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Today — June 17th 2024Security – Cisco Blog

Stay Compliant: Cisco Secure Workload Introduces State-of-the-art, Persona-based Reporting

By Jyotsna Venkatesh
Traditional workload security tools often fail to provide metrics tailored to the distinct needs of SecOps, Network Administrators, or CxOs.
Before yesterdaySecurity – Cisco Blog

Bolster SaaS Security Posture Management with Zero Trust Architecture

By Tom Baumgartner
According to AppOmni’s 2023 State of SaaS Security report, 79% of organizations reported a SaaS security incident during the preceding 12-month period. As enterprises incrementally store and process more sensitive data in SaaS applications, it is no surprise that the security of these applications has come into greater focus. Security Service Edge (SSE) solutions with […]

Operationalizing our custom “SOC in a Box” at the RSA Conference 2024

By Aditya Sankar
Cisco engineers often face the challenge of setting up a Security Operations Center in two days at global events. Aditya Sankar explains the process with our “SOC in a Box” in this blog.

Securing Meraki Networks with Cisco XDR

By Rajat Gulati
Discover how the Cisco XDR and Meraki MX integration provides advanced threat detection and network insights. Join us at Cisco Live 2024 for a demo.

Cisco Security at Cisco Live 2024: Innovating at Scale

By Jeetu Patel
No matter how reliable and performant your network is, it doesn’t matter if it’s not secure. To help make the world a safer place, we need to reimagine security.

XDR means so much more than some may realize

By Crystal Storar
Discover how Cisco XDR redefines security with integrated tools, AI-driven threat detection, and rapid response to solve real-world problems for the SOC

Cisco Enhances Zero Trust Access with Google

By Jeff Scheaffer
Cisco and Google are collaborating to help organizations block threats and secure access across internet destinations and private applications.

Introducing the Open Supply-Chain Information Modeling (OSIM) Technical Committee

By Omar Santos
OSIM is a great advancement towards a more secure and resilient supply chain ecosystem.

Managing Firewall complexity and Augmenting Effectiveness with AIOps for Cisco Firewall

By Gayathri Nagarajan
Explore how AIOps revolutionizes Cisco Firewall management, enhancing security, reducing downtime, and maximizing ROI with intelligent, automated solutions.

Cisco Secure Firewall integrates with Azure Virtual WAN (vWAN) to simplify firewall insertion in Azure environments

By Pal Lakatos-Toth
Cisco's Secure Firewall Threat Defense Virtual (formerly FTDv) now integrates with Azure Virtual WAN to effortlessly insert next-generation virtual firewalls into the Azure vWAN hub. Version 7.4.1 simplifies how customers secure their enterprise network as they expand their cloud footprint to Microsoft Azure.Azure Virtual WAN.

Integration of Cisco Secure Threat Defense Virtual with Megaport

By Karmanya Dadhich
Introduction to Cisco FTDv partnership with Megaport. Learn how organisations can solve their last-mile network security puzzle with ease.

Navigating DORA (Digital Operational Resilience Act) with Secure Workload

By Jorge Quintero
The Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) represents a shift toward establishing harmonized guidelines that can keep pace with the dynamic nature of cyber threats.

Demystifying Multicloud Networking with Cisco Multicloud Defense

By Anubhav Swami
See how Cisco is leveraging Cisco Defense Orchestrator, Multicloud Defense, and Secure Firewall to securely connect apps from site to cloud and between clouds.

Strengthen Your Security Operations: MITRE ATT&CK Mapping in Cisco XDR

By Nirav Shah
Discover how Cisco XDR's MITRE ATT&CK mapping strengthens your security operations. Learn to identify security gaps and improve your cybersecurity posture.

Accessing Secure Client Cloud Management after the SecureX EoL

By Pete Davis
Secure Client Management capabilities aren’t going away with the SecureX EOL, the functionality is simply migrating to the Cisco Security Cloud Control service.

Email Security Reinvented: How AI is Revolutionizing Digital Defense

By Sergio Pinto
Explore the many ways that Secure Email Threat Defense leverages sophisticated AI and ML to protect against advanced threats.

Secure Firewall & Multicloud Defense: Secure Connectivity With Simplified Policy Across Clouds

By Christopher Consolo
Learn how Cisco is bringing on-prem and cloud security together into a unified platform to marry the power of Cisco Secure Firewall and Multicloud Defense.

Accelerating SaaS security certifications to maximize market access

By Gagandeep Singh
Announcing the public availability of Cisco Cloud Controls Framework (CCF) V3.0 - a “build-once-use-many” approach for SaaS compliance with global standards.

