a fabric of security<\/a> that blankets the whole environment, not a fence blocking one aspect of it.<\/p>\nAs the \u201chyper\u201d in the name suggests, this architecture was inspired by the hyperscale model pioneered by the big public cloud providers.<\/p>\n
To handle massive demand, companies like Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Salesforce redefined their applications from lumps of hard-to-manage VMs into highly portable containers that could run anywhere. They did the same for the underlying hardware too, by creating software-defined infrastructure that ran on their servers, rather than firewalls, load balancers and networking hardware in boxes at the edge of the network.<\/p>\n
They converted these products into thousands of pieces of software \u2014 including security software\u202f\u2014 that could run on every server. They spent billions on this development but gained the ability to detect and respond to threats far more effectively, and to update and patch it all with remarkably few people.<\/p>\n
Hypershield brings many of these advantages to the enterprise, for the first time.<\/p>\n
It lets you embed security in VMs or Kubernetes clusters in public clouds, using an open-source technology called eBPF that hyperscalers use to automate patching and other time-consuming jobs. In the future, security can be inserted into servers we call DPUs, and on networking devices such as switches.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll also extend Hypershield beyond the data center. Before long, a hospital will be able to secure its medical devices and other operational technology with Hypershield. Manufacturers will be able to do the same with the tech that sits on the factory floor.<\/p>\n
Hypershield is a software product with an AI engine we\u2019ve built from scratch. It makes what was previously thought impossible \u2014 possible. As a result, you can get started without having to rip or replace anything you\u2019re already using.\u00a0In fact, since Hypershield was built from the beginning around AI management, we think of it as AI-native, as opposed to an AI layer bolted on top of a traditional product.<\/p>\n
Here are a few highlights:<\/p>\n
Autonomous segmentation<\/strong><\/h2>\nCompanies have been using segmentation for decades to specify which workloads and applications can access which parts of the network. But segmentation is hard. Customers tell us it can take 40 days or more to define segmentation rules for a single application. That\u2019s way too slow.<\/p>\n
With the AI-native Hypershield, we look beyond the network flows that other products focus on. The full scope of observed behaviors is informed by what\u2019s happening across all the environments it\u2019s protecting; what Cisco Talos teaches it about behaviors that should never happen, latest attack vectors, techniques, and vulnerabilities; what the system has learned and observed based on best practices that models how the customer modifies recommended policies; as well as model what the customer does when they step-in when under attack.<\/p>\n
The result is higher confidence, data-backed recommendations, not based on what might have happened in the past, but what is happening now.<\/p>\n
Distributed exploit protection<\/strong><\/h2>\nVulnerabilities have always existed, but the situation is getting worse. Cisco\u2019s Talos threat intelligence discovers hundreds of new vulnerabilities a year, and there are about 80 new CVEs reported each day. Attackers armed with stolen credentials routinely use tools, services, and access points to disguise their activity from traditional security products. Why hack in when you can simply log in?<\/p>\n
Rather than rely solely on commercial vulnerability scanning products to uncover areas of concern, Hypershield goes further. It looks to see if a given vulnerability exists in memory or, worse, if it\u2019s already being exploited in the wild. Also, it considers the value of the asset being attacked. The AI then assigns a score, to prioritize which of the vulnerabilities poses the gravest risk.<\/p>\n
The AI analyzes all potential threats across your environment and prioritizes them so each can be dealt with appropriately with compensating controls, providing protection while giving security teams time to investigate and mitigate.<\/p>\n