Cisco Reinvents Security for the Agentic AI Era

Latest innovations safeguard AI workloads and agents, give security teams cutting-edge tools to protect against increasingly sophisticated threats

Cisco has introduced a new wave of security innovations aimed at helping enterprises strengthen their defense strategies in the age of artificial intelligence. As organizations rapidly adopt AI technologies to drive digital transformation, malicious actors are also exploiting AI to launch increasingly sophisticated and cost-effective cyberattacks. In response, Cisco is embedding security deeper into its networking fabric, advancing zero trust frameworks, and unveiling powerful AI-driven tools for threat detection and mitigation.

Announced during Cisco Live, these developments include the introduction of Hybrid Mesh Firewall and Universal Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA), both of which are designed to streamline policy enforcement, boost operational visibility, and enable secure scaling without adding layers of complexity. Additionally, deeper integrations with Splunk are helping unify data and workflows to support faster, automated threat response.

“Safety and security are the defining challenges of the AI era—and agentic AI multiplies the risk, as every new agent is both a force multiplier and a fresh attack surface,” said Jeetu Patel, President and Chief Product Officer, Cisco. “At the same time, threat actors are already leveraging AI tools to launch more sophisticated attacks than ever. To help IT and security teams fight back, Cisco is reimagining how we secure networks, protect AI apps and models, manage identity, and equip security teams with the AI tools they need to meet the moment.”

Advancing Zero Trust for the AI-Powered Enterprise

With the surge in applications, distributed workforces, and AI-generated threats, enterprises are in urgent need of comprehensive, identity-centric security. Cisco’s new solutions are purpose-built to enable continuous verification across users, applications, and AI agents. Anchored by Cisco Hybrid Mesh Firewall and Universal ZTNA, these tools offer a scalable, AI-ready approach to network security.

The Cisco Hybrid Mesh Firewall delivers a distributed security fabric across data centers, campuses, and IoT environments. Integrated with both Cisco and third-party technologies, this solution supports AI application protection and advanced threat mitigation. On the access side, Universal ZTNA ensures secure, identity-aware connectivity for users and devices across all environments—even for unmanaged assets.

Together, these capabilities safeguard both user-facing and backend interactions, simplify network oversight via Security Cloud Control, and provide AI-powered insights that help enterprises navigate an increasingly hostile threat landscape.

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New Capabilities in Firewall and ZTNA Offerings

Cisco has also added major enhancements to its firewall portfolio and policy management systems:

• Cisco Secure Firewall 6100 Series: Optimized for AI-ready data centers with a market-leading performance of 200 Gbps per rack unit and modular expansion capabilities.

• Cisco Secure Firewall 200 Series: Designed for branch deployments, offering superior price-performance with integrated SD-WAN and advanced threat inspection.

• Expanded Enforcement Points: Unified policy controls now extend to Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, new Cisco 8000 Secure Router Series, Hypershield-ready C9000 switches, and Cisco ACI data center fabrics.

• Multi-Vendor Segmentation Policy: With the new Mesh Policy Engine in Security Cloud Control, users can define a single intent-based policy that applies across multiple vendor firewalls, simplifying daily operations and policy portability.

On the ZTNA front, Cisco is rolling out additional enhancements to support simplified, secure connectivity in hybrid and AI-rich environments:

• SASE Integration: All Cisco SD-WAN offerings—including Meraki—now integrate with Cisco Secure Access for consistent policy enforcement across branches.

• Passwordless Phishing Resistance: Duo IAM introduces a fully passwordless authentication method with proximity verification, eliminating the need for hardware tokens while enhancing protection.

• Securing Agentic AI: As AI agents become more autonomous, Cisco is reinforcing Zero Trust architectures to include agent discovery, delegated authorization, agent-specific access control, and compatibility with the Model Context Protocol (MCP). These capabilities are powered by Cisco Duo IAM, Identity Intelligence, Secure Access, and AI Defense—managed through a unified policy in Security Cloud Control.

“The AI era demands a transformative approach to security. Organizations need distributed, identity-based, zero trust protection for applications, users, AI models and agents, supported by a unified policy framework,” said John Grady, Principal Analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group. “Cisco is in a very unique position to support this with its ability to embed advanced protections directly into the network through innovations like Hybrid Mesh Firewall and Universal Zero Trust Network Access, which safeguard AI models and applications, manage identity, and simplify policy management across distributed environments.”

“As AI continues to evolve at an unprecedented pace and new cybersecurity challenges emerge, it’s even more important to fuse security into the very fabric of the network,” said Chris Konrad, Vice President, Global Cyber, World Wide Technology. “Cisco is redefining security for the AI era with its latest innovations from Hybrid Mesh Firewall to Universal Zero Trust Network Access. This integrated approach will help our customers to prepare for an AI-driven future and achieve better outcomes, by protecting AI models and applications, managing identity, and providing essential tools to combat increasingly complex threats.”

Splunk Integration Expands Threat Response Capabilities

Cisco is also deepening its collaboration with Splunk, now part of Cisco, to enhance threat detection and incident response across hybrid environments. New integrations are designed to reduce response times, improve data correlation, and streamline Security Operations Center (SOC) workflows:

• Cisco Secure Firewall Insights in Splunk: Real-time log data ingestion from Cisco firewalls enhances threat detection and investigation within the Splunk platform.

• Expanded TDIR Coverage: Cisco Security Cloud App for Splunk now supports enriched correlation and detection aligned with Threat Detection, Investigation, and Response (TDIR) workflows. Data from Cisco AI Defense, XDR, Talos, and more, contribute to accelerated insights.

• SOAR Integration: Automated response capabilities now include Cisco Secure Firewall-specific playbooks for containment actions, such as host isolation and outbound traffic blocking.

• Risk Visibility from Splunk AppDynamics: Security teams gain contextualized visibility into app-layer threats by forwarding Secure Application events into Splunk, aligning security signals with broader business risks.

With these advancements, Cisco continues to empower security and IT teams with a comprehensive platform that bridges AI innovation with enterprise-grade protection—ensuring businesses can thrive securely in a rapidly evolving digital world.