CISCO Systems: The Network Intuitive

Brink Sanders, MD, Software & Network Transformation, APAC & Japan

Today, with distributed connectivity across many devices, we are steadily migrating toward a world of unbelievably massive expansiveness and abundance. One study done in the third quarter of 2016 highlighted that the burgeoning acceptance of mobility, cloud, and IoT, has hugely escalated the number of new machine-to-machine (M2M) connections in comparison to the number of phones and tablets that were added to the network. It predicted that the number of connected devices on the Internet would exceed 50 billion by 2020 and one trillion networked sensors will be embedded in the world by 2022. The steady influx in consumption of cloud services and cloud-native applications, escalating mobile devices, and ever-increasing non-traditional IoT devices are mounting unprecedented pressure on the network—the central element connecting all the units of Cloud, IoT, Mobility, Security together. In this scenario, an entirely revamped enterprise network which is simpler and capable of efficiently containing the mounting pressure will draw the differentiating line between a business’s digital success and its displacement from the competition. It is in such an era, when the network has never been more critical to success, that Cisco, a name synonymous with enterprise networking, unveils its intent-based networking solution–The Network Intuitive. This neoteric network system runs on human-alike intent, context, intuition, and is firmly poised to be a significant breakthrough in the realm of enterprise networking. Guided by artificial intelligence and machine learning, The Network Intuitive has been crafted to be able to translate business intent into action, by automatically generating policies or fixing problems without human intervention.

Network—the Soul of Innovation

Enterprise network, as transparent as it often appears, forms the sole unifying element and the engine for innovation that brings together all the disruptions in an organization. It acutely helps a business’ entire executive team improve workforce engagement, create newer business models, and transform customer experiences. However, the traditional box-by-box approach of managing network operations does not, currently, stand sustainable owing to myriad reasons. Although in an organization, the network serves as the central point where the entire breadth and depth of business and IT intelligence can be gathered, massive volumes of beneficial insights still remain untapped. This intense dearth of requisite business and IT insights questions the eminence of the present data-driven economy. In addition to being complex and dependent on slow, error-prone manual operations, present enterprise networks also continue to be vulnerable to unanticipated and devastating cyber-attacks, like that from the WannaCry ransom-ware. Security concerns are even higher in Asia-Pacific where networks are comparatively less advanced, and attacks are on the rise, more than anywhere else.

The Network Intuitive, powered by intent and informed by context, contributes three elementary differentiators to Cisco’s forte–intent, context, and intuition

The answer to mitigating all these critical issues lies in a smart network that constantly evolves itself to meet emerging business requirements, and autonomously performs continuous monitoring of potential issues, whether they are user or security related. And, Cisco’s Network Intuitive effectively optimizes network operations and safeguards them in today's evolving threat landscape, by constantly learning, adapting, automating, and protecting the network. The Network Intuitive can spot threats, even those within encrypted traffic, and create a protective umbrella based on what it deciphers from every attack. Therefore, the more it’s attempted to be hacked, the smarter it becomes. This pioneering introduction is the culmination of Cisco's vision to create an intuitive system that will help businesses to unlock new opportunities and solve previously unsolvable challenges in an era of increasing connectivity and distributed technology.

A Giant Leap

The fact that Cisco has been responsible for moving 80 percent of the internet’s data for the last three decades puts the company in a unique position to be able to study and comprehend the fundamentals of network operations and security and apply that knowledge to build The Network Intuitive. Cisco’s continuous investment in software innovations, in-house designed programmable ASICs, and embedded end-to-end network security, substantially adds to the IT giant’s potential to re-imagine this new era of networking.