Empowering Cybersecurity with AI: The Future of Cisco XDR

By Siddhant Dash
Learn how the Cisco AI Assistant in XDR adds powerful functionality to Cisco XDR that increases defenders efficiency and accuracy.

Cisco Hypershield – Our Vision to Combat Unknown Vulnerabilities

By Craig Connors
Cisco Hypershield can help protect organizations agains unknown vulnerabilities by detecting and blocking unknown vulnerabilities in runtime workloads.

Cisco & Splunk: A Complete SOC Platform Purpose-Built for the AI-Driven Future

By AJ Shipley
We're excited about the integration of Cisco XDR and Splunk Enterprise Security, creating a SecOps platform that can grow with customers as needs change.

Cisco Hypershield: A New Era of Distributed, AI-Native Security

By Tom Gillis

AI is transformative, driving huge productivity gains. The engine of AI — the data center — will grow substantially, maybe an order of magnitude or more over the coming years.

The industry went thr… Read more on Cisco Blogs

Cisco Hypershield: Reimagining Security

By Craig Connors
Cisco Hypershield is a new security infrastructure — a fabric — that can autonomously create defenses and produce measured responses to detected attacks, making security defenders' jobs easier.

Supercharging Cisco XDR with AI and Identity Intelligence at RSAC 2024

By Teresa Brunner

Cisco XDR is a leader in providing comprehensive threat detection and response across the entire attack surface. We’ll be showcasing new capabilities that will give security teams even more insight, a… Read more on Cisco Blogs

Synergizing Advanced Identity Threat Detection & Response Solutions

By Jeff Yeo

In an ever-evolving digital landscape, cybersecurity has become the cornerstone of organizational success. With the proliferation of sophisticated cyber threats, businesses must adopt a multi-layered… Read more on Cisco Blogs

Cisco Telemetry Broker (CTB) 2.1 Launch

By Rob Ayoub

The ability to generate NetFlow from devices that do not natively produce it along with significant storage efficiency and improved workflows make for a significant update to CTB.

Cisco Telemetry… Read more on Cisco Blogs

Cisco Secure Access Wins Global Security Service Edge Customer Value Leadership Award

By David Gormley

It’s one thing to claim leadership in cloud security; it’s another to have that leadership acknowledged by industry experts. That’s why we’re thrilled to announce our recent recognition by Frost & Sul… Read more on Cisco Blogs

Defusing the threat of compromised credentials

By Ben Nahorney

Let’s say that, during the middle of a busy day, you receive what looks like a work-related email with a QR code. The email claims to come from a coworker, requesting your help in reviewing a d… Read more on Cisco Blogs

Cryptocurrency and Blockchain security due diligence: A guide to hedge risk

By Dr. Giannis Tziakouris

Blockchain technology has experienced remarkable adoption in recent years, driven by its use across a broad spectrum of institutions, governments, retail investors, and users. However, this surge in… Read more on Cisco Blogs

Balancing agility and predictability to achieve major engineering breakthroughs

By Shailaja Shankar

In my last blog, I shared the progress we’re making toward building the Cisco Security Cloud, an open, integrated security platform capable of tackling the rigors of securing highly distributed, m… Read more on Cisco Blogs

Hiding in Plain Sight: How Subdomain Attacks Use Your Email Authentication Against You

By Bradley Anstis

For years, analysts, security specialists, and security architects alike have been encouraging organizations to become DMARC compliant. This involves deploying email authentication to ensure their… Read more on Cisco Blogs

Introducing Cisco XDR Playbooks: Finding the balance in automating and guiding incident response

By Rob Gresham

Security Operations is the beating heart of any organization, a united team vigilantly standing guard against cyber threats. To outsmart their adversaries, they must delve deep into the intricate… Read more on Cisco Blogs

Cisco Secure Access named Leader in Zero Trust Network Access

By Andrew Akers

Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) is a critical component to increase productivity and reduce risk in today’s hyper-distributed environments. Cisco Secure Access provides a modern form of zero trust a… Read more on Cisco Blogs

Complexity drives more than security risk. Secure Access can help with that too.

