The deal will give Cisco a wide range of tools to deliver AI-powered cybersecurity for the enterprise.
This week US networking giant Cisco announced that it will acquire the cybersecurity startup Armorblox. The acquisition will give Cisco a new palette of products and services to provide email security. In addition, it aims to protect cloud and office applications and enterprise communication systems.
Founded in 2017, Armorblox has more than 100 employees. It has raised $46.5 million in funding, with its most recent round led by SentinelOne Ventures in September 2022.. The company got its start in securing enterprise email systems and has since branched out into other cybersecurity areas.
Raj Chopra is SVP, Chief Product Officer for Cisco Security, explained the acquisition in a blog post. Managing the modern landscape of threat actors is a highly complex challenge, Chopra says. In order to manage this complexity, “you have to reframe the way you think about it. Complexity equals data. Lots of data. You just have to know how to use it. That’s where generative AI comes in”.
Leveraging Generative AI for cybersecurity
Chopra explains that cybersecurity professionals need to fully utilise the “vast trove” of native telemetry at their disposal. They can do this, he says, by training Large Language Models (LLMs) “to deliver intelligent, adaptive, and automated security capabilities”.
Cisco is “taking an exciting step forward in executing our plans for an AI-first Security Cloud”, by acquiring Armorblox, Chopra says, describing the startup as “a company that has pioneered the use of LLMs and natural language understanding in cybersecurity”.
By leveraging Armorblox’s use of Predictive and Generative AI across the Cisco portfolio, the company plans to change the way their customers understand and interact with their security control points, according to Chopra. “From enhanced attack prediction, to rapid threat detection, to efficient policy enforcement – there are near-limitless ways to improve today’s security experience”, he adds.
The financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, but Cisco said it expects the deal to close by the end of its fiscal fourth quarter in July.
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