“Exploring the Future of Cybersecurity: Cisco’s Latest AI-Based Security and SSE Advancements”

Cisco Presents New AI-Powered Security Capabilities and SSE Solution

Cisco Live 2023 event, held in Las Vegas recently, saw the launch of new security solutions powered by generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) by the networking giant Cisco. The company is among the major security companies introducing AI-based capabilities to its security portfolio. With its recent launches, Cisco aims to simplify security tasks for the analysts and administrators by harnessing the potential of generative AI.

New AI Offerings by Cisco

Cisco‘s new AI offerings are targeted towards the Security Operations Center (SOC) teams. The first AI Assistant aims to help establish security incident management by identifying patterns across the organization’s collected data. The AI tool assists in correlating intelligence across diverse platforms such as email, web, endpoints, and network, generating an incident summary after the incident, helping in the operations of SOC more effectively. The SOC Assistant is expected to be available for use by mid-2024.

The second AI Assistant helps granular policy management. The new tool lets the administrator explain the reasoning behind the required controls to create finer policies. The Firewall Policies implementing tool is expected to be available later by the end of this year.

Challenges of Securing Access to Cloud Applications Addressed

At the event, Cisco addressed the challenges of securing and accessing applications in public and private clouds. Cisco Secure Access aims to secure access to Web, cloud, and private applications, irrespective of the user’s location, device being used, or the application host. Cisco Secure Access integrates the rest of the Cisco‘s security portfolio, including threat intelligence from Talos, and threat detection, response, and visibility facilities from ThousandEyes. The Cisco Secure Access aims to provide zero-trust network access and enable virtual private network (VPN) for other connections, considering user experience factors such as the device or the network the user is on.

Cisco‘s Intent to Expand its AI Capabilities

Cisco is strengthening its AI capabilities across its security portfolio and industry-wide. The firm recently announced its intent to acquire Armorblox, a security startup that specializes in natural language understanding and using large language models. The acquisition of Armorblox targeted towards enhancing the cybersecurity threat detection and bolstering Cisco‘s AI capabilities.

Editorial

Cisco‘s move towards harnessing the generative AI capabilities proves crucial in the industry fraught with data privacy and security concerns. AI-powered security capabilities present an opportunity to simplify security tasks. Analysts and administrators can utilize natural language to figure out features or seek information without navigating a maze of menus or working through a catalog of diverse commands. While many security players have already joined the race, many more are expected to enter the market soon.

With cybersecurity issues getting more advanced and complicated, technology solutions such as AI, machine learning, and other automation technologies are necessary to ensure the agility and efficiency of the industry parameters. However, the fundamental concern about AI-augmented security solutions’ adoption is the potential of unintentional consequences by AI tools designed for automating and optimizing repetitive administrative tasks that could lead to significant ethical and security challenges. Hence, organizations deploying AI solutions must confront explicitly the potential unintended consequences and risks.

Advice

As the world embraces new-age technologies, cybersecurity threats will continue to grow, and companies need to implement robust security measures to protect against evolving threats. While embracing new technologies like AI, it is essential to create a security landscape that can work to detect and prevent threats and risks in real-time. It is imperative for organizations to stay updated with the latest advancements in cybersecurity trends and adjust their internal security policies and infrastructure accordingly. With more and more organizations turning towards AI, it becomes imperative to ensure transparency and accountability in developing AI-based tools to mitigate risks. Companies must also deploy comprehensive security training for staff on the proper usage of new tools to ensure responsible use and engage with security experts to create a more mature and proactive cybersecurity posture.