Cisco's Pioneering Identity Intelligence Defends Against Most Persistent Cyber Threat
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Insights
The introduction of Cisco's Identity Intelligence represents a significant advancement in the cybersecurity landscape. By integrating identity management with networking and security, Cisco is addressing a critical vulnerability that has been exploited by threat actors. The ability to analyze and protect the identity stack is crucial in an era where compromised credentials are a common attack vector. This innovation could lead to a decrease in successful identity-based attacks, which have been a growing concern for organizations.
From a cybersecurity standpoint, the implementation of AI to automate complex tasks and augment decision-making processes is a game-changer. AI-driven security platforms can process vast amounts of data to identify anomalies and potential threats at a speed and accuracy unattainable by human analysts alone. This proactive approach to security can significantly reduce the time to detect and respond to incidents, potentially saving businesses from substantial financial and reputational damage.
Cisco's announcement could have a favorable impact on its financial performance. As organizations increasingly prioritize cybersecurity, Cisco's enhanced Security Cloud with AI capabilities and Identity Intelligence may attract new customers and retain existing ones, leading to potential revenue growth. Investors should monitor the adoption rate of these new features and the company's ability to capitalize on the growing cybersecurity market. Furthermore, Cisco's position as a leader in security and networking could be solidified, potentially improving its competitive edge and stock valuation.
However, investors should also consider the costs associated with research and development of such sophisticated technologies. While these investments may lead to long-term gains, they could also impact short-term financials. It will be important to evaluate future financial statements to understand the balance between the costs incurred and the revenue generated from these innovations.
The demand for advanced security solutions is escalating, driven by the increasing sophistication of cyber threats and the expansion of digital identities. Cisco's strategic move to enhance its Security Cloud with AI-driven capabilities and Identity Intelligence positions the company at the forefront of this trend. The market for such integrated security solutions is expected to grow and Cisco's early adoption of AI and identity protection could provide a significant advantage.
It's essential to analyze the market's response to Cisco's new offerings. The success of these innovations depends not only on their technical effectiveness but also on customer trust and satisfaction. As competitors also innovate, maintaining a lead in the market will require continuous development and potentially strategic partnerships or acquisitions.
Continues drive towards making AI pervasive in the Cisco Security Cloud
News Summary:
- New innovations mark significant momentum for the Security Cloud, Cisco's unified, AI-driven, cross-domain security platform.
- Cisco introduces first-of-its-kind Identity Intelligence to help protect against identity-based attacks.
- With new AI capabilities, Cisco is tipping the scales in favor of defenders by helping make informed decisions, augmenting existing capabilities and automating complex tasks.
Cisco is introducing an industry-first approach that brings together identity, networking and security to better protect organizations' complex identity stack against increasingly sophisticated attacker techniques.
Today there is blind trust between authentication and access solutions, and threat actors have successfully compromised some of the largest organizations in the world in 2023 by targeting these weaknesses. In fact, more than
A user is often mapped to many digital identities and accounts - drastically increasing entry points for attackers and the possibility of lateral movement "across" identities. Too often legacy permissions have not been removed, and security teams are missing crucial context about historical identity behavior, actions across systems and current risk levels that are needed to make trusted access decisions.
Cisco Identity Intelligence runs on top of customers' existing identity stores and provides unified visibility, as well as AI-driven analytics. Customers can discover their whole identity population, clean up vulnerable accounts, eliminate unused and risky privileges, detect behavior anomalies and block high-risk access attempts – without ripping and replacing their current solutions.
While multifactor authentication (MFA) remains a critical first line of defense against identity-based attacks, malicious actors are using new and creative ways to steal credentials. According to the 2024 Duo Trusted Access Report, Cisco Duo processed 16 billion authentications in 2023, up
"Identity is the fabric that connects humans, devices and applications in the workplace, and has become an easy target for modern cybersecurity attacks. Organizations need to adopt an identity-first approach to security, which among other things allows them to evolve from just asking 'can' a user access a system to continuously assessing whether a user 'should' be able to do what they are doing once they are authenticated," said Jeetu Patel, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Security and Collaboration at Cisco. "By analyzing the entire attack surface of an organization's users, machines, services, apps, data and their behaviors, Cisco Identity Intelligence bridges the chasm between authentication and access. We are the first vendor bringing together identity, networking and security into a complete solution to address the largest cyber challenge of modern times."
