For Cybersecurity Awareness Month, P.A.U.S.E. and Fortify Your Online Defence gives students and educators, businesses, and all Canadians free quizzes, short videos, posters, and training built on one idea: you don't have to know everything, just know when to P.A.U.S.E.
BURNABY, BC, Oct. 1, 2026 /CNW/ -- Fortinet (NASDAQ: FTNT), the global cybersecurity leader driving the convergence of networking and security, today launched P.A.U.S.E. and Fortify Your Online Defence, a free national cyber safety campaign for Cybersecurity Awareness Month. The campaign turns today's most common online threats, including phishing, deepfakes, AI-generated voices, and social engineering, into five habits anyone can use the moment a scam arrives. Resources for students and educators, businesses, and all Canadians are available now at fortinet.com/PAUSE.
The campaign responds to a sharp rise in threats against Canada. According to the Fortinet´s FortiGuard Labs 2026 Global Threat Landscape Report, Canada became the second most-targeted country in the world for ransomware in 2025, with 374 Canadian organizations extorted. Total cyberattacks against Canadians rose to 17 billion in 2025, up from 13.7 billion in 2024. AI is making the lures harder to spot: messages read cleanly, voices can be cloned, and images can be manipulated. Many scams no longer look suspicious; they look like real life.
Five habits: P.A.U.S.E.
A scam only works if you don't stop to think; P.A.U.S.E. gives Canadians of any age five actions to take before they click, reply, or share:
- P - Pause before clicking. Take a breath before clicking links or downloading files.
- A - Ask yourself if this was expected. Question whether the message, call, voice, or image was expected and who it claims to be. Verify before you trust.
- U - URL check. Check the real web address before clicking.
- S - Share with care. Think before sharing personal information. Know who you're sharing it with and why.
- E - Escalate if it feels off. Tell someone you trust. Report it. Ask for help.
"Canada is facing an unprecedented volume of cyber threats, and the reality is that today's scams are increasingly powered by AI, making them harder for anyone to recognize at first glance. The good news is that cybersecurity doesn't have to start with technical expertise. Simple, repeatable habits, like pausing before clicking, verifying unexpected requests, and knowing when to ask for help, can significantly reduce risk for organizations and individuals alike," said Graham Bushkes, Senior Vice President, Fortinet Canada. "Through P.A.U.S.E., we're giving Canadians practical tools they can use immediately, while reinforcing Fortinet's long-standing commitment to strengthening cyber resilience, cybersecurity education, and digital safety across Canada."
Resources for every audience
The campaign hub offers a dedicated track for each of three audiences, with free, ready-to-use material that takes minutes rather than a training day.
Students and educators: Fortify Your Classroom. Fortinet's free Security Awareness Curriculum is already available to more than 400,000 Canadian students, with a goal of reaching every Canadian classroom. Lessons are organized for ages 8 to 11, 12 to 14, and 14 and up, and include teacher guides, student handouts, classroom activities, and conversation cards that require no prior cybersecurity expertise. For school staff, the Fortinet Security Awareness and Training Service: Education Edition offers 20 modules in English and French, including Social Engineering for Educators and Data Privacy for Educators, which school boards and private schools can deploy on their own schedule. Students can test themselves with the three-minute "Trick or Trust?" quiz.
Businesses: Fortify Your Team. A three-minute, scenario-based quiz shows whether a team's instincts would catch the scams targeting Canadian businesses right now. One- to two-minute videos on phishing, password hygiene, device protection, data backup, and speaking up when something seems wrong are built to be shown at a weekly meeting. A print-ready P.A.U.S.E. poster puts the five actions in the break room or next to the printer. Organizations that want to go further can use Fortinet Security Awareness and Training (FortiSAT), which adds phishing simulations to identify risky behaviour, measure awareness, and target training where it matters most.
All Canadians: Fortify What Matters. The "P.A.U.S.E. or Proceed?" quiz tests how people handle real-world phishing and AI-generated scams and returns a shareable Scam-Spotter Score. Short videos cover everyday habits that protect individuals and families, and a downloadable Cyber First Aid Kit explains what to do when something goes wrong online.
Fortinet's commitment to Canada
P.A.U.S.E. builds on Fortinet's more than 26 years of operations in Canada, where the Fortinet Training Institute partners with almost 40 post-secondary institutions and more than 60 school districts to deliver cybersecurity education at no cost. Globally, the Fortinet Training Institute surpassed its pledge to train one million people in cybersecurity ahead of its 2026 deadline, with much of the leadership for that effort based in Canada.
"More than 400,000 Canadian students already have access to Fortinet's free cybersecurity curriculum. These efforts reflect Fortinet's longstanding commitment to Canada digital education and security awareness. Globally, Fortinet surpassed its pledge to train 1 million people in cybersecurity ahead of its 2026 deadline and continues to expand access to cybersecurity training," said Melonia Da Gama, Director of Training and Learning Programs at Fortinet.
P.A.U.S.E. is aligned with the Government of Canada's Get Cyber Safe campaign and its 2026 Cyber Security Awareness Month theme, "Your best defence is you."
Availability
All P.A.U.S.E. resources are free and available now at fortinet.com/PAUSE, with tracks for Students and Educators, Businesses, and All Canadians. School boards can request the Security Awareness Curriculum through the Students and Educators page, and organizations can explore FortiSAT through the Businesses page.
Additional Resources
About Fortinet
Fortinet (Nasdaq: FTNT) is a driving force in the evolution of cybersecurity and the convergence of networking and security. Our mission is to secure people, devices, and data everywhere, and today we deliver cybersecurity everywhere our customers need it with the largest integrated portfolio of over 50 enterprise-grade products. Well over half a million customers trust Fortinet's solutions, which are among the most deployed, most patented, and most validated in the industry. The Fortinet Training Institute, one of the largest and broadest training programs in the industry, is dedicated to making cybersecurity training and new career opportunities available to everyone. Collaboration with esteemed organizations from both the public and private sectors, including Computer Emergency Response Teams ("CERTS"), government entities, and academia, is a fundamental aspect of Fortinet's commitment to enhance cyber resilience globally. FortiGuard Labs, Fortinet's elite threat intelligence and research organization, develops and utilizes leading-edge machine learning and AI technologies to provide customers with timely and consistently top-rated protection and actionable threat intelligence. Learn more at https://www.fortinet.com, the Fortinet Blog, and FortiGuard Labs.
SOURCE Fortinet
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Media Contacts: Paula Fiszman, Sr. Director of Corporate Communications, Fortinet Latin America, Caribbean, and Canada, +1 954-945-6566, canada_pr@fortinet.com; Catherine Lopushinsky, Public Relations Specialist, Fortinet Canada, +1 778-240-8057, canada_pr@fortinet.com