The Network Intuitive, powered by intent and informed by context, contributes three elementary differentiators to Cisco’s forte–intent, context, and intuition. With the advent of IoT and the proliferation of millions of devices, ‘intent’ makes it possible to diminish the traditional, time-consuming processes in favor of automation. The new network interprets data according to the right ‘context’—the who, what, when, where, and how—enabling companies to hasten operations, secure infrastructure, and tailor experiences to their customers’ needs. Cisco also exploits the vast amount of data that flows through its networks around the globe, with built-in machine learning, and unleashes that data to provide actionable, predictive insights. This is where ‘intuition’ comes into play. Brink Sanders, MD, Software and Network Transformation at Cisco in APJ, says that “What we have started is a huge transition to intent-based networking that eases tackling the escalating security risks due to rapid multiplication of IoT and mobile devices. We are providing scalability and security that meet organizations’ digital objectives.” As the network of the future has a more relevant role to play than it had in the last 30 years, The Network Intuitive “sees all the data” to translate business-intent into profitable action.

This next-generation networking system is built on Cisco’s Digital Network Architecture (DNA), comprising of many innovations, including Encrypted Traffic Analytics (ETA), programmable Catalyst 9000 Series switches, and DNA Center, to support the new paradigm of networking. ETA can identify threats in encrypted traffic without the use of decryption or deep packet inspection, allowing for simultaneous threat and privacy protection. With ETA, companies can identify malware even in encrypted traffic to ensure enterprise compliance with specific cryptographic protocols and detect vulnerabilities. It blends enhanced netflow, analytics, machine learning, and global-to-local knowledge correlation to deliver better visibility into potential threats using network analytics, along with faster response abilities through automated containment of infected devices and users. “This enables IT teams to detect threats accurately and reduces false positives, in a time and age where the majority of the internet traffic is in fact encrypted,” Sanders highlights. On the other hand, Cisco DNA comprises of Software-Defined Access (SD-Access), which leverages automated policy enforcement and network segmentation over a single network fabric to simplify network access for users, devices, and things and reduce the attack surface.

Currently, hundreds of leading enterprises and organizations across the globe have begun their journey with these next-generation networking solutions, including Deakin University, NASA, Royal Caribbean Cruises, Scentsy, UZ Leuven and Wipro. Of the 350 organizations from varied industry domains that are exploiting the expertise of The Network Intuitive, Sanders focuses attention on one particular instance wherein Cisco assisted Wipro, one of the largest IT Services Providers in the world, wholly renovate its networking architecture. With more than 800 offshore development centers hosting other companies’ networks around the globe, Wipro has a need of seamless automation for faster client on-boarding and enhanced agility, security and user experience. Modernizing the network had been a priority in order to simplify IT operations and leverage the best of a digital network. Wipro has been on transformation journey with Cisco’s Network Intuitive and has piloted and deployed Cisco DNA only to experience phenomenal outcomes—greater security, faster time-to-market, and improved user experience. By deploying SDA, Wipro has reportedly undergone superior level of speed and simplification—time to onboard clients has already reduced from months to days and that to deploy cloud services from hours to minutes.

The Network Intuitive is a quantum leap in the evolution of enterprise networking which mirrors Cisco's vision to create an intuitive system that anticipates actions, undermines security threats, and continues to evolve and learn. But given the fact that security threats will continue to evolve, Cisco plans to add new capabilities to bolster its defensive shields constantly. “With today’s difficult-to-manage multivendor and multiproduct environment, security tops the priority-chart for all companies we have talked to. Our intent-driven network is definitely the future,” states a confident Sanders. Gartner predicts that by 2020, ten percent of enterprises will use intent-driven network and the era of increasing connectivity and distributed technology is gearing up to embrace the future of networking–The Network Intuitive.

- Soumik Ghosh
November 10, 2017

CISCO Systems News

Generation Privacy: Younger Consumers Are 7 Times More Likely to Exercise their Data Rights, New Cisco Survey Shows

• The Cisco 2023 Consumer Privacy Survey reveals that younger consumers are taking action to protect their privacy: 42% of consumers aged 18-24 have inquired about the personal data organizations have about them, seven times more than consumers aged 75 or older (6%).