Cisco Identity Intelligence is built on a powerful identity graph that pulls data from customers' many existing third-party sources that manage identity and access. With AI-driven behavioral analytics and Cisco's unmatched reach into the network, organizations can take a graduated response, such as quarantining an identity, killing active sessions or isolating the network leveraging Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE). Cisco customers will gain visibility with these critical insights through their existing solutions, including:
- Smart Authentication with Cisco Duo: Detect unusual patterns based on behavior and third-party signals.
- Smart Access with Cisco Secure Access: Verify the authentication decision and block unusual or high-risk behaviors.
- Smart Threat Detection with Cisco XDR: Correlate identity signals to provide missing information that traditional endpoint and network security solutions miss.
Cisco Identity Intelligence will be available July 2024. With the addition of Identity Intelligence to the Cisco Security Cloud, customers will get even more value from their existing investments.
"Hybrid work and modern multi, hybrid cloud IT architectures have evolved the perimeter to be based on Identity. The reality is that this modern identity includes islands of embedded legacy identity and corresponding directories, creating a complex, forever-evolving problem. Thus, a zero-trust future does not exist without identity having a prominent seat at the cybersecurity table," said Frank Dickson, Group Vice President, Security & Trust, IDC. "Cisco now bridges the two worlds of identity and security to offer actionable visibility."
"Identity is the new perimeter to protect and it's an ongoing challenge for enterprises as witnessed by recent security breaches. Identity threat detection and response (ITDR) aims to converge identity and security, strengthening controls tied to authenticated access leveraging multiple data sources and analytics," said Will Townsend, Vice President & Principal Analyst, Moor Insights & Strategy. "Cisco's announcement is a step forward, combining identity intelligence and actionable insights with its existing network visibility, XDR orchestration, Secure Access and Duo access capabilities."
Continued AI Momentum
Cisco continues to make AI pervasive across the Cisco Security Cloud to help to tip the scales in favor of defenders, including the recently unveiled Cisco AI Assistant for Security, which helps customers make informed decisions, augment their tool capabilities and automate complex tasks. On the heels of launching the AI Assistant for firewall, today, Cisco's rapid pace of innovation is on display with additional groundbreaking AI capabilities:
- AI Assistant in Secure Access: Leveraging the power of generative AI, customers can create security access policies using natural language prompts within Cisco's Secure Services Edge (SSE) solution.
- Securing AI: New capabilities in Secure Access will also automatically detect and protect intellectual property (IP) as it flows in and out of AI systems.
- AI-based Email Threat Detection: Cisco Email Threat Defense now uses AI to simultaneously evaluate different portions of an incoming email for markers of malicious intent.
Secure Connectivity
Cisco is integrating its robust Networking capabilities with Cisco Secure Access. Experience Insights, powered by Cisco ThousandEyes, improves productivity for hybrid workers by quickly revealing connectivity and application issues and fostering faster resolution. There is no additional cost for this feature, as it is included in all Secure Access licenses. Cisco Secure Access also now integrates Catalyst SD-WAN, for a complete Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) offering.
Cisco protects
Additional Resources
- Blog: Cisco Puts Identity at the Heart of Its Security Strategy & Uses AI to Simplify Operations
- Blog: Announcing Identity Intelligence with Duo
- Blog: The 2024 Duo Trusted Access Report — Navigating Complexity
- Blog: How are user credentials stolen and used by threat actors?
- Blog: Connect, Secure, Assess Every Digital Experience Everywhere
About Cisco
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide technology leader that securely connects everything to make anything possible. Our purpose is to power an inclusive future for all by helping our customers reimagine their applications, power hybrid work, secure their enterprise, transform their infrastructure, and meet their sustainability goals. Discover more on The Newsroom and follow us on X at @Cisco.
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SOURCE Cisco Systems, Inc.
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