Chapter 3 Authentication for FortiOS 5.0 : Configuring authenticated access : Authentication timeout
  
Authentication timeout
An important feature of the security provided by authentication is that it is temporary—a user must re-authenticate after logging out. Also if a user is logged on and authenticated for an extended period of time, it is a good policy to have them re-authenticate at set periods. This ensures a user’s session is cannot be spoofed and used maliciously for extended periods of time — re-authentication will cut any spoof attempts short. Shorter timeout values are more secure.