By Andrew Akers

Modern networks are complex, often involving hybrid work models and a mix of first- and third-party applications and infrastructure. In response, organizations have adopted security service edge… Read more on Cisco Blogs

Helping Ivanti VPN Customers

By Bill Mabon

In January 2024, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued a directive (with an update in February) mandating that all U.S. Federal agencies take Ivanti systems offline… Read more on Cisco Blogs

Cisco Secure Workload 3.9 Delivers Stronger Security and Greater Operational Efficiency

By Brijeshkumar Shah

The proliferation of applications across hybrid and multicloud environments continues at a blistering pace. For the most part, there is no fixed perimeter, applications and environments are woven… Read more on Cisco Blogs

Mitigating Lateral Movement with Zero Trust Access

By Andrew Akers

Security service edge (SSE) technology was created to protect remote and branch users with a unified, cloud-delivered security stack. To understand how SSE solutions protect organizations and their… Read more on Cisco Blogs

Enterprise security: Making hot desking secure and accessible on a global scale

By Jennifer Perez-Harris

Making hot desking secure and accessible on a global scale

The first rule of interviewing a CISO at the Australian division of Laing O’Rourke is this: You can’t dig deep into use cases or cli… Read more on Cisco Blogs

Benefits of Ingesting Data from Amazon Inspector into Cisco Vulnerability Management

By Ahmadreza Edalat

Co-authored by Tejas Sheth, Sr. Security Specialist, Amazon Web Services – AISPL.

Risk-based Vulnerability Management (RBVM) represents a strategic approach to cyber security that focuses on… Read more on Cisco Blogs

Drive Your Cybersecurity Platform Transformation: Lead the Way With SSE

By Bill Mabon

By shifting from point-solutions to a cybersecurity platform approach, IT and security teams significantly improve their efficiency and security outcomes. Security Service Edge (SSE) projects are… Read more on Cisco Blogs

The Real Deal About ZTNA and Zero Trust Access

By Jeff Scheaffer

ZTNA hasn’t delivered on the full promise of zero trust

Zero Trust has been all the rage for several years; it states, “never trust, always verify” and assumes every attempt to access the network or a… Read more on Cisco Blogs

To win against cyber attackers at Super Bowl LVIII, the NFL turns to Cisco XDR

By Steve Nowell

On Sunday, February 11, over 160 million viewers from around the globe watched Super Bowl LVIII, making it one of the most viewed annual sporting events. It is also a good bet that a record number of… Read more on Cisco Blogs

Network Resilience: Accelerating Efforts to Protect Critical Infrastructure

By Matt Fussa

As head of the Cisco Trust Office, Matt Fussa leads a global team that partners with government agencies, regulators, and customers to help shape cybersecurity regulation and manage cyber risk. He is… Read more on Cisco Blogs

Cisco Secure Access Accelerates SSE Innovation with AI, User Experience Monitoring, and Identity Intelligence

By Jeff Scheaffer

In a blog post last December, I said that the business and IT leaders with whom I meet always ask: How can I secure my highly distributed workforce, who gets more varied and decentralized all the… Read more on Cisco Blogs

NIS2 compliance for industrial networks: Are you ready?

By Fabien Maisl

Since the European Union (EU) signed the second version of the Network and Information Security (NIS2) Directive in December 2022, there has been a real frenzy all around Europe about it. NIS2 is now… Read more on Cisco Blogs

NIS2 compliance for industrial networks: Are you ready?

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Smart and Frictionless Zero Trust Access for the Workforce

By Ganesh Umapathy

Providing secure access and a frictionless user experience are typically competing initiatives, but they don’t have to be! Read on to learn why.

In our world today, context changes quickly. We work from home, coffee shops and the office. We use multiple devices to do work. And on the flip side, attackers are becoming increasingly savvy, getting around security controls, such as multi-factor authentication (MFA), to gain unauthorized access.

To quote Wendy Nather, Cisco’s head of Advisory CISOs, “Trust is neither binary nor permanent.” Therefore, security controls must constantly evaluate for change in trust, but without adding unnecessary friction for end-users.

It’s no surprise that the recently published Cybersecurity Readiness Index, a survey of 6,700 cybersecurity leaders from across the globe, revealed that more progress is needed to protect identity, networks and applications.

To address these challenges and to make zero trust access for the workforce easy and frictionless, Cisco Duo announced the general availability of Risk-Based Authentication and enhancements to our enterprise ready Single Sign-On solution at Cisco Live EMEA 2023 earlier this week.

Risk-Based Authentication

Chart showing how Risk-Based Authentication starts by evaluating the risk signal analysis based off of device trust, location, wi-fi fingerprint, and known attack patterns. Based of off this, it decides what kind of authentication is required - including no authentication, Duo push 2FA, verified Duo push, FIDO2 authenticator - before allowing (or blocking) access to corporate resources.

