Cisco strengthens security measures to guard hybrid workforce and multi-cloud infrastructure

Cisco customers can now access new risk-based capabilities across Cisco’s security portfolio to better protect hybrid work and multi-cloud environments. These advancements demonstrate progress towards realizing the full vision of the Cisco Security Cloud which will protect the integrity of an organization’s entire IT ecosystem.

Jeetu Patel, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Security and Collaboration at Cisco said “Security products should provide a frictionless user experience while minimizing risk for the organization.”

Patel added “At the same time, organizations need to look at their security resilience holistically. This is why Cisco is building an end-to-end portfolio of security solutions and integrating them into a single platform. We’re excited to share the latest innovations across zero trust, application security, and secure connectivity as we build towards our vision.”

Additionally, Cisco unveiled the preliminary results of the first-ever Cybersecurity Readiness Index, which focused on the five fundamental components of security protection: identities, devices, networks, applications, and data. Although many people already use technology to safeguard their devices, more development is still required to protect identities, networks, and apps.

Zero Trust

Respondents ranked identity and device management as two of the three top cybersecurity threats. Alongside the widespread adoption of technology like multi-factor authentication (MFA), criminals are increasingly targeting solutions protecting users and devices.

Despite the high adoption rate of device protection, there remains much to be done in terms of identity security. Companies around the world show the highest level of preparedness in securing devices, with 31% classified as “mature” and 13% as “progressive.” However, significant improvement is necessary for the area of identity verification, with only 20% of organizations in the “mature” category, and the majority falling into either the “beginner” (20%) or “formative” (38%) stages.

Not only are these attacks becoming more frequent and current risk-based signals are failing, but authentication controls are also inflexible, creating too much friction. Security gets in the way, creating usability issues. Several features of Duo Risk-Based Authentication designed to reduce user friction and increase security efficacy in a hybrid work world are now available:

• Users can now authenticate less often in trusted situations without compromising privacy. Remembered Devices and patent-pending Wi-Fi Fingerprints allow users to stay logged in when using familiar applications, devices and networks – without collecting personal or private location information.
• Shield yourself from authentication phishing attacks with the Verified Push feature. In high-risk situations where Duo recognizes activity consistent with known attack methods, it requires the user to enter a code instead of simply confirming with a button press.
• Expanded Single Sign On (SSO) capabilities that cater to modern enterprises and improve productivity by notifying and enabling users to reset their passwords before they expire.

Application Security

According to the Cybersecurity Readiness Index, companies urgently need to act on the security posture of their applications and related workloads. Only 12% are in a state of mature application-security readiness, while 65% are in the early or formative stages. Cisco’s application strategy aims to ensure greater resilience against the growing attack surface of the experience economy where applications are no longer an adjunct, but rather they are the business itself.

Cisco has announced the launch of Business Risk Observability, an industry-first improvement to its Full-Stack Observability application security solution, as a significant step forward in its applications strategy. It offers a business risk-scoring solution through Cisco Secure Application, which is integrated into Cisco AppDynamics. It combines the Kenna Risk Meter score distribution with Cisco AppDynamics’ Business Transactions, and it also integrates with Panoptica for API security and Talos for threat intelligence.

Secure Connectivity

The complexity of IT and managing a dispersed workforce has resulted in increased operational expenses and introduced threats to the organization. The majority of enterprise networks are unable to handle the shift in traffic patterns caused by SaaS and remote work. Only 19% of businesses are considered advanced in terms of safeguarding their network, while over 50% are still in the early stages of development.

To provide secure access to anything from anywhere – organizations are increasingly adopting Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) architectures. Cisco is thrilled to announce that Cisco+ Secure Connect, the industry’s first and leading unified single-vendor SASE solution, is extending support to Cisco SD-WAN powered by Viptela. Cisco+ Secure Connect uniquely converges Cisco SD-WAN fabrics and Cisco’s leading cloud security services to provide secure access to anything from anywhere.