Cisco Boosts AI Cybersecurity Tech to Meet Evolving Threats

Cisco takes aim at escalating cybersecurity threats with a new series of AI-driven innovations.

As enterprises deploy AI at speed, they face equally rapid increases in cyber vulnerabilities.

Cisco’s latest technologies focus on strengthening cybersecurity frameworks, countering AI-enabled attacks and managing critical risks in an evolving landscape.

Addressing AI vulnerabilities in cybersecurity

Global enterprises face a rising tide of challenges: increasingly sophisticated AI-driven attacks, a widening cybersecurity skills gap and insufficient security controls for emerging AI systems.

Security professionals highlight growing concerns about new attack methods, such as targeting machine learning (ML) models, corrupting data and using adversarial techniques to undermine AI integrity.

Against this backdrop, Cisco announces a broad suite of AI cybersecurity innovations to help organisations fortify their defences.

Unveiled at the RSA Conference 2025 in San Francisco, Cisco’s updates are informed by its forthcoming 2025 Cybersecurity Readiness Index, which reveals that 86% of organisations worldwide have encountered AI-related security incidents in the past year.

"The cybersecurity threat landscape has never been more dynamic and complex, with adversaries constantly emboldened and enabled by AI to drive new attacks and exploits," says Jeetu Patel, Executive Vice President and Chief Product Officer at Cisco.

"To fight back, understaffed security operations and IT leaders need AI power of their own."

To this end, Cisco is releasing open-source security models, AI agent technology and Internet of Things (IoT) advancements, all integrated within its Cisco Security Cloud platform.

These innovations promise to strengthen cybersecurity in a world where AI is both a tool and a target.

Boosting detection with Cisco XDR and Splunk Security

Security operations centres (SOCs) face thousands of alerts daily, creating a daunting task of identifying genuine threats.

Cisco’s Extended Detection and Response (XDR) platform tackles this by correlating data across networks, endpoints, cloud services and email systems.

Among its new features is Instant Attack Verification.

This tool merges Splunk platform data with endpoint, network and threat intelligence information to automatically generate investigation plans, harnessing agentic AI capabilities.

Splunk is a data analytics software used for monitoring and analysing machine-generated data.

Further upgrades include XDR Forensics, offering deeper insight into endpoint activities, and XDR Storyboard, which visualises attack paths to help security teams respond more swiftly.

Splunk Enterprise Security 8.1 and Splunk SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation and Response) 6.4 also integrate to deliver enhanced threat visibility and automation.

Frank Dickson, Group Vice President of Security & Trust at IDC, explains: "Cisco XDR aims to address key challenges in the SOC with its focus on 'Clear Verdict. Decisive Action. AI Speed.'

"The combination of Instant Attack Verification, XDR Storyboard visualisations and automated XDR Forensics offers a streamlined approach to threat management."

These developments reflect Cisco’s commitment to empowering security teams with technology capable of operating at AI speed, crucial when facing increasingly intelligent threats.

Enhancing AI risk management with ServiceNow

In a move that deepens its AI Defense initiative, Cisco announces an expanded partnership with ServiceNow, focusing on AI risk management and governance.

The integration links Cisco AI Defense with ServiceNow’s SecOps platform, streamlining security incident and vulnerability management by unifying security and IT operations.

This collaboration reflects the increasing need for governance structures capable of handling AI risks across the enterprise.

Cisco has also introduced Foundation AI, a new team formed after acquiring Robust Intelligence, to address cybersecurity challenges unique to AI technologies.

This team has developed an open-source reasoning model tailored for security applications, offering benchmarks and adaptation tools for cybersecurity professionals.

Cisco further extends protection across the AI supply chain.

Its new Supply Chain Risk Management controls aim to secure AI application components, addressing pre-deployment vulnerabilities such as malware in model files or compromised open-source datasets.

These controls detect and block malicious model files, manage risks linked to restrictive licences and enforce policies against non-compliant suppliers.

Meanwhile, Cisco strengthens its Industrial Threat Defense solution.

New integrations with Cisco Cyber Vision, Cisco Vulnerability Management and Splunk Asset and Risk Intelligence help prioritise operational technology risks.

Additional connections with Cisco Secure Firewall and the Splunk OT Security add-on ensure unified IT and operational technology visibility within SOCs.

Jeetu continues: "Cisco is continuing its mission to secure AI and leverage AI for security with novel open-source models and tools, new AI agents and IoT advancements, alongside the full breadth of the Cisco Security Cloud.

"Together, these innovations will help level the playing field and deliver AI innovation that makes all businesses more secure."

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