Risk-Based Authentication fulfills the zero trust philosophy of continuous trust verification by assessing the risk level for each access attempt in a manner that is frictionless to users. A higher level of authentication is required only when there is an increase in assessed risk. Duo dynamically detects risk and automatically steps up authentication with two key policies:

1. Risk-Based Factor Selection

The Risk-Based Factor Selection policy detects and analyzes authentication requests and adaptively enforces the most secure factors. It highlights risk and adapts its understanding of normal user behavior. It does this by looking for known attack patterns and anomalies and then allowing only the more secure authentication methods to gain access.

For example, Duo can detect if an organization or employee is being targeted for a push bombing attack or if the authentication device and access device are in two different countries, and Duo responds by automatically elevating the authentication request to a more secure factor such as phishing resistant FIDO2 security keys or Verified Duo Push.

Chart showing how Risk-Based Authentication, when picking up on known attack patterns, will either request a Verified Duo Push or Block access.

2. Risk-Based Remembered Devices

The Risk-Based Remembered Devices policy establishes a trusted device session (like “remember this computer” check box), automatically without asking the user the check a box, during a successful authentication. Once the session is established, Duo looks for anomalous IP addresses or changes to a device throughout the lifetime of the trusted session and requires re-authentication only if it observes a change from historical baselines.

The policy also incorporates a Wi-Fi Fingerprint provided by Duo Device Health app to ensure that IP address changes reflect actual changes in location and not normal usage scenarios such as a user establishing an organizational VPN (Virtual Private Network) session.

Chart showing how Risk-Based Authentication, when using location and wi-fi fingerprint to determine that risk levels are low, won't require authentication.

Duo uses anonymized Wi-Fi Fingerprint to reliably detect whether the access device is in the same location as it was for previous authentications by comparing the Wi-Fi networks that are “visible” to the access device. Further, Duo preserves user privacy and does not track user location or collect any private information. Wi-Fi Fingerprint only lets Duo know if a user has changed location.

Single Sign-On

A typical organization uses over 250 applications. Single sign-on (SSO) solutions help employees access multiple applications with a single set of credentials and allow administrators to enforce granular policies for application access from a single console. Integrated with MFA or passwordless authentication, SSO serves as a critical access management tool for organizations that want to implement zero trust access to corporate applications.

Chart showing how Duo SSO integrates with SAML 2.0 and OIDC applications

Duo SSO is already popular among Duo’s customers. Now, we are adding two new capabilities that cater to modern enterprises:

1. Support for OpenID Connect (OIDC)

An increasing number of applications use OIDC for authentication. It is a modern authentication protocol that lets application and website developers authenticate users without storing and managing other people’s passwords, which is both difficult and risky. To date, Duo SSO has supported SAML web applications. Supporting OIDC allows us to protect more of the applications that our customers are adopting as we all move towards a mobile-first world and integrate stronger and modern authentication methods.

2. On-Demand Password Resets

Password resets are expensive for organizations. It is estimated that 20-50% of IT helpdesk tickets are for password resets. And according to a report by Ponemon Institute, large enterprises experience an average loss of $5.2 million a year in user productivity due to password resets.

When logging into browser-based applications, Duo SSO already allows users to reset passwords when they have expired in the same login workflow. And we heard from our customers that users want the option to proactively reset passwords. Now, Duo SSO offers the convenience to reset their Active Directly passwords before they expire. This capability further increases user productivity and reduces IT helpdesk tickets.

Screenshot of Duo's self-service password reset prompt

Risk-Based Authentication and enhancements to Duo SSO are available now to all paying customers based on their Duo Edition. If you are not yet a Duo customer, sign up for a free 30-day trial and try out these new capabilities today!


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SE Labs 2023 Annual Security Report Names Cisco as Best Next Generation Firewall

By Neville Letzerich

Cisco is honored to be this year’s winner of the Best Next Generation Firewall Award in the SE Labs 2023 Annual Report. This industry recognition validates Cisco’s continuous push towards harmonizing network, workload, and application security across hybrid and multicloud environments. I’m incredibly proud of the Cisco Secure Firewall team and am thankful for our amazing customers who continue to trust Cisco and develop their network security around our capabilities. 

SE Labs, a cybersecurity testing and evaluation firm, provides impartial and independent assessments of various cybersecurity products and solutions. In their 2023 Annual Report, SE Labs states: 

“Our Annual Security Awards recognizes security vendors that notonly do well in our tests, but perform well in the real world withreal customers. These awards are the only in the industry thatrecognize strong lab work combined with practical success.”

