{"id":27360,"date":"2026-05-05T01:41:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T01:41:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/27360\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T01:41:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T01:41:17","slug":"cisco-buys-astrix-security-to-strengthen-ai-agent-discovery-and-governance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/27360\/","title":{"rendered":"Cisco buys Astrix Security to strengthen AI agent discovery and governance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cisco Systems Inc. today revealed<\/a> it\u2019s going to buy the Israeli cybersecurity firm Astrix Security Ltd.<\/a> in an effort to bolster the defenses of artificial intelligence agents. The startup has developed a platform that\u2019s able to identify, manage and secure AI agents running in production environments.<\/p>\n

The company did not disclose the terms of the deal, but The Information reported on the talks last month, speculating<\/a> that it could be worth in the region of $300 million.<\/p>\n

Peter Bailey, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco\u2019s Security Business Group, revealed the acquisition in a blog post, where he pointed to Astrix\u2019s focus on \u201cnon-human identities,\u201d such as machine-to-machine connections.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince its founding five years ago, Astrix Security has focused on securing the identities and credentials that power modern systems \u2014 API keys, service accounts, and OAuth tokens \u2014 the very credentials that AI Agents are now using (and abusing) to gain access and execute work at scale,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThe addition of Astrix Security brings deep capability to discover and secure every AI agent and non-human identity (NHI), including excessive privileges and real-time threats, enabling organizations to adopt AI securely and at scale.\u201d<\/p>\n

Astrix\u2019s software allows companies to create and maintain a real-time inventory of all of the AI agents, MCP servers and NHIs running in their environments, together with context around what they\u2019re doing. This enables security teams to understand the risks associated with them.<\/p>\n

Cisco said it wants to integrate these capabilities with its Cisco Identity Intelligence platform in order to strengthen the visibility and context of identities within the broader Cisco Security ecosystem. It will also extend Astrix\u2019s functionality to platforms such as its zero-trust offerings, including Cisco Secure Access, Bailey said. \u201cCustomers will be able to discover, authenticate, and authorize agentic identities, as well as detect and respond when they use Cisco Secure Access as well as Duo,\u201d he explained. \u201cThis visibility and intelligence also feeds into Splunk (or any SIEM), giving security teams a unified view of agent activity with the context needed to investigate and respond at machine speed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Astrix\u2019s platform will provide Cisco with some very specific capabilities, including tools for discovering and governing AI agents. It provides a map of an organization\u2019s entire agentic activities, with tools to adjust the policies governing them so they can reduce their attack surface and avoid compliance violations. Astrix also provides tools for AI agent access and lifecycle management, as well as threat detection and response functionality.<\/p>\n

Bailey said Cisco urgently needs to beef up its agentic security. He cited the latest edition of the company\u2019s AI Readiness Index, which reveals that only 24% of businesses today currently have the ability to control AI agents with proper guardrails and live monitoring. In addition, just 31% of enterprises believe they are \u201cfully capable\u201d of securing their agentic deployments.<\/p>\n

While AI agents and other non-human identities outnumber human users by around 100:1, they mostly fly under the radar, creating a huge blind spot for security teams, said Astrix co-founders Alon Jackson (pictured left) and Idan Gour (right) in their own blog post<\/a>. \u201cJoining Cisco means Astrix now has the scale, the reach, and the platform to bring agentic and NHI security to organizations worldwide,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

Cisco is making a concerted effort to position itself at the forefront of agentic security. Last month, it acquired<\/a> the observability startup Galileo Technologies Inc., which focuses on observing and evaluating AI models, in what it said is an effort to make agentic workforces \u201cmore trustworthy and reliable.\u201d At the RSAC 2026 Conference in March, Cisco debuted a number of new features that aim to help enterprises secure AI agents<\/a>, including a new tool called Duo IAM for managing agentic access to business applications. It also launched an open-source tool called DefenseClaw for scanning AI agents for vulnerabilities.<\/p>\n

Photo: Astrix Security<\/p>\n

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