Cisco, the networking giant, reveals a series of significant security-focused product updates at its 2025 Cisco Live event this week. The company intensifies its focus on agentic AI, embedding security capabilities deeper into its networking infrastructure to address escalating AI-related security concerns for enterprise leaders and cybersecurity professionals.

Jeetu Patel, Cisco’s President and CPO, emphasized, “Safety and security define the AI era. Agentic AI amplifies risk, as each new agent acts as both a force multiplier and a fresh attack surface. Simultaneously, threat actors already deploy AI tools to launch more sophisticated attacks. To empower IT and security teams, Cisco reimagines network security, AI app and model protection, identity management, and equips security teams with necessary AI tools.”

Cisco Targets Firewalls for Agentic AI

Cisco’s Hybrid Mesh Firewall receives substantial hardware and policy management enhancements. The company launches the Cisco Secure Firewall 6100 Series, delivering the highest performance density for data center firewalling with an impressive 200 Gbps per rack unit. This innovation enables enterprises to manage complexity and costs while providing the scalability essential for growing AI-related data center demands. Additionally, the Cisco Secure Firewall 200 Series offers advanced on-box threat inspection and integrated software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) capabilities. Cisco highlights the Secure Firewall 200 series’ 3x price-performance guarantee compared to competitors.

ZTNA Updates Enhance Hybrid Environment Visibility

The networking giant also announces new updates to its Universal ZTNA solutions, primarily designed to enhance visibility across hybrid environments and AI agents. Cisco executives, including Patel, noted that the rise of agentic AI presents new challenges for enterprises in both identity management and network visibility.

The latest updates directly address these concerns. All Cisco SD-WAN offerings, including Meraki, now fully integrate with Cisco Secure Access. This integration allows customers to select optimal branch connectivity while still benefiting from a unified Security Service Edge (SSE) policy and consistent enforcement.

Furthermore, new features aim to combat phishing risks. Cisco’s Duo Identity and Access Management (IAM) solution will now function as an “identity broker,” offering a complete passwordless option and a unique proximity verification capability. Duo layers end-to-end phishing resistance onto existing identity infrastructure without requiring clunky hardware tokens.

Splunk Integrations Complement New Features

Cisco Live also brought news for Splunk customers, particularly focusing on enhanced integration for enterprise users. Cisco Secure Firewall service users can now gain deeper threat insights by combining firewall log data with Splunk, enabling advanced detections and maximizing the value of their Cisco and Splunk investments.

Closer integration with Splunk AppDynamics represents another key update. Users can now forward secure application events into Splunk, allowing security teams to more efficiently identify application-layer vulnerabilities and threats.

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News Source: ITPro.com