A new model for infrastructure security: How Cisco defends against AI threats

Every CISO is being asked some version of the same question: are we ready for AI-powered attacks? Dive into how Cisco is reshaping its own network, not as a posture checked annually, but as a continuous operating model.

Most enterprises are managing risks based on a threat model built for a different era. You set a risk threshold. You focused on the vulnerabilities above that line — the ones critical enough to keep you up at night. Everything below it, you managed. That was a reasonable tradeoff. 

AI-powered cybersecurity tools have changed the model. They don’t just accelerate known exploits; they can find and weaponize everything below your threshold, including the vulnerabilities you decided weren’t urgent and the legacy devices you hadn’t gotten around to replacing. The bar hasn’t just moved. It’s been dropped. That realization is reshaping how we operate and defend our own network at Cisco, and we think it should reshape how every enterprise thinks about cyber…