7, Feb 2024
Cisco’s Pioneering Identity Intelligence Defends Against Most Persistent Cyber Threat
CISCO LIVE EMEA, AMSTERDAM, Feb.7, 2024 — Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO), the leader in security and networking, today unveiled new innovations within the Cisco Security Cloud as part of its mission to simplify security. First-of-its kind Cisco Identity Intelligence and continued innovation in artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities are the latest milestones towards its vision of a unified, AI-driven, cross-domain security platform.
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 26% of all Cisco Talos Incident Response engagements in 2023 involved adversaries using compromised credentials on valid accounts.
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 41% annually, and saw weaker forms of MFA like SMS and phone calls dip to an all-time low of 5%, yet the volume of identity attacks is higher than ever.
“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.
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- By Rabindra
17, Jan 2024
Cisco and OECD Launch Pioneering Research Initiative on Digital Well-being
India, Jan 17, 2024 – Technology is transforming our lives, changing the way we learn, work, interact with others, and get access to all types of services. Depending on our ability to access technology and use it in the right way, technology can improve our sense of well-being and be a real driver of progress. Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO), a global technology leader committed to fostering an inclusive future for all, continues its efforts to address the digital divide through a new research collaboration with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
This collaboration aims to help promote a responsible use of technology as well as fairness, inclusion and equitable access in a global digital economy.
Igniting a Global Conversation
As digital transformation continues to reshape every aspect of our lives at an intensifying pace, Cisco and the OECD Centre on Well-being, Inclusion, Sustainability and Equal Opportunity (WISE) are joining forces to examine the complex nature of digital transformation and its role as both a catalyst for progress and a source of potential risks to well-being.
“The OECD has a long tradition of work supporting policy makers better understand the digital transformation and develop appropriate policies to help shape a positive digital future. Our initial report, ‘How’s Life in the Digital Age’, highlighted the benefits and challenges of digital transformation, from enhanced access and productivity to issues like the digital divide and personal security threats in people’s everyday life and workplace. Our partnership with Cisco helps us take the next step in broadening what we know about the interplay between technology and life to enrich our understanding of well-being in the digital realm,” said Romina Boarini, OECD WISE Centre Director.
This collaboration aims to create an interactive, dynamic, and engaging digital platform for sharing experiences to help develop a detailed picture of how digital technologies influence different aspects of our lives. Grounded in the OECD Well-being Framework, the platform will gather new statistics and people’s insights on digital well-being as a whole, including the impact of the digital divide and inequalities in the uptake and use of digital technologies.
Strategic Momentum from Cisco’s Country Digital Acceleration Programs
Cisco’s involvement in the OECD WISE Centre initiative is an extension of its Country Digital Acceleration (CDA) program, which has a long history of collaborating with governments, industry and academia to foster sustainable, secure and inclusive communities through over 1500 projects in 50 countries.
“We cannot close the digital divide on our own. Governments, industry, educational institutions, non-profits and community leaders must work together in new ways to prioritize our collective well-being for a healthy, prosperous and safe digital life. It’s no coincidence that the priorities and the OECD’s Well-being Framework resonate so profoundly. This partnership taps into Cisco and OECD’s collective expertise in understanding the risks and unlocking the value of digitization across verticals and industries to ultimately power safe and inclusive communities, and resilient economies,” said Guy Diedrich, Senior Vice President & Global Innovation Officer of Cisco.
Digital Access is No Longer a Privilege for Some but a Necessity for All
The partnership between Cisco and the OECD builds on existing research into digital well-being. It acknowledges that while digital technologies offer benefits like improved access to education and health information, they also pose risks. Notably, the digital divide, where those lacking digital literacy—a blend of technical, emotional, and social skills—fall behind, becoming vulnerable to mental health risks and safety concerns. Recognizing that broad internet access isn’t enough to participate in digital life, the new partnership seeks to rally citizens, businesses, policymakers and workers to develop a balanced approach that ensures technology improves well-being and mitigates potential risks.
