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In 2017, businesses lost hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue as a result of cyber attacks. You saw cyber threats all over the news with data breaches permeating the economy. The WannaCry ransomware attack affected hundreds of thousands of computers globally. The Equifax breach, considered one of the most potentially damaging in US history to date, compromised the personal information of an estimated 145 million Americans.

Last year’s network attacks exposed several surprisingly poor security practices as well as a frequent lack of security diligence. This year can be better, and now is the perfect time to evaluate business security and resilience. Organizations can take proactