Surge in Brute-Force Attacks Targeting SonicWall and Fortinet Devices

**Executive Summary:** In Q1 2026 there was a significant increase in brute-force authentication attacks targeting SonicWall and Fortinet FortiGate devices; approximately 90% of attack traffic was traced to the Middle East and over half of cyber incidents in February–March involved these probes, with attribution pointing to Iran‑nexus threat groups and recommended mitigations including multifactor authentication and monitoring for failed logins.