My First 100 Days At Cisco – Reinventing Cybersecurity

When I joined Cisco 100 days ago, I thought it was just a networking company. Now I realise it’s an AI company. One with a very real stake in shaping the future of cybersecurity. That shift came into focus when I was introduced to Foundation-sec-8b. What looked like just another model on the surface turned out to be something entirely different. It’s purpose-built, operationally impactful, and designed to make threat response faster, smarter, and far more accessible.

Foundation-sec-8b is an 8-billion-parameter model trained specifically for cybersecurity. It not only detects threats, it explains them. By pulling context directly from logs, it connects the dots across your environment and suggests the best next step. And it does all of that in plain language, so the people responsible for acting can understand what’s happening without having to wade through a maze of technical noise.

Another standout was how accessible it is. This isn’t some black-box system buried in complexity or gated behind a specialist team. It’s open-weight and designed to be deployed where you need it – whether that’s in the cloud, on-prem, or at the edge. That kind of flexibility is rare in this space, and it’s exactly what many security teams (especially lean ones) have been waiting for.

Foundation-sec-8b has the power to save security professionals hours digging through logs, allowing them to detect, investigate, and respond in a fraction of the time. I’ve already seen security pros running this model locally on their macbooks. It turns long investigation cycles into quick, actionable insights – accelerating response, enabling automation, and improving collaboration across IT, SecOps, and compliance. That kind of speed and clarity is a game-changer, particularly in environments where every minute, and every resource, counts.

And it’s not just standalone AI. It’s designed to work across Cisco’s broader security stack, so insights don’t live in isolation, they fuel your policies, workflows, and controls. This kind of integration matters because it turns intelligence into action, instantly.

Of all the moments that stood out in my first 100 days, this was one that made me stop and think – this could actually change how teams secure their environments moving forward. And I don’t say that lightly.

There’s more I’m learning every day, and more I’ll be sharing in future posts. In the meantime, I’d love to hear other perspectives on how AI is transforming security in the real world. This space is moving fast, and no single view captures it all.