The new XDR tool pulls data from 200 million endpoints and responds to incidents at lightning speed. In addition to Cisco, the implementation of MFA is also expanding across the portfolio.

Cisco wants to show that it’s not just a network specialist, but also a full-fledged security company, and the announcement of new security solutions underscores that ambition. At the heart of the offering is Cisco XDR: a Advanced detection and responseService that automates investigation of incidents across the network and empowers SOC teams to take immediate action.

The XDR solution focuses on telemetry data that allows results to be delivered in minutes, in contrast to security solutions that rely on logs that can take hours to days to analyze. Cisco XDR pulls data from six overarching data sources: endpoint, network, firewall, email, identity, and DNS. In terms of endpoints, the tool can include up to 200 million access points to the network via Cisco Secure Client.

To provide as much telemetry data as possible, Cisco XDR integrates seamlessly with third-party applications. These include security solutions from Microsoft like Defender and Sentinel, as well as competing security companies like Palo Alto and CrowdStrike. All this to give customers as much insight into what is happening on the network.

Cisco XDR is available in beta today. A wider availability will follow from July.

Trusted Endpoints

MFA inputs are essential to securing your network, but attackers target vulnerabilities in weaker implementations. According to Cisco, access control should be based on three pillars: enforcing strong authentication, authenticating devices, and reducing the number of passwords used.

To help organizations meet these needs, Cisco is extending the use of trusted endpoints to all Duo plans. Trusted endpoints secure your most sensitive applications so only authorized devices can access them.