The following is an excerpt from Cisco’s FY25 Purpose Report. Explore the full report to learn more about how we Power an Inclusive Future for All.

As innovation accelerates, the need for strong security, data protection, and privacy has never been more critical. 

In a world where nearly everything is connected and generating data, technology holds extraordinary promise to solve our greatest challenges, from improving education to curing disease. But with this opportunity comes increasing vulnerability if security and privacy are not prioritized.  

At Cisco, we view security and privacy not as mere checkboxes, but as business imperatives and foundations for responsible innovation. Key to that innovation is governance for secure, trustworthy, transparent, fair, and accountable data usage. This involves embedding security, privacy, and responsible AI by design, advancing zero-trust architecture, and enabling ongoing observability for threat detection.  

We are guided by our core principles of trustworthiness, transparency, and accountability. In fiscal 2025, we continued to embrace a holistic approach to security and privacy throughout our operations, data management practices, products, and solutions. 

Securing Global Data 

Our 2025 Data Privacy Benchmark Study revealed that privacy remains core to customer trust, with 95% of survey respondents saying they won’t make a purchase if their data isn’t properly protected. We apply a Privacy by Design approach that reflects our commitment to using data responsibly and serves as the foundation for how we handle personal, customer, and corporate data. Incorporating Privacy Enhancing Technologies in the design process helps enable responsible data use, manages risks, and gives users more control over their information. 

This work comes to life through our Cisco Privacy Center of Excellence (PCOE). While the PCOE initially focused on protecting personal data, in fiscal 2025, its scope expanded to include regulated data, such as “industrial data,” or data generated by connected products, like smart devices. Though this data is driven primarily by commercial considerations, users are also demanding greater visibility and control over their nonpersonal data. 

Increasing Data Transparency 

In fiscal 2025, PCOE launched data questionnaires to Cisco product developers to gather information about the way data is collected, how the data is used, where the data is stored, and more. Those responses were then used to create public‑facing Offer Disclosures to provide transparency to our customers and stakeholders via the Cisco Trust Portal. 

Advancing Cybersecurity Around the World  

Data breach incidents surged 70% from 2021 to 2024, with the average data breach costing an estimated US$4.9 million. As a cybersecurity leader, Cisco builds technology to defend against threats and shares our expertise with customers, partners, and communities.  

Preparing for the Threats of Today and Tomorrow  

As threat actors shift to targeting network infrastructure, we began a multiyear effort to help customers use Cisco equipment more securely and increase resiliency to attacks. 

 Our commitment to driving resilient infrastructure strengthens the security of Cisco solutions and customer networks, reducing the risk of insecure network configurations and delivering proactive detection and response to safeguard against evolving threats.  

To help develop real-world skills, we host hands-on “Capture the Flag” cybersecurity simulations in person and online. In fiscal 2025, more than 40,000 learners around the globe participated, using Cisco products to defend against threats.  

We’re also looking to the next frontier: quantum networking and computing. To help organizations safeguard against looming threats, like quantum computers cracking encryption keys, Cisco published resources on Cryptography in a Post-Quantum World and opened our Cisco Quantum Labs facility to provide space for experimentation, education, and training.  

Building Trust Through Cisco Talos 

 Cisco Talos’ mission is to defend Cisco’s customers from the broad threat landscape. Using custom-built detection engines, Talos powers the Cisco portfolio 24/7 — protecting customers across every environment, every event, every day. Talos analyzes up to 886 billion security events per day. To sift through this data, we use ML engines trained on Talos playbooks, with recent AI enhancements including:  

• SnortML: Created by Talos engineers, SnortML uses deep neural networks, rather than static signatures, to detect exploit attempts with greater speed and accuracy.
• Cisco Talos Domain Name System (DNS) Security Service: To help organizations detect DNS tunneling attacks, Talos developed an AI-based DNS Security Service trained on millions of global patterns.  

Talos discovered and responsibly disclosed over 200 zero-day vulnerabilities, or previously unknown security threats, in fiscal 2025.  

Threat detection cannot be done in isolation, which is why Talos is committed to educating and working with the security community. We collaborate with over 60 law enforcement partners, in addition to developing and releasing free open-source tools. Additional services offered by Talos include Cisco Talos Incident Response, which provides emergency and proactive support, and a comprehensive suite of cloud-based threat intelligence services. 

Read the full FY25 Purpose Report 

At Cisco, our Purpose is core to who we are and what we do. Learn more about our goals and progress to date in our Purpose Reporting Hub.