SE Labs Testing Methodology 

SE Labs performs tests on behalf of customers seeking independent proof-of-value assistance, as well as security vendors. At Cisco, we use third-party evaluations from multiple sources, including SE Labs, to augment our internal testing and to drive product improvement. 

Winners were determined after months of in-depth testing, based on a combination of continual public testing, private assessments and feedback from corporate clients who use SE Labs to help choose security products and services. The award further validates that our customers can expect superior threat protection and performance with Cisco Secure Firewall. 

SE Labs’ reports use the MITRE ATT&CK framework, employing both common “commodity” malware samples and sophisticated, targeted attacks. Their network security testing uses full attack chains to assess the detection and protection abilities of network devices and combinations of network and endpoint solutions. SE Labs publishes its testing methodologies and is BS EN ISO 9001: 2015 certified for The Provision of IT Security Product Testing. 

As a worldwide leader in networking and security, Cisco is better positioned than any other security vendor to incorporate effective firewall controls into our customers’ infrastructure — anywhere data and applications reside. We offer a comprehensive threat defense with industry-leading Snort 3 IPS to protect users, applications, and data from continuously evolving threats. Our solutions also leverage machine learning and advanced threat intelligence from Cisco Talos, one of the world’s largest commercial threat intelligence teams. 

Cisco Secure Firewall Key Features 

  • Cisco Secure Firewall’s threat-focused architecture enables superior visibility and control of network traffic. Many security practitioners today struggle with a lack of visibility into encrypted traffic, which is why Cisco has developed the differentiated Encrypted Visibility Engine that detects threats in encrypted traffic – with minimal to no decryption. Secure Firewall’s detailed analysis, visibility, and reporting enable organizations to rapidly gain insights into their network traffic, applications, and assets. 
  • Cisco Secure Firewall capabilities provide a unified security posture across the entire network. This is achieved through its tight integration with workload, web, email, and cloud security through our SecureX XDR platform. This integration increases the efficiency of the SecOps team, by accelerating threat investigation and response time. 
  • Designed to be adaptive and highly scalable in dynamic environments, Cisco Secure Firewall is expressly designed to reduce total cost of ownership. It helps teams save time with consistent policy enforcement, helping our customers realize up to a 195% return on investment over three years, as noted in the third-party research we commissioned with Forrester Consulting.   

In the constantly evolving world of cybersecurity, it is important to have access to the latest and most advanced technologies to stay ahead of threats. Whether you are an enterprise, government, healthcare, or a service provider organization, Cisco Secure Firewall provides top-ranked security. 

When you invest in Cisco Secure Firewall, you are investing in award-winning threat defense with capabilities that are built for the real world. Learn more about SE Labs 2023 Annual Report, Cisco Secure Firewall and how you can refresh your firewall. 


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Honoring our ‘Cybersecurity Defender of the Year’ in EMEA

By Neville Letzerich

Congratulations to security advocate Luigi Vassallo, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Technology Officer of Sara Assicurazioni Insurance, an innovative Italian cloud-first insurance firm.

In the last two years, cybersecurity has advanced and can feel like a one-two punch to those who are not prepared. But what does that preparation look like? For Luigi Vassallo, it was more than just tackling cybersecurity defense on his own. Luigi reached out to the Cisco community, offering his knowledge and expertise to help others. This is what stood out to make him our Cybersecurity Defender of the Year in EMEA for the Cisco Global Advocate Awards 2023 EMEA event.

Cisco’s advocacy community, Cisco Insider Advocates, brings our customers together and provides a way for them to make powerful connections, expand their professional and personal networks, and learn from top experts in their field. Luigi personifies the spirit of Insider Advocates by sharing freely within the community.

One may wonder where Luigi finds the time or energy to participate in the community. Luigi finds immeasurable energy by training as a kickboxer and as an avid cyclist. This energy transforms into a philosophy of helping others. As Luigi says, it is about being “the best version of yourself.”

Luigi sums up his approach to cybersecurity this way: “Cybersecurity for me is like boxing: you never know when your opponent will attack, but you have to know in advance how to respond and what you can do.”

Luigi has been featured in a profile piece, as well as a video, where he speaks about his personal goals, as well as his goals for making Sara Assicurazioni as secure as possible with Cisco’s products. Part of his passion comes from being comfortable with the uncertainty of cybersecurity, coupled with the confidence that Cisco is there to help his organization. I’m honored that Sara Assicurazioni has joined forces with Cisco Secure to confidently define zero-trust and XDR strategies that increase security resilience and drive better customer outcomes for them.