• Consumers are concerned about their privacy in relation to Artificial Intelligence: 60% have lost trust in organizations due to their AI use. Businesses can implement measures such as bias audits to regain consumer trust.

• Only half of regular Generative AI users say they are refraining from entering personal or confidential information into Gen AI applications.

SAN JOSE, Calif., - Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) published its 2023 Consumer Privacy Survey*, an annual global review of consumers' perceptions and behaviors on data privacy. This year's survey highlights how younger consumers are taking deliberate action to protect their privacy, as 42% of consumers aged 18-24 exercise their Data Subject Access Rights, compared with just 6% for consumers 75 and older. Many say they have lost trust in organizations because of their use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), and 50% of respondents look to the government to set rules and enforce privacy protections. The survey also provides early insights on Generative AI (Gen AI), revealing that only 12% of respondents identify as regular users.

Artificial Intelligence and Privacy Concerns

From shopping to streaming services and to healthcare, 48% of survey respondents agree that AI can be useful in improving their lives. A majority of respondents (54%) said they are willing to share their anonymized personal data to help improve AI products and decision-making.

Nevertheless, 62% of surveyed consumers expressed concern about how organizations are using their personal data for AI today, with 60% saying that they have already lost trust in organizations because of their AI use. Organizations can implement measures to (re)gain customer trust, such as auditing products and solutions for bias, being more transparent and explaining how the AI works, ensuring human involvement, and instituting an AI Ethics Management Program.

"The world is watching how companies will approach AI in a responsible way," said Dev Stahlkopf, Cisco Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer. "For Cisco, this means keeping a keen focus on respecting privacy and human rights as we incorporate AI technology."

Generative AI: The Privacy Contradiction

The survey also provides an early snapshot of the use of Gen AI and some of the potential risks and privacy challenges. Generative AI is still relatively new to most people. Over half (52%) of survey respondents said they were not aware of it.

Of those that use Gen AI regularly (12%), only half indicated that they were refraining from entering personal or confidential information into Gen AI applications. It is notable that the other 50% may indeed be entering personal or confidential information. This is despite 88% of respondents indicating that they would be "Somewhat" or "Very" concerned if their data entered in Gen AI were to be shared.

Young Consumers Championing Data Privacy

This year, 33% of respondents qualify as "Privacy Actives": they care about privacy, are willing to act to protect it, and have acted, for example by switching companies or providers because of their data policies or data sharing practices. Younger consumers are the most willing to take action to protect their privacy. Forty-two percent of consumers, aged 18-34, are Privacy Actives, a percentage that steadily decreases with age.

The percentage of consumers requesting data deletions or change rose to 19%, up from 14% last year. Again, this is highly correlated with age: thirty-two percent of consumers aged 18-24 make data deletion or change requests compared to only 4% of older consumers.

Public awareness of privacy laws continues to be relatively low with 46% of respondents aware of their country's privacy law. Those who are aware of the law are more likely to feel they can adequately protect their data: only 40% of those unaware of their country's law feel they can protect their data compared to 74% of those who are aware of the law. Sixty-eight percent of consumers aged 18-24 feel they can protect their data, and this gradually declines to 47% of consumers over age 65 saying so.

Role of Laws and Governments

Many consumers look to the government to set the standard of care and enforce privacy protections. Half (50%) of respondents said national or local government should have the primary role in protecting data, whereas 21% said private companies should be primarily responsible for protecting data.

"As governments pass laws and companies seek to build trust, consumers must also take action and use technology responsibly to protect their own privacy," says Harvey Jang, Cisco Vice President, Deputy General Counsel and Chief Privacy Officer.  

Consumers are split on the value of data localization. Most have heard about such requirements, and 76% indicated initially that data localization might be good. However, when considering the cost associated with it, thereby making products and services more expensive, only 44% were in favor of data localization.

Cisco Announces November 2023 Event with the Financial Community

SAN JOSE, Calif., -- Cisco announced that it will participate in the following conference with the financial community during the month of November. The session will be webcast. Interested parties can view the event on Cisco's Investor Relations website at investor.cisco.com.

