Good morning, AI enthusiasts. In case you missed it, Cisco just announced AI Defense — a brand new solution that goals to turn out to be the worldwide standard for AI security.
In a future where workforces will include AI employees — including apps, agents, robots and humanoids, understanding AI security is important for each knowledge employee and business.
So we partnered with Cisco and Jeetu Patel, Executive Vice President and CPO at Cisco, for an exclusive Q&A on how AI Defense is tackling this challenge.
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In today’s AI rundown:
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Cisco’s AI Defense: A brand new era for enterprise security
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AI Defense’s two-fold data strategy for sensitive info
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Protection at scale: Network-level security integration
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The long run of multi-model, multi-cloud AI security
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Why AI-forward is the one way forward
EXCLUSIVE Q&A JEETU PATEL
ANNOUNCEMENT
Image credits: Kiki Wu / The Rundown
The Rundown: Cisco announced AI Defense, a brand new security solution designed to guard AI systems in a future where workforces will expand to incorporate AI employees — including apps, agents, robots, and humanoids.
Cheung: “AI security is dominating headlines right away. But for our readers who could also be recent to the subject, are you able to explain in easy terms what AI Defense is and why this announcement is a giant deal?”
Patel: “The truth is that there might be two sorts of corporations in the long run: those that are leading with AI and people which are irrelevant. Every company might be using – if not developing – hundreds of AI applications, and the rapid pace of AI innovation is outperforming major security and protection concerns.”
Patel added: “We developed AI Defense to guard each the event and use of AI applications. Overall, AI Defense safeguards against the misuse of AI tools, data leakage and increasingly sophisticated threats. We’re taking a radical approach to deal with the challenges that existing security solutions aren’t equipped to handle.”
Why it matters: Enterprises are racing to adopt AI, and resulting from the rapid pace of the space, traditional security solutions are falling behind. Cisco goals to make AI Defense the worldwide standard for AI security within the increasingly AI-powered world.
STRATEGY
Image credits: Kiki Wu / The Rundown
The Rundown: Cisco’s AI Defense combines two protections: monitoring third-party AI app usage and protecting sensitive data in custom AI development — addressing the growing risks of knowledge leakage and unauthorized access.
Cheung: “Plenty of enterprises at the moment are training their very own AI models on sensitive data. What specific protections does AI Defense offer that weren’t possible before?”
Patel: “Enterprises are training their models on proprietary data and connecting backend data sources to create more useful AI applications. This expands the danger surface tremendously; any data connected to your AI application is now subject to leakage, poisoning, or exfiltration.”
Patel added: “AI Defense takes a two-fold approach. First, it gives security teams visibility into third-party AI application usage, letting them implement policies to limit data sharing and restrict access to high-risk solutions.”
Patel added: “For enterprises developing and deploying their very own AI applications, AI Defense examines user inputs and model outputs to dam sensitive data leakage in real-time. This covers scenarios like an adversary attempting to extract PII or an AI application inadvertently exposing snippets of proprietary source code, for instance.”
Why it matters: As enterprises adopt each third-party and custom AI solutions, the danger of knowledge leakage grows exponentially. AI Defense’s two-fold approach allows organizations to innovate faster with AI while keeping their sensitive data secure. Patel goes into more depth on this strategy in his blog post.
PROTECTION
Image credits: Kiki Wu / The Rundown
The Rundown: Unlike traditional security solutions, Cisco’s AI Defense is integrated directly into network infrastructure, providing consistent controls and protection at scale across all AI apps.
Cheung: “You mentioned AI Defense is ‘fused into the material of the network’ – this sounds fascinating. Are you able to break down what this implies in practical terms and why it matters?”
Patel: “Simply put, because of this AI Defense is deeply integrated into the general network infrastructure. By doing security on the network layer, AI Defense provides consistent controls for AI applications across the business.”
Patel added: “This removes a large burden in your AI developers. They might otherwise spend tremendous time and resources attempting to secure individual applications in accordance with broader security policies.”
Patel added: “This approach also leverages Cisco’s existing network mesh to supply unparalleled visibility and control over AI traffic on our customers’ networks. As security fuses further into the network and cloud with Hypershield, the power of AI Defense to discover and secure east-west AI-related traffic will grow exponentially.”
Why it matters: By integrating security on the network level, Cisco is changing how enterprises protect AI applications. With hundreds of distributed enforcement points across clouds and servers, this approach improves security while freeing developers from application-by-application implementation.
INTO THE FUTURE
Image credits: Kiki Wu / The Rundown
The Rundown: As enterprises move right into a multi-model, multi-cloud world, Cisco is preparing AI Defense to tackle the growing complexity of AI security — where vulnerabilities can exist at each model and application levels.
Cheung: “We have seen AI evolve incredibly fast over the past couple years. How do you see AI Defense evolving to handle increasingly sophisticated threats, especially as AI agents turn out to be more prevalent?”
Patel: “You are right, we’re already in a multi-model, multi-cloud world, and 2025 might be the yr where corporations begin to deploy AI applications in a giant way. The complexity is growing day-after-day, and so is the danger.”
Patel added: “This ‘complexity’ is a tough computer science problem to unravel, since AI apps are built and operate otherwise. Ownership is fractured, meaning vulnerabilities might be at model or app level, and responsibility lives with different people – similar to security practitioners, developers, users, vendors, and so forth.”
Why it matters: AI applications have gotten increasingly complex, and security challenges will proceed to evolve. Cisco’s AI Defense goals to take out the complexity by unifying security across models, applications, and stakeholders.
TRANSFORMATION
Image credits: Kiki Wu / The Rundown
The Rundown: Jeetu Patel believes that corporations who aren’t AI-forward will now not be relevant in the long run. With AI Defense, Cisco goals to remove the largest barrier to adoption on the enterprise level — safety and security concerns.
Cheung: “As we enter this recent era of AI adoption, how do you’re thinking that AI Defense will change the way in which enterprises construct and deploy AI applications?”
Patel: “Firms who aren’t AI-forward will now not be relevant. Every application might be an AI application, and each company might be using tons of—if not hundreds—of those apps day-after-day.”
Patel added: “Our Cisco Readiness Index confirmed that one in every of the largest roadblocks to AI adoption is concerns around safety and security. We built Cisco AI Defense specifically to deal with these concerns, and to permit enterprises to develop, deploy, and use AI applications with confidence.”
Why it matters: Security concerns are the largest barrier stopping enterprises from becoming AI-forward. Cisco’s AI Defense removes this roadblock, allowing corporations to confidently construct and deploy more AI applications — ultimately benefiting the tip users who can depend on these tools for the long run of AI-enabled work.
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