A New Industry Study and Knowledge Hub
Cisco and the OECD will conduct research and create a global knowledge hub, capturing data and expanding knowledge on the influence of digital transformation on different aspects of people’s lives. This initiative marks a crucial step in understanding technology’s role across a broader definition of well-being that covers 11 key dimensions: education and skills, healthcare, jobs and earnings, income and wealth, subjective well-being, smart communities—work-life balance and social connections—environmental sustainability, critical infrastructure, cybersecurity, governance and civic engagement, and housing. The research aims to help users make informed decisions, empower individuals to navigate the digital landscape responsibly, and to promote a healthy relationship with emerging technology.
“While we continue to strive for full digital inclusion around the world, we cannot do so at any cost. It is our responsibility to keep well-being top of mind, and this partnership will help us connect with people around the world to learn about their experiences with digital technology—how it influences their social connections, their jobs and work-life balance, and their physical and mental health. Co-building a model and better understanding the role technology plays in everyday life is fundamental to our work at Cisco, and to pursuing our purpose to power an inclusive future for all,” said Fran Katsoudas, Executive Vice President & Chief People, Policy and Purpose Officer of Cisco.
The Year Ahead: Hub Launch and Well-being Forum
The partnership will launch its ‘Digital Well-being Hub’ in the second half of 2024. In November, Cisco will participate in the OECD’s World Forum on Well-being, which addresses the value of well-being approaches for improving knowledge, performance and cooperation across the public, private and civil sectors in a context of societal change.
Additional Resources:
• Cisco exceeds goal to positively impact one billion people
• CISCO ESG Reporting Hub and FY23 Purpose Report
• Cisco Country Digital Acceleration (CDA) Program
• Cisco Networking Academy
• OECD Going Digital Project
• OECD report “How’s Life in the Digital Age?”
8, Dec 2023
Cisco survey reveals 85% Indians amplifying app usage, spotlight on banking, gaming and entertainment apps
A recent research from Cisco reveals consumers will be using more applications and digital services this holiday season than ever before with 63% believing digital services are important to have an enjoyable holiday, globally. Whether it’s streaming movies and music, connecting with friends and family, keeping up to date with news, or managing finances, consumers will be relying on a huge number of applications as they celebrate.
This increased usage also means added pressure for brands to make sure their applications run smoothly if they don’t want to end up on the naughty list! More than half of consumers (53%) globally admit that they are worried that if a digital service doesn’t work as it should, it will have negative implications for their family holiday.
According to the Cisco AppDynamics Seasonal Shopping Pulse Survey Part 2 (Christmas and Holiday Season), below are the key findings from Indian respondents.
Anticipated usage of applications and digital services during the Christmas/Holiday period
· 88% of the Indian respondents expect to use entertainment apps to stream movies, TV shows, sports and music
· 72% of the Indian respondents expect to use Connected devices (Alexa, smart home)
· 60% chose gaming apps
· 84% chose tools for connecting with friends and family (e.g. social media, video calls)
· 75% will use retail apps to buy last-minute gifts or the final ingredients for their holiday recipes
· 75% will utilize banking and insurance apps- to make last-minute payments and transfers
· 78% will use news and information-based apps
· 88% will make use of food delivery services – for a well-earned takeaway
· 73% will use collaboration and productivity tools – to finish off work or study ahead of the holiday
· 79% is interested in using health and wellbeing apps for fitness and relaxation
· 75% want to use hospitality, leisure, and travel – to book last-minute travel or a hotel room, route planners
· 72% will use government services apps
· 81% choose to use utility apps (broadband, water, gas, electric)
· 79% want to access healthcare apps if they or their loved one needs to speak to a doctor or nurse or get some medication
Essential applications and digital services that are considered most important for respondents and their friends for the best possible Christmas/holiday period
· 70% consider entertainment apps important to stream movies, TV shows, sports and music
· 54% consider tools for connecting with friends and family important (e.g. social media, video calls)
· 44% consider retail apps essential to buy last-minute gifts or the final ingredients for their holiday recipes
· 64% consider food delivery services important for a well-earned takeaway