When notified of the award, Luigi’s humility and dedication to the community was evident, as he shared, “I feel happy and surprised about this award, as I didn’t expect to win because there were so many good advocates who were nominated with me. I want to thank Cisco for awarding me the Cybersecurity Defender of the Year honor.”

Luigi also credits the Cisco Insider Advocacy program for its ability to connect and grow the cybersecurity community, adding:

“This is also what makes Cisco different from other security vendors; the capacity to recognize the innovation and resilience of its customers. I feel that we are part of the same movement, and we are together in the same fight against cybercriminals. To all other nominees, I want to say thank you for your hard work in cybersecurity and in sharing your good practices with me in the Cisco Insider Advocacy community and now at Cisco Live EMEA.”

We congratulate Luigi, not only for keeping his guard up, but for helping others to do the same by being part of the Cisco Insider Advocacy community.

The Cisco Global Advocate Awards celebrates Cisco’s passionate and innovative customer advocates who go above and beyond in demonstrating thought leadership and supporting Cisco through success stories, speaking engagements, product reviews, and so much more.

We’re planning three exclusive events that will coincide with Cisco Live conferences in Amsterdam, Las Vegas, and Melbourne in 2023. We hope you’ll join us as we recognize our customer advocates by region for actively supporting Cisco. You won’t want to miss it.

To learn more, and to become a member, please visit us here.


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All in for Security: Cisco Secure at Cisco Live EMEA 2023

By Tom Gillis

Cisco Live is the premier destination for Cisco customers and partners to gain knowledge and build community. Our teams work hard to deliver education and inspiration, ignite creativity, deliver practical know-how, and accelerate the connections that fuel your digital future.

The Cisco Secure team is excited to share our expertise to help power the strategies – and safety – of your organization.

If it’s connected, it’s protected

Executive Q&A Panel at Cisco Live EMEA

In 2023, the threat landscape will evolve to one that sees attacks on every surface, from criminals who are opportunistic, yet laser-focused on their goal. The attacks themselves could be email-borne, directly targeted, socially based, or a mix of all three.

Criminals will target vulnerabilities, operational deficiencies, suppliers, and business partners, as a means of accomplishing their goals. They will use the target’s own environment and take advantage of existing people and technology problems, including alert fatigue and staffing shortages.

To face this reality and address the needs of organizations both large and small, Cisco will continue to focus on education and innovation in the areas of preventing insider threats, providing consistent and informed alerts, enabling actionable intelligence, and delivering solutions to implement a zero-trust security framework.

As the organization that pioneered networking, we are driven to secure every connection, providing end-to-end protection for users and devices across multiple clouds and networks with a seamless experience.

Innovating to enable a more resilient organization

As our vision for the integrated Cisco Security Cloud evolves, we’re continuing to challenge existing models and unify security and networking, with foundational elements that execute on this vision. From verified push – which protects organizations from MFA-focused phishing attacks – to Wi-Fi Fingerprint, and Remembered Devices, the performance enhancements with Enterprise Single Sign-on and Cisco+ Secure Connect, we continue to meet our customers where they are, offering true zero trust, with frictionless experiences for the hybrid workforce.

We’re excited to celebrate the following innovations and updates announced at Cisco Live EMEA:

Risk-Based Authentication

Finding the balance between usability and security is now easier than ever. With Risk-Based Authentication, users have the access they need, secured by real-time contextual signals. Organizations can increase security efficacy by dynamically adjusting authentication ​requirements based on risk levels and by enabling safer end-user behavior. Risk-based authentication now includes wi-fi fingerprint, remembered device, and verified push features, which work together to reduce risk while preserving user experience ​by only requesting additional interaction for suspicious logins or a change in risk.

Single Sign-On

Our Enterprise Ready Single Sign-on expands Duo SSO with three new capabilities to easily connect single sign-on to modern apps and empower end users. By adding major protocol support, improved admin tooling, and SSO on demand password resets, organizations enable easier and more secure access from anywhere.

Cisco+ Secure Connect

Cisco SD-WAN customers can now enjoy all the benefits of a turnkey, single-vendor SASE solution that brings together industry-leading networking with security:​ Cisco+ Secure Connect. This new integration gives Cisco SD-WAN (powered by Viptela) customers fast, secure private application and internet access, enabling them to deliver a secure experience, anywhere work happens.

Application Security

We are also announcing the introduction of industry-first Business Risk Observability, an enhancement of our Full-Stack Observability application security solution. Available through Cisco Secure Application, which is integrated into Cisco AppDynamics, it provides a business risk scoring solution which brings together Kenna Risk Meter score distribution and Business Transactions from Cisco AppDynamics and integrates with Panoptica for API security and Talos for threat intelligence.

