Fortinet targets cybercrime accountability gap with human intelligence and bounty program
Cybercrime has evolved into a borderless criminal ecosystem, with attackers collaborating across networks and moving faster than defenders can respond, thanks in part to AI. That imbalance is fueling a new cybercrime bounty program designed to crowdsource the human intelligence law enforcement needs to make arrests, rather than just tracking malware and infrastructure.
Fortinet Inc.’s FortiGuard Labs is focused on closing the accountability gap, not just improving detection, is what will finally slow the growth of an industry now rivaling the world’s largest economies, according to Derek Manky (pictured), chief security strategist and global vice president of threat intelligence at FortiGuard Labs, Fortinet.
“We know that cyber criminals are converging their groups. They are working with nation state APTs, they’re also launching crime services that continue to fuel the third-largest GDP in the world, which is cybercrime,” Manky said. “The idea on the gaps that we’re trying to solve is to really focus on the human intelligence. That’s why we launched the cybercrime bounty program with Crimestoppers International, to do the attribution, which is the toughest thing to do in the world of threat intelligence.”
Manky spoke with Krista Case at Black Hat USA 2026, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed the cybercrime bounty program’s origins, how tips get validated and the industry’s push for greater accountability. ( Disclosure below.)*
Cybercrime bounty program builds on Cybercrime Atlas momentum
The cybercrime bounty program leans on Crime Stoppers International’s decades-old anonymous reporting network, extending it into cyberthreats for the first time. Fortinet verifies and packages submitted tips before passing them to law enforcement, easing the burden on agencies that often chase dead-end leads, Manky noted. The effort builds on Fortinet’s Cybercrime Atlas initiative, which has contributed to more than 2,000 arrests and about $200 million recovered for victims over three years, he noted.
“Less than 1% of cyber crimes are prosecuted,” Manky said. “We need to get that number higher. This is how we do it through scale, and it all sits with trust, anonymous reporting nature.”
AI is compressing that timeline further, with attackers now moving in windows of under 20 hours and increasingly relying on autonomous “shadow agents” rather than human operators, Manky said. The program’s first operation, called Silent Vector One, targets ransomware networks, with plans to expand into affiliate networks and converged crimes tied to human trafficking and narcotics.
“It’s actually what we’ve been saying with operations Silent Vector One — our goal is to unmask the dark,” Manky said. “That’s the goal of the operation. It’s lifting that shining light on it, applying as much threat intelligence with confidence to really bring those to justice and to identify who they are.”
Stay tuned for the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of Black Hat USA 2026. ( Disclosure: Fortinet sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither Fortinet nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)*
Photo: SiliconANGLE
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