UBS Global Technology Conference

November 28, 2023

10:55 a.m. MT / 12:55 p.m. ET

Bill Gartner, SVP and General Manager, Optical Systems and Optics Group

Cisco is Delivering on Platform Strategy with Rapid Innovation Across Cisco Security Cloud

• Cisco and Splunk are helping customers accelerate their journey toward the Security Operations Center (SOC) of the future with a powerful integration just two months after Cisco's acquisition of Splunk.

• With the industry's first AI-native security architecture, customers will be able to protect against both known and unknown attacks using Cisco Hypershield.

• Cisco Identity Intelligence is now available in Cisco Duo to enable Continuous Identity Security to protect organizations against the sharp rise in identity-based attacks.

SAN FRANCISCO, -- RSA CONFERENCE 2024 -- Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO), the leader in enterprise networking and security, today announced new industry-shaping innovations across the Cisco Security Cloud to both power and protect the AI revolution. The new capabilities across Cisco's unified, AI-driven, cross-domain security platform help companies better protect their applications, devices, users and data as well as detect, respond and recover faster from incidents.

Securing today's complex, hyper-distributed digital landscape can no longer be done at human scale, as attacks become more sophisticated and nearly 90 percent of companies around the world say shortage of cybersecurity talent is a real issue, according to the 2024 Cisco Cybersecurity Readiness Index. Organizations need to rethink security by building natively with AI and challenging long held conventions to tip the advantage in favor of the defenders.

"At the RSA Conference last year, we delivered enhanced customer efficacy and economics through a true platform approach to security with the Cisco Security Cloud. By minimizing point-solutions, customers have realized better end-to-end visibility, uncovered actionable intelligence and automation with AI and simplified management with Cisco's unified security infrastructure," said Jeetu Patel, Executive Vice President and General Manager for Security and Collaboration at Cisco. "Since then, our security momentum continues to accelerate. With 'zero to one' innovation like Cisco Hypershield and strategic acquisitions like Splunk and Isovalent, the power of Cisco's security platform is supercharged and unmatched."

Cisco is helping customers defend against the entire attack chain – from detecting and blocking not just known, but also unknown vulnerabilities with Cisco Hypershield, to stopping the increasing barrage of identity attacks with Cisco Duo, and reimagining the security operations center (SOC) with Splunk for security analysts to move faster and make more informed decisions with contextual insights and automated workflows.

Advancing the Vision of the SOC of the Future

To thrive in the new digital era, organizations need to connect and protect all that they do. The combination of Cisco and Splunk is the most comprehensive security solution for threat prevention, detection, investigation and response for organizations of any size, utilizing cloud, endpoint traffic - along with Cisco's unmatched network footprint - for unparalleled visibility. As Cisco and Splunk converge these platforms, there are many opportunities to advance security operations including:

• Integrating Cisco Extended Detection & Response (XDR) with Splunk Enterprise Security (ES): Seamlessly feed high-fidelity alerts and detections from Cisco XDR, purpose-built to detect today's most common attacks such as ransomware and lateral movement, into Splunk ES to accelerate investigation and remediation. The integration allows organizations to utilize the strength of each solution to create a more comprehensive defense strategy that will improve digital resilience.

• Splunk Asset and Risk Intelligence: A critical solution for the SOC of the future, designed to revolutionize proactive risk mitigation through continuous asset discovery and compliance monitoring. This addresses a pressing need for security teams, as they can't protect what they can't see.

• Cisco AI Assistant for Security in XDR: Cisco's unified AI Assistant for Security is now available in Cisco XDR – one year after Cisco shared its vision for reimagining the security analyst experience with AI on-stage at RSAC 2023. The AI Assistant in XDR empowers security analysts of all skill levels to make faster, more informed decisions about evolving threats by offering contextual insights, guided responses, recommended actions and automated workflows.