Cybersecurity Readiness Index report

The initial findings from our first Cybersecurity Readiness Index reveal that while technology to devices is widely adopted, more progress is needed to protect identity, networks and applications. The report assessed the preparedness of companies around the world to safeguard against cyber threats in the current environment. See our key findings and security readiness trends, with the full report launching in the coming weeks.

As we navigate 2023, we will continue to face uncertainties and challenges. We are fully committed to our customers and partners in the journey to provide security resilience, supporting a frictionless user experience, and solutions threat intelligence that work to continually minimize risk.

 


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The Power of Relationships: Executive Buy-In and Security Culture for Bolstering Resilience

By J. Wolfgang Goerlich

“Where do we start?”

This is the question every CISO asks about every new program. In fact, I ask and answer that question many times a month. There’s a reason for this, of course. A strong start to any project builds momentum, reassures stakeholders, and sets the stage for what’s to come. Security resilience initiatives are no different. Security resilience is the ability to anticipate and respond to unpredictable threats or changes, and then emerge stronger. It’s hard to imagine a more vital undertaking for CISOs. And as with all initiatives, CISOs always want to know where to begin.

They’re likely to find some valuable starting points in the Security Outcomes Report, Volume 3: Achieving Security Resilience, the latest in a series of reports released by Cisco and reflecting the viewpoints of 4,700 IT and security professionals from 26 countries. The report identifies seven success factors CISOs can pursue to improve outcomes within their own enterprise security resilience programs, placing a high priority on security resilience. The seven success factors range in nature from the architectural—simplifying your hybrid IT environment, maximizing zero trust adoption—to more relationship-focused factors.

It’s the latter that caught my eye.

Seven success factors for resilience:

  1. Establish executive support
  2. Cultivate a culture of security
  3. Hold resources in reserve
  4. Simplify hybrid cloud environments
  5. Maximize zero trust adoption
  6. Extend detection and response capabilities
  7. Take security to the edge

Solid relationships enable security resilience

It shouldn’t surprise any CISO that the first two success factors are built around relationships. These factors zero in on relationships with company leadership (as measured by establishing executive support) and relationships with people across the organization (as measured by cultivating a culture of security). Experienced CISOs know that these factors can make or break security initiatives.

Given the objective of security resilience is to withstand threats and come back even stronger, it’s clear that resilience must exist before, during, and after a cybersecurity incident. This has repercussions on the executive level and throughout the business. Lack of executive support can lead to detection, response, and recovery capabilities that are chronically underfunded. This leaves CISOs at a disadvantage when security incidents do inevitably happen and panic strikes the C-suite. What’s more, CISOs who lack strong executive relationships may also find themselves struggling to oversee incident management and coordinate communications. And afterward? Remediating and improving the security posture, which often impacts multiple parts of the organization beyond IT and often requires significant investment, stalls without a necessary lift from leadership.

The security report, which scores resilience levels across a series of criteria, finds that organizations reporting a strong backing from leadership have resilience scores that are 39% higher when compared to organizations reporting weak support. “Bridges to the C-suite are built upon a solid understanding of how the business works and how security initiatives can make it work even better,” notes the report. “Support goes both ways in any relationship, after all.”

In addition to keeping the program aligned, CISOs must keep in communication with their peers and superiors. Those who share only transactional relationships within the C-Suite find their interactions limited to status updates and budget requests. Transformational relationships, however, involve more frequent and deeper communication and interactions, which cover a broader set of topics than submitting the latest budget ask. They are, in other words, more valuable.

A security culture can create willing resilience partners

Of course, executive support is just one crucial factor for success. Resilience programs need broad support from throughout the organization, not just at the top. Every time an employee picks up a mouse or accesses an app from their mobile phone, they make a choice to either strengthen or lessen the organization’s security posture. Every time an improvement is necessary following a security event, cultural buy-in determines whether this new request from security is implemented or circumvented.

According to the report, organizations that successfully foster a culture of security can see a 46% increase in resilience compared to those who lack such a culture. Much like aligning a program with the business direction furthers leadership buy-in, CISOs need to align security policy with the functional direction of the business—but in a way that helps employees see security measures as protecting not just corporate data and IT assets but also their own future. When employees aren’t on board or see security measures as IT concerns with no relation to them, resilience suffers. “Frequent security policy violations and workarounds,” notes the report, “are evidence of poor security culture.” By viewing policy exceptions as feedback, and investigating these from the perspective of identifying and correcting misalignment, security leaders can enroll employees as the willing participants in the solution—rather than contributors to the problem.