· 51% feel banking and insurance is needed to make last-minute payments and transfers
· 42% feel utility apps are important (broadband, water, gas, electric)
· 52% say healthcare apps and services are important if they or a loved one needs to speak to a doctor or nurse or get some medication
· 50% feel apps are important for health and well-being – fitness and relaxation
· 46% selected hospitality, leisure, and travel apps/services are important – to book last-minute travel or a hotel room, route planners
· 38% feel news and information apps are required
· 29% feel gaming apps are required
· 34% feel connected devices (Alexa, smart home) are important
· 29% feel government services are important
· 29% feel collaboration and productivity tools are needed to finish off work or study ahead of the holiday
· And 1% said none of the above is required to have the best possible Christmas / holiday period
Potential application failure scenarios impacting holiday mood
· 45% agreed to the fact that a banking app goes down and they can’t make an important payment or transfer
· 38% felt if a messaging app fails and they can’t speak to friends and family that they won’t be with during the holidays
· 44% said if an online retailer’s app or website doesn’t work properly they can’t buy a last-minute gift they need or order some last-minute ingredients for their holiday cooking
· 33% feel an entertainment streaming service goes down then they can’t listen to party / festive music on the big day
· 33% said if a digital health service or app doesn’t work properly, they can’t get the appointment or medication that they or another family member needs over the holidays
· 46% agreed that if a food delivery service doesn’t work properly, they can’t order the well-earned takeaway they’ve been looking forward to
· 34% said if a travel app goes down they can’t book travel to get where they need to be for the holidays
· 26% said if sports streaming service doesn’t work properly, they or their family/friends can’t enjoy the big holiday watching sports match
· 1% of the respondents felt any other services failing can also ruin their Christmas holiday.
Responses/Reactions to potential holiday application failure scenarios
· 56% will find it harder to enjoy themselves as much as they otherwise would
· 44% said they will vent about the problem to friends and family
· 35% said they will get stressed, angry, or anxious and will turn into the Grinch!
· 30% said they will delete an application or digital service that lets them down and never use it again
· 33% said they are likely to argue or take out their frustration on friends or family
· 8% said they would do none of the above
Agreement with holiday application statements
· 88% agree applications and digital services are now important in having an enjoyable holiday / Christmas
· 75% agree they worry about the impact that an application or digital service not working would have on their family holiday / Christmas
· 85% agree that they expect to be using more applications and digital services this Christmas / holiday season than in previous years
· 69% of respondents agreed that it may be Christmas / the holiday season but they won’t be able to forgive an application that lets them down
· 71% said if an application or digital service doesn’t perform, it could ruin their Christmas / holiday season
9, Nov 2023
Cisco Expands Full-Stack Observability Ecosystem with Seven New Partner Modules
Bengaluru, India and CISCO PARTNER SUMMIT, Miami, Florida, Nov. 9, 2023 – Cisco announced seven new modules on the Cisco Observability Platform, built by development partners and created to expand its full-stack observability ecosystem. This growing ecosystem helps customers fulfill their specific observability needs and utilize additional value from observable telemetry.
The new modules are focused on five critical areas: Business Insights, SAP Visibility, Networking, MLOps & SLO, and Sustainability.
“Cisco is committed to fostering innovation in observability,” said Ronak Desai, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Cisco Full-Stack Observability and AppDynamics. “With the help of development partners, we are building an observability ecosystem that will help companies deliver exceptional digital experiences.”
“Full-Stack Observability is unlocking a host of use cases that are providing enterprises with deeper levels of cross-domain visibility for improved application performance, network insights, security postures, and assurance. The resulting benefits of reducing risk and improving the resilience of IT infrastructure are immeasurable. I’m impressed with how Cisco is leaning into partner and customer collaboration to enhance and grow the Cisco Observability Platform ecosystem,” said Will Townsend, Vice President and principal Analyst, at Moor Insights & Strategy. Townsend continued, “It has the potential to provide a diverse set of solutions that can help customers reduce tool sprawl and more proactively manage business operations through partner-led observability practices.”