• New Cloud Detection and Response Capabilities: Cisco's Panoptica cloud native application protection platform (CNAPP) now harnesses AI and ML to detect and alert security teams to emerging threats within cloud applications in real-time, while GenAI Dynamic Remediation allows teams to resolve issues quickly by providing prescriptive guidance. The new Search Graph Query feature enables granular query and graph visualizations across multi-cloud environments to allow for deeper investigation into cloud security posture to reduce exposure.

"The XDR market is broad, one that includes many companies that promise to deliver a more complete view of the security stack beyond the endpoint. In doing so, XDR aims to detect cybersecurity threats across multiple domains," said Will Townsend, VP & Principal Analyst, Moor Insights. "Observability is key, and with its successful acquisition of Splunk, Cisco is poised to enhance its XDR solution launched one year ago, now adding AI, unified threat detection, investigation, response and transformation capabilities aimed at enhancing security operations."

"At Optiv, we provide our clients the essential security expertise and solutions they need with an integrated approach that spans the entirety of their cybersecurity journey, all with a focus on accelerating their business outcomes," said John Hurley, Chief Revenue Officer, Optiv. "Cisco's integrated AI-driven platform, the Cisco Security Cloud, is a solution that helps reduce complexity. The integration of Cisco XDR and Splunk Enterprise Security will enable our clients to operate efficiently while making informed decisions on how to bolster their cyber resiliency in today's evolving threat landscape."

Protections From Unknown Vulnerabilities with Cisco Hypershield for the AI-Scale Data Center

In today's attack landscape, the time from vulnerability to exploit is shrinking - and defending against the increasingly sophisticated, complex threats in data centers is beyond human scale. Unfortunately, not all vulnerabilities are known.

Building on last month's launch of Cisco Hypershield with Distributed Exploit Protection protecting against known vulnerabilities (e.g. CVEs), Cisco is now introducing capabilities to detect and block attacks stemming from unknown vulnerabilities within runtime workload environments. In addition, suspected workloads can be isolated to limit the vulnerability's blast radius.

Cisco Hypershield is a radically new approach to securing data centers and clouds in response to the increasing demands the AI revolution has put on IT infrastructure. Cisco Hypershield protects applications, devices and data across public and private data centers, clouds and physical locations - anywhere customers need it. Designed and built with AI in mind from the start, Hypershield enables organizations to achieve security outcomes beyond what has been possible with humans alone.

Frictionless User Protection with Continuous Identity Security

With the rise in identity-based attacks, security solutions must evolve from just asking 'can' a user access an application. Instead, they need to continuously assess whether a user 'should' be able to do what they are doing – and do so without creating friction for the user. Continuing momentum since the recent launch of Cisco Identity Intelligence, Cisco is bringing together phishing-resistant capabilities in Duo to realize its vision for Continuous Identity Security – stopping identity attacks while simultaneously delivering a simpler, more seamless user experience.

• Eliminate Authentication Fatigue with Duo Passport: Minimize repeated authentication requests to provide interruption-free access to everything a workforce needs without compromising security using Duo Passport, a major leap forward in user experience.

• Cisco Identity Intelligence in Duo: Leverage powerful AI-driven analytics to strengthen posture across your workforce identity infrastructure and to assess and respond to identity risk before, during and after login. Now in limited availability, this addition enables customers to implement Continuous Identity Security that reduces security gaps and addresses today's most common cyber threat.

"Cisco Duo is advancing past its core access management functions, incorporating identity enrichment from Cisco Identity Intelligence and introducing a streamlined access experience with Duo Passport," said Todd Thiemann, Senior Analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group. "This evolution leads to Continuous Identity Security, where access adapts in real-time to the associated risk, crucial in today's threat landscape where identity-based attacks are on the rise Cisco Duo's commitment to dynamic response to risk, coupled with an emphasis on seamless user experience, is not just timely-it's groundbreaking."