Cisco has unveiled significant security innovations at RSA Conference 2025 to tackle the challenges of the AI era. The company’s 2025 Cybersecurity Readiness Index reveals that 86% of organizations experienced AI-related security incidents in the past year, underscoring the urgent need for advanced security measures.
Key Security Enhancements
Cisco has introduced several major security enhancements, including:
- Enhanced Cisco XDR with AI-powered features such as Instant Attack Verification, automated XDR Forensics, and XDR Storyboard for faster threat detection and response
- Integration with Splunk Security through Enterprise Security 8.1 and SOAR 6.4 to improve threat detection capabilities
- Deepened partnership with ServiceNow for comprehensive AI risk management and governance
- Launch of Foundation AI team, introducing the first open-source reasoning model for security applications
- New AI Supply Chain Risk Management controls to secure AI application artifacts
- Enhanced Industrial IoT Security Solutions with improvements in Cisco Industrial Threat Defense
Enhanced Threat Detection and Response
The enhanced Cisco XDR features agentic AI to correlate telemetry across multiple security domains, providing decisive AI-powered responses to stop attacks faster. The Instant Attack Verification feature automatically creates and executes tailored investigation plans, while automated XDR Forensics offers deeper endpoint visibility. The XDR Storyboard visualization tool helps security teams understand complex attack patterns in seconds.
Strategic Partnerships and Innovations
Cisco has deepened its partnership with ServiceNow to integrate Cisco AI Defense with ServiceNow SecOps, providing holistic AI risk management and governance capabilities. The newly launched Foundation AI team has released the first open-source reasoning model for security applications, along with novel benchmarks and tools for cybersecurity model evaluation.
Securing AI Supply Chain
Cisco has introduced new AI Supply Chain Risk Management controls to help enterprises secure AI application artifacts. These controls include identifying and blocking malicious AI model files, detecting risky open-source software licenses, and enforcing policies against AI models from prohibited suppliers.
Industrial IoT Security Advancements
The company has enhanced its Industrial IoT security solutions by integrating Cisco Cyber Vision with vulnerability management tools, firewalls, and Splunk OT Security. This unified approach helps detect threats across IT and OT domains, securing critical infrastructure and industrial networks.
These innovations demonstrate Cisco’s commitment to developing comprehensive security solutions for the AI era, addressing both immediate enterprise needs and contributing to broader security ecosystem advancement.
