Highlights of Effective Security from Cisco Live Las Vegas

I’m still excited after Cisco Live Las Vegas. Cisco Security was everywhere. Our partners were enthused, our customers were engaged, and I couldn’t be more proud of our team and how we continue to deliver simpler, more effective security. I love Cisco Live. This event is unlike any other gathering and especially fun for our product and service teams as we unveil meaningful innovations for customers and solution providers.

In case you missed it, here are just three of the highlights:

1.    John Stewart, Cisco Chief Security Officer, keynote. This presentation impressed me on a variety of fronts.

The intro video, based on real-life situations Cisco has worked on, showed how easy it is to hack into a network through an IoT vulnerability (in this case a thermostat!), launch a ransomware attack and bring an enterprise to its knees.

https://youtu.be/iSE6lFf_0EM

John quickly followed up with some powerful stats based on Cisco research, including:

Over 70% of execs Cisco interviewed said that the security risks of IoT are slowing them down and almost 2 out of 5 execs have stopped projects due to security.

30 million NEW devices connect to the Internet every week.

Through the efforts of Talos, our threat intelligence team, Cisco analyzes 10 terabytes of data a day, finding and protecting against 2 million pieces of new malware per day, and blocking 20 billion problems each day — about three for every single person on earth.

John explained how the need for visibility to see more and protect more isn’t just global – it’s also local. To that end, Cisco introduced two new solutions to protect this explosion of devices.

2.    Cisco Encrypted Threat Analytics. You know how body language can tell you a lot about deception, even without hearing what the person has to say? Cisco has invented a way to apply that method, in effect using packet flow body language, to detect encrypted threats on the network without decryption.

Why does this matter? Encrypted traffic is growing rapidly so the ability to understand if anything bad is hiding in encrypted traffic — without the need for decryption — is crucial given volume. We look at the traffic using machine learning and analytics to actively learn what behavior is normal and what isn’t. Cisco Encrypted Threat Analytics automatically detects and can contain infected devices – saving you time and money. This blog by TK Keanini, one of the masterminds behind this innovation, digs into more detail.

3.    Cisco IoT Threat Defense. Maintaining an effective security posture in the face of IoT vulnerabilities and threats is no easy task. Cisco IoT Threat Defense uses our security architecture that integrates multiple best-in-class platforms to help you detect and defeat IoT threats and keep your business running. Our aim is to keep IoT projects on track so you can take advantage of the digital value at stake! I recently wrote a blog for SC Magazine about the benefits of a security architecture and Cisco IoT Threat Defense demonstrates this in spades. Tested in our labs against real malware, the solution brings together: Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) for segmentation at scale, Cisco Stealthwatch for network visibility across the extended enterprise, Cisco Umbrella for a first line of defense against threats on the Internet, our Firepower next-gen firewalls for perimeter inspection and control, and Cisco AnyConnect for secure access. Learn more about this innovation in Marc Blackmer’s post here.

These are just a few of the security-specific highlights from a fantastic week at Cisco Live. I could go on and on about the awesome partner engagement, deep discussions with analysts, and the aha discussions with customers, but I’ll leave you with this…

As the largest and fastest growing security company, Cisco is on a mission to deliver security everywhere because as John pointed out, endpoints are everywhere in the IoT world. Only Cisco has the capability to combine the power of the network with our integrated security architecture to create a force multiplier of effectiveness and value against pervasive and constant threats that erode our collective opportunity in this ever changing digital world.