Security leaders know, by and large, what we need to do to secure our organizations. We have frameworks with pages of controls. We have risk registers with lists of action items. Where we often struggle is translating this knowledge into action. To do that, we must see our efforts within the strategic context of executive leaders and the tactical reality of the line managers in our organization. We must personalize and prioritize our efforts around what matters to the people we collaborate with. It is through engaging people that our security programs become human-centric and, in turn, become more resilient.

Where do we start? With relationships. Good relationships lead to good security programs, and good security programs lead to great relationships. And all of these contribute to security resilience.

Download the Security Outcomes Report, Vol. 3: Achieving Security Resilience today.

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Cisco secures IoT, keeping security closer to networking

By Vibhuti Garg

The use of unmanaged and IoT devices in enterprises is growing exponentially, and will account for 55.7 billion connected devices by the end of 2025. A critical concern is deploying IoT devices without requisite security controls. 

While these numbers are numbing, their reality is undeniable. 90% of customers believe digitization has accelerated the importance placed upon security. The World Economic Forum now lists cybersecurity failure as a critical threat, and estimates a gap of more than 3 million security experts worldwide, hindering secure deployments at scale. Furthermore, 83% of IoT-based transactions happen over plaintext channels and not SSL, making them especially risky. 

Cisco’s solution  

Securing an IoT device can be achieved either through securing the IoT device itself, or hardening the network it accesses. Securing devices can be cumbersome, requiring complex manufacturing partnerships and increasing unit prices, thereby reducing adoption. On the other hand, securing the network is always desirable as it helps secure access, encrypt traffic, and ease management.  

Being a leader in both security and networking, Cisco continues to bring security closer to networking, providing the network with built-in security, and enabling the network to act both as sensor and as an enforcer. The convergence of security and networking leverages the network’s intelligence and visibility to enable more-informed decisions on policy and threats. 

Cisco uniquely integrates security and networking, for instance we recently integrated Cisco Secure Firewall to operate on Cisco Catalyst 9000 Series switches. Additionally, Secure Firewall can be deployed in a containerized form, on-premises and in clouds. Cisco Secure Firewall classifies traffic and protects applications while stopping exploitation of vulnerable systems. Additionally, we offer Identity Services Engine with AI Endpoint Analytics to passively identify IoT devices and apply segmentation policies. Furthermore, Cisco offers management flexibility by integrating with Cisco Defense Orchestrator and DNA Center and with existing customer tools like SIEMs and XDRs. 

Let’s look at three use cases where the addition of Secure Firewall capability on Catalyst 9000 Series switches solves real world problems: 

Use case 1: Securing the Smart Building: This solution is ideal to secure smart buildings, converging various IoT systems into a single IT-managed network infrastructure. Smart buildings lower the operational and energy costs. Smarter building systems, however, pose serious security risks as these include so many unmanaged devices such as window shades, lighting, tailored HVAC, and more. One of the methods to secure smart buildings is to control access to avoid manipulation of sensors. Such control is attained with a networking switch with enhanced firewall capability. The firewall ensures granular segmentation, directing policies for traffic generated out of IoT devices, providing access to the right users. This integration also brings security closer to endpoints, making policy orchestration simpler. 

Use Case 2: Centrally manage isolated IoT network clusters: IoT devices which communicate with each other in the same subnet typically cannot be routed, which is a challenge. By default, most IoT networks are configured in the same subnet, making it difficult to manage them centrally. Administrators are forced to physically connect to the IoT network to manage and collect telemetry. Furthermore, IoT vendors often charge hefty amounts to update IP addresses of devices. Cisco Secure Firewall, hosted on the Catalyst switch, solves this problem and not only inspects traffic from the IoT network but also translates duplicate IoT IP addresses to unique global IP addresses using NAT for centralized management of isolated IoT networks.  

Use Case 3: Securely encrypt IoT traffic passing through a shared IT network: At airports, for example, multiple vendors manage unique systems such as baggage, air quality, biometric access control, etc, which share a common network. IoT traffic is usually in plain text, making it susceptible to packet sniffing, eavesdropping, man-in-the-middle attacks, and other such exploits. The IPSec capability on Cisco Secure Firewall encrypts IoT traffic, securing data transfer and reducing risk.  

Cisco’s IoT initiatives join the once disconnected worlds of IT and IoT, unifying networking and security. For further details refer to the At-A Glance and see how and an Australian oil company, Ampol, fortified its retail IoT with Cisco Secure! 


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