisories.
- Monthly: apply firmware updates in line with Fortinet's recommended release (FortiOS 7.6.8 for entry models in October 2026); check subscription expiry dates; remove leavers' VPN accounts.
- Twice a year: test a backup restore, as CSA's Cyber Essentials standard requires, and review firewall rules.
Renewal steps are covered in our FortiGate licence renewal guide, and power protection for the network cabinet in Would You Trust a S$200 UPS to Protect a S$10,000 Workstation?
Buying in Singapore
SourceIT supplies FortiGate firewalls with UTP bundles that include FortiCare Premium support: the FortiGate 50G (S$1,819.20 with 1-year UTP), 70G (S$2,630.40), 90G (S$6,094.80) and 120G (S$9,036), plus renewals and UPS units for the network cabinet. Prices listed 30 Oct 2026; ask us about FortiAnalyzer and monitoring services. For a quotation, use Request for Quotation on the product page, call (65) 6978 3502, email Sales@sourceit.com.sg or use our contact page.
Frequently asked questions
Does a FortiGate update itself automatically? Its FortiGuard signatures and filtering databases update automatically while a subscription is active. Firmware upgrades depend on the device's settings, so an administrator should confirm them and plan major upgrades.
What happens when a FortiGuard subscription expires? Signatures stop updating, and category web and DNS filtering stop working; by default, Fortinet says, web traffic is then dropped when ratings fail. The firewall and VPN keep running.
Do FortiGuard bundles include 24/7 support? Yes. Fortinet states all FortiGuard bundles include FortiCare Premium with 24x7x365 technical support.
How quickly should firewall vulnerabilities be patched? As soon as possible for actively exploited flaws. CSA's Cyber Essentials standard asks for known exploited vulnerabilities to be fixed as soon as possible.
Can a small business get 24/7 security monitoring? Yes, through a managed monitoring service from an IT provider or Fortinet's SOC-as-a-Service, which is sold separately from FortiGuard bundles.
SourceIT Approved
Researched and verified by the SourceIT team for Singapore buyers.
