December 5, 2023 at 11:38PM
Jeetu Patel of Cisco predicts AI will revolutionize infosec, shifting focus from defense to predicting attacks, using AI tools for analysis and automated responses. Cisco aims to streamline security management by centralizing alerts and applying AI for threat prediction, though specialized vendors may need to adapt. Cisco introduces an AI Assistant for Firewall Policy and encryption traffic malware detection, with a pricing model yet to be determined as usage patterns are assessed.
Meeting Takeaways:
1. Jeetu Patel of Cisco highlighted the future role of AI in transforming the information security (infosec) landscape, emphasizing that such AI assistance will be a paid feature.
2. At Cisco Live in Melbourne, Patel emphasized the common challenge for defenders in cybersecurity: they must succeed every time, whereas attackers only need to succeed once.
3. Cisco’s strategy involves moving from defence and response to prediction, employing AI tools to anticipate attacker behaviour and automate responses.
4. Cisco’s proposed solution aims to consolidate and simplify the current complexity in cybersecurity management, where users juggle multiple security tools.
5. Cisco is developing a platform to integrate and analyze alerts from various products using AI. Only a few major companies, including Microsoft and Palo Networks, are expected to be capable of similar achievements.
6. Specialists in security products will likely adapt by integrating their outputs into Cisco’s broader cyber-AI platform, which aims to reduce the management burden on IT professionals.
7. Cisco introduced an AI Assistant for Firewall Policy that helps manage firewall rules through a natural language interface, available in preview.
8. The AI Assistant can identify duplicate or sub-optimal firewall policies and allows for administrative adjustments.
9. Cisco has implemented AI to detect malware activity within encrypted traffic in the latest version of the Secure Firewall OS (7.4.1).
10. Patel was clear that while a certain level of AI will be included in Cisco’s suite, the additional compute services for generative AI will be monetized, though pricing is not yet determined due to the need for more data on usage patterns.
11. Cisco is aiming for broad usage and adoption of AI in cybersecurity, indicating that the cost for these services will not be prohibitive, but specifics on monetization will come as user behavior is studied and understood.