Today’s modern businesses are digitally led, with customer and user experiences achieved with and through applications. The speed and complexity of how these applications are built demands that IT teams, security teams, and business leaders observe all aspects of application performance and experience in real time.
However, according to a recent IDC report, 60% of IT professionals are worried that most observability tools serve narrow requirements, failing to give IT teams a complete view into current and trending operating conditions. Further, 65% stated the need for a programmable and extensible observability solution that could be used for use cases specific to their own business.
Today’s announcement sees Cisco empower a diverse ecosystem of developers to create and extend solutions that rapidly create customer value from observable telemetry. Beyond just interpreting telemetry, the Cisco Observability Platform provides capabilities to surround that data with context, so organizations get both insight and the ability to take specific action(s). New partner modules are focused around five critical themes:
· Business Insights: Correlate telemetry data with business performance across multiple domains, providing customers with full visibility and insights on how business interacts with IT.
· SAP Visibility: Help customers achieve holistic observability across often changeable, expanding, and complex SAP landscapes and ecosystems.
· Networking: Leverage Cisco’s networking expertise to correlate key network telemetry with business metrics and application stack.
· MLOps and SLO: With the growing use of generative AI and the mainstream of modern applications, the Cisco Observability Platform helps customers to monitor these applications, and their SLO and bring the monitoring of large language models (LLMs), and MLOps models together with application observability.
· Sustainability: Help customers achieve their sustainability goals by providing data around the carbon footprint across multiple IT domains and help optimize around energy consumption.
Partners are already seeing value in the Cisco Observability Platform and developing modules to help customers derive value from their observable telemetry. By building and offering solution sets on the Platform, partners can assist in providing the observability needs of Cisco’s customer base.
The following modules are available on the Cisco Observability Platform exchange at Partner Summit:
· CloudFabrix – SAP Observability: Enables customers to ingest data from Cisco AppDynamics agents for SAP Monitoring. It correlates telemetry data and asset types together to isolate the root cause of issues in the SAP landscape and determine the effect of impacted services on the business.
· CloudFabrix – Campus Analytics: Provides network analytics for campus environments as employees return to offices. This module aggregates multiple Cisco DNA Controller analytics to provide near real-time network topology information, bandwidth consumption, and hotspot visibility.
· Evolutio – Claims: Insurance institutions are looking to gather multiple claims processes in a single pane of glass to best understand process health and user experience. The module helps to correlate and view the health of different claims processes in real time as it relates to product types, underwriters, regions, and business units.
· Evolutio – eCommerce: With the growth of e-commerce and the technology that powers it, organizations need a solution to track every part of the shopping experience. This module allows the correlation by product category or region, by monitoring of orders, shipping, inventory, and payments to quickly identify issues against the supporting infrastructure and applications.
· DataRobot – MLOps by Evolutio: Extends observability for both predictive AI and generative AI, with always-on monitoring and production diagnostics to track and improve the performance of your models. Stay informed of key metrics like service health, accuracy, and data drift.
· Nobl9 – Service Level Objectives (SLO): Provides a platform for defining and creating SLO for understanding reliability across organizations and share remaining error budget for given services as well as SLO-related visualizations for workloads.
· Climatiq – Cloud Carbon Insights: Adds carbon emission tracking to existing cloud metrics and enables analyzing, comparing, and benchmarking emissions data. These actionable insights accelerate journeys to net zero and make more environmentally conscious decisions.
In addition, the following modules will be available soon:
· Cisco CX – Sustainability Insights: Provides a sustainability portal that acts as a single pane of glass for near real-time interactive visualizations, measurement, estimation, and reporting of key infrastructure sustainability indicators, trended over time, aiming for workload and datacenter energy optimization.
· Aporia – MLOps: A significant number of challenges faced by ML models in production arise from a combination of data inconsistencies and the software infrastructure they operate on. The module will not only offer a holistic view of the model’s performance but also empowers teams to swiftly identify, dive deeper into, and resolve issues faster.
