News Summary:
- Cisco's end-to-end solution protects both the development and
use of AI applications so enterprises can advance their AI
initiatives with confidence.
- AI Defense safeguards against the misuse of AI tools, data
leakage, and increasingly sophisticated threats, which existing
security solutions are not equipped to handle.
- The innovative solution leverages Cisco's unmatched
network visibility and control to stay ahead of ever-evolving AI
safety and security concerns.
SAN
JOSE, Calif., Jan. 15,
2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO), the leader
in security and networking, today announced Cisco AI Defense, a
pioneering solution to enable and safeguard AI transformation
within enterprises. As AI technology advances, new safety concerns
and security threats are emerging at an unprecedented speed which
existing security solutions are unprepared to protect
against. Cisco AI Defense is purpose-built for enterprises to
develop, deploy and secure AI applications with confidence.
"Business and technology leaders can't afford to sacrifice
safety for speed when embracing AI," said Jeetu Patel, Executive Vice President and Chief
Product Officer, Cisco. "In a dynamic landscape where
competition is fierce, speed decides the winners. Fused into the
fabric of the network, Cisco AI Defense combines the unique ability
to detect and protect against threats when developing and accessing
AI applications without tradeoffs."
The stakes of something going wrong with AI are incredibly high.
According to Cisco's 2024 AI Readiness Index, only 29% of those
surveyed feel fully equipped to detect and prevent unauthorized
tampering with AI. The security challenges are also new and
complex, with AI applications being multi-model and multi-cloud.
Vulnerabilities can occur at model or app level, while
responsibility lies with different owners including developers, end
users and vendors. As enterprises move beyond public data and begin
training models on proprietary data, the risks only grow.
To unlock AI innovation and adoption, enterprises need a common
layer of safety and security that protects every user and every
application. AI Defense enables enterprises' AI transformations by
addressing two urgent risks:
Developing and Deploying Secure AI Applications: As AI
becomes ubiquitous, enterprises will use and develop hundreds if
not thousands of AI applications. Developers need one set of AI
security and safety guardrails that work for every application. AI
Defense helps developers move fast and unlock greater value by
protecting AI systems from attacks and safeguarding model behavior,
across platforms. The capabilities of AI Defense include:
- Discovering AI: Security teams need to understand who is
building applications and the training sources they use. AI Defense
detects shadow and sanctioned AI applications across public and
private clouds.
- Model Validation: Model tuning can lead to toxic and
unexpected outcomes. Automated testing checks AI models for
hundreds of potential safety and security issues. This AI-driven
algorithmic red team identifies potential vulnerabilities and
recommends guardrails in AI Defense for security teams to use.
- Runtime Security: Continuous validation safeguards
against potential safety and security threats such as prompt
injection, denial of service and sensitive data leakage on an
ongoing basis.
Securing Access to AI Applications: As end users rush to
adopt AI applications like summarization tools to improve their
productivity, security teams need to prevent data leakage and the
poisoning of proprietary data. AI Defense enables security teams
with:
- Visibility: Provides a comprehensive view of shadow
and sanctioned AI-enabled apps used by employees.
- Access Control: Implements policies that restrict
employee access to unsanctioned AI tools.
- Data and Threat Protection: Continuously safeguards
against threats and confidential data loss while ensuring
compliance.
Unlike safety guardrails built into individual AI models, Cisco
delivers consistent controls for a multi-model world. AI Defense is
self-optimizing, leveraging Cisco's proprietary machine learning
models to detect ever-evolving AI safety and security concerns
based on threat intelligence data from Cisco Talos. Splunk
customers that are using AI Defense will receive enriched alerts
with additional context from across the entire ecosystem. AI
Defense integrates seamlessly with existing data flows for
unparalleled visibility and control and is built into the Security
Cloud, Cisco's unified, AI-driven, cross-domain security platform.
It leverages Cisco's extensive mesh of enforcement points to
perform AI security at the network level in a way only Cisco is
optimized to deliver. Accuracy and trustworthiness are essential
for protecting enterprise AI applications, and Cisco has been
actively involved in developing AI security industry standards,
including those from MITRE, OWASP, and NIST.
"The adoption of AI exposes companies to new risks that
traditional cybersecurity solutions don't address," said
Kent Noyes, Global Head of AI &
Cyber Innovation at World Wide Technology. "Cisco AI Defense
represents a significant leap forward in AI security, providing
full visibility of an enterprise's AI assets and protection against
evolving threats."
AI Defense is the latest in a series of AI-driven security
innovations from Cisco, including Cisco Hypershield. Cisco AI
Defense will be available in March for enterprises to safeguard
their AI transformations. For more information, visit
cisco.com/go/ai-defense.
Additional Resources:
- Blog: Protecting AI So AI Can Improve the World,
Safely
- Blog: Cisco AI Defense: Comprehensive Security for
Enterprise AI Adoption
- Animation: Cisco AI Defense
About Cisco
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide technology leader that is
revolutionizing the way organizations connect and protect in the AI
era. For more than 40 years, Cisco has securely connected the
world. With its industry leading AI-powered solutions and services,
Cisco enables its customers, partners and communities to unlock
innovation, enhance productivity and strengthen digital resilience.
With purpose at its core, Cisco remains committed to creating a
more connected and inclusive future for all. Discover more
on The Newsroom and follow us on X at @Cisco.
Cisco and the Cisco logo are trademarks or registered trademarks
of Cisco and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. A
listing of Cisco's trademarks can be found at
http://www.cisco.com/go/trademarks. Third-party trademarks
mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The use of
the word 'partner' does not imply a partnership relationship
between Cisco and any other company.
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SOURCE Cisco Systems, Inc.