Cisco, the global leader in security and networking, has launched Cisco AI Defense, a groundbreaking solution designed to empower enterprises to safely embrace AI innovation. As AI technology evolves, so too do the associated security risks and threats—many of which current security solutions are ill-equipped to handle. Cisco AI Defense is engineered to provide businesses with the tools they need to confidently develop, deploy, and secure AI applications.
“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 at 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.”
As AI adoption accelerates, the stakes for AI-related security breaches have never been higher. According to Cisco’s 2024 AI Readiness Index, only 29% of surveyed professionals feel adequately prepared to detect and prevent unauthorized interference with AI systems. The complexity of securing AI applications continues to rise, with models and applications spanning multi-cloud environments. Vulnerabilities can arise at the model or application level, and with a diverse pool of developers, vendors, and end-users involved, ensuring responsibility and accountability becomes increasingly difficult. The risks multiply as enterprises shift from public data to proprietary data for training AI models.
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To facilitate safe and effective AI adoption, businesses require a unified security layer that protects users and applications alike. Cisco AI Defense is tailored to address two key areas of concern:
1. Developing and Deploying Secure AI Applications
As AI becomes integral to enterprise operations, businesses will create and use numerous AI applications. Developers need a consistent framework of security and safety measures to ensure the integrity of these applications. Cisco AI Defense empowers developers to act quickly and maximize the potential of AI while protecting systems from malicious attacks and safeguarding model behaviors across various platforms. Key features include:
- AI Discovery: Security teams need visibility into the applications being developed and their training sources. Cisco AI Defense detects both shadow and authorized AI applications across public and private cloud environments.
- Model Validation: Tuning AI models can inadvertently introduce risks and harmful outcomes. Cisco’s automated testing platform scans AI models for hundreds of potential security and safety issues, identifying vulnerabilities and recommending safeguards for security teams to implement.
- Runtime Security: Ongoing validation ensures continuous protection against evolving threats like prompt injection, denial-of-service attacks, and sensitive data leakage.
2. Securing Access to AI Applications
As employees rapidly adopt AI applications to enhance productivity, organizations must guard against data leakage and the compromise of proprietary data. Cisco AI Defense enables security teams to:
- Visibility: Gain a comprehensive view of both authorized and unauthorized AI applications being used within the organization.
- Access Control: Implement policies to restrict access to unsanctioned AI tools, minimizing the risk of exposure.
- Data and Threat Protection: Maintain constant vigilance, ensuring the protection of confidential data and compliance with regulatory standards while mitigating emerging threats.
Unlike traditional safety measures embedded within individual AI models, Cisco AI Defense provides consistent and scalable security controls across diverse models and applications. The solution is self-optimizing, leveraging Cisco’s proprietary machine learning algorithms to detect new and evolving security risks based on threat intelligence from Cisco Talos. For Splunk customers using AI Defense, enriched alerts provide valuable context from across the entire ecosystem. The platform integrates seamlessly into existing data workflows, offering unparalleled visibility and control. Built into Cisco’s Security Cloud—its unified, AI-driven, cross-domain security platform—AI Defense uses Cisco’s extensive network of enforcement points to deliver security at the network level, an approach uniquely suited to Cisco’s capabilities. Cisco has also been a key contributor to the development of AI security standards from organizations such as MITRE, OWASP, and NIST, ensuring the trustworthiness and reliability of enterprise AI applications.
“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.”
As businesses continue to integrate AI technologies into their operations, the need for robust security measures becomes more critical than ever. Cisco AI Defense is poised to lead the charge in securing AI environments, enabling enterprises to unlock AI’s full potential without compromising safety.