Cisco, a leading provider of security and networking services, has unveiled new innovations within the Cisco Security Cloud, including the first-of-its-kind Cisco Identity Intelligence. This new technology marks a considerable stride towards Cisco's vision of an integrated, AI-driven, cross-domain security platform.
The company is adopting an industry-first approach that amalgamates identity, networking, and security to better fortify organisations against increasingly complex cyber-attacks. In recent times, there has been a misplaced trust between authentication and access solutions, and this vulnerability has led to the compromising of globally-renowned organisations. More than 26% of Cisco Talos Incident Response engagements in 2023 involved adversaries utilising compromised credentials on valid accounts.
Cisco Identity Intelligence aims to address these threats by offering unified visibility and AI-driven analytics. This service uses customers' existing identity stores to give them the ability to discover all their identity population, remove unused and risky privileges, detect behavioural anomalies, and block high-risk access attempts. It does all these without the need to completely overhaul their existing solutions.
Multifactor authentication (MFA) remains vital in guarding against identity-based attacks. According to the 2024 Duo Trusted Access Report, Cisco Duo processed 16 billion authentications in 2023, recording a 41% yearly increase. Despite this growth, cybercriminals are resorting to innovative methods to steal credentials, leading to an all-time high in identity attacks.
"Identity is the fabric that connects humans, devices and applications in the workplace, and has become an easy target for modern cybersecurity attacks." Said Jeetu Patel, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Security and Collaboration at Cisco. "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's Identity Intelligence is underpinned by a powerful identity graph that collates data from customers' many existing third-party identity and access managing sources. AI-driven behavioural analytics and Cisco's unparalleled reach into the network facilitate a gradual response to threats, ultimately enabling organisations to better guard against cyber attacks.
On the AI front, Cisco's commitment to driving broad-scale AI adoption continues, particularly in the security sector. Recent advancements include Cisco's AI Assistant for Security that aids informed decision-making, tool capabilities enhancement, and the automation of intricate tasks. These ground-breaking AI capabilities will equip customers to create security access policies using natural language prompts, detect and protect intellectual property on AI systems, and use AI aiding in identifying email threats.
In terms of secure connectivity, Cisco is integrating its robust networking capabilities with Cisco Secure Access. The integration facilitates quick resolution of connectivity and application issues thereby enhancing productivity for hybrid workers. Cisco Secure Access now also incorporates the Catalyst SD-WAN, for a comprehensive Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) offering.
The introduction of Cisco Identity Intelligence will further amplify value for Cisco Security Cloud customers. The new offering is expected to be available in July 2024.