Cisco announces new cloud security solutions for IoT era

Cisco has announced a line-up of new services and cloud-based security solutions capable of detecting threats before they compromise systems. And that could be good news for IoT security.

These new technologies have been built with the firm’s threat-centric security architecture and are able to help customers reduce their detection timing to less than 17 hours.

In some cases, detecting complex security threats can take up to 100 days, which Cisco says is the typical industry standard. The solutions mean users are better placed to see the danger – and react to it.

An integrated approach

With the digital world bringing together more users, devices and applications, the threats are constantly increasing. According to Cisco, companies are responding to this by deploying up to 70 different security products.

Cisco’s new security products are integrated and aim to make dealing with security challenges simple for businesses. Its solutions are integrated into key connection points to ensure the network, access points and endpoints are protected.

The Cisco products

Cisco has announced three new technologies for its Digital Network Architecture (DNA) solution to enable network engineers, application developers, channel partners, and IT customers to embed improved and simplified security within their network infrastructure layer.

These new technologies are Umbrella Branch, Stealthwatch Learning Network License, and Meraki MX Security Appliances with Advanced Malware Protection (AMP) and Threat Grid.

The firm says that DNA helps IT to address today’s demand for digital business (through mobility, cloud, analytics and the IoT) by moving networks from a hardware-centric approach to a software-driven approach, supported by cloud technology and machine-learning.

Cisco Umbrella Roaming is one of the new products. It’s a centralised, cloud-delivered solution for removing off-network blind spots and protecting employees wherever they are. It’s embedded as a module with the company’s VPN AnyConnect.

Accompanying it is Umbrella Branch, which gives businesses control over their guest Wi-Fi by filtering users. Meanwhile, Cisco Defence Orchestrator will let users manage infrastructure and policies across thousands of devices and in distributed locations. It can be used with multiple Cisco products.

There’s also cloud-managed platform for managing unified threats. The latter is being targeted at larger enterprises with multiple branch offices. It’ll provide malware protection that checks files for threats.

Action needed to stop attacks

Jeff Reed, senior vice president of networking infrastructure and solutions at Cisco, said: “Organizations need to address the expanding threat landscape across mobility and cloud, while facing increasingly sophisticated security attacks.

“With DNA, Cisco is reinventing how we secure networks for the digital era by embedding advanced security capabilities into a single network architecture.

“But technology alone isn’t enough. We are also preparing IT professionals with new skills, training network-savvy developers and helping customers navigate the journey to digital-ready networks.”

Digital introduces challenges

David Goeckeler, senior vice president and general manager at Cisco Systems, added: “Digital business is the most impactful disruption to security in the history of the technology industry.

“As a result, companies are struggling to manage the security challenges from both large, distributed environments and the active adversaries aggressively targeting these expansive attack surfaces every day.

“Our customers are finding that they need a more integrated approach to security, and Cisco provides them with a threat-centric security architecture that is much more effective in a digital world.”