Cisco today announced new additions to its portfolio that bolster the network security infrastructure and the delivery of cloud security services, thereby enabling businesses to collaborate with greater confidence even as their workforce and partners become increasingly mobile and interactive.
The announcement comes at a time when collaboration and mobility technologies are redefining how, when and where business gets done. As companies continue to extend connectivity outside their office walls, businesses must focus on new ways to protect its data and communications.
“Essentially, what we’re doing is taking the types of abilities you see in SIM in the enterprise and boarding it into the cloud,” said Ambika Gadre, director of product management at Cisco’s Security Technology business unit. Cisco will use the capability to detect and eliminate threats in the cloud on behalf of its services customers, Gadre said.
While today’s business applications, social media, software-as-a-service and wireless technologies gain widespread adoption and lead to new interactive business models, those same technologies and business models are jeopardized by threats that are just as novel and agile.
The Cisco security offerings incorporate new threat defense products and services that will help customers protect against attacks, malware and botnets, no matter where they connect and communicate.
New Product Offerings:
Cisco Security Cloud Services: This unique approach for delivering security as a service ties together services from multiple networks and applications, bringing together the cloud and the enterprise network for highly secure collaborative communications. The Cisco Security Cloud supports the recently announced Cisco IronPort(R) Hosted Email Security Services as well as Global Correlation, a powerful new technique that powers security services integrated into Cisco’s broad range of security offerings.
Cisco IPS Sensor Software Version 7.0: Global Correlation for intrusion prevention system (IPS) harnesses the power of Cisco Security Intelligence Operations, a powerful threat-defense ecosystem, to achieve unprecedented threat-protection efficacy. Cisco turns global threat data captured from a massive footprint of security devices into dynamic updates and actionable intelligence, such as “reputation” scores, and pushes that intelligence out to a business’s network security infrastructure for protective action.
Cisco ASA 5500 Series 8.2 Software: This offering in the Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances family is designed to enhance end-to-end security for offices of all sizes, improving threat mitigation and enabling companies to more securely connect, communicate and conduct business.
With a new Botnet Traffic Filter for identifying infected clients, IPS availability for small offices, and increased clientless remote-access capabilities, Cisco now offers support for the widest range of platforms, operating systems and endpoints in the industry.
Cisco ASA Botnet Traffic Filter: The new Botnet Traffic Filter enables Cisco ASA 5500 Series appliances to more accurately identify infected clients using information from Cisco Security Intelligence Operations: – more than 1,000 threat-collection servers that receive information from more than 700,000 sensors and 500 third-party feeds.
Cisco Remote Access and VPN Enhancements: Cisco ASA Software Release 8.2 expands remote access capabilities with next-generation tunneling and session persistence through Cisco AnyConnect Essentials for corporate and mobile users, thus covering the widest range of platforms, operating systems, and endpoints in the industry.
Cisco SAFE: A security reference architecture that provides prescriptive validated design guides to help organizations plan, design and deploy security solutions across the network, such as campus offices, the Internet edge, branches and data centers. These blueprints provide defense-in-depth guidance and best practices for securing data and transactions as they traverse the network.
Cisco Information Technology Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance (IT GRC) Security Assessment Services: These services help organizations establish a single program for reducing information security risk and the cost of compliance, by aligning business and technology strategies.
According to Tom Gillis, vice president and general manager, Security Technology business unit, Cisco, “In today’s changing world, businesses require a security strategy that accounts for the physical, virtual, mobile and global aspects of their business.”
“Our vision for security is based on a balance of protection and enablement, which integrates security from the network through to the endpoint and the user. Security needs to capture the latest threat intelligence to mitigate shifting threats. This combination enables businesses to collaborate with greater confidence when engaging employees, partners and customers,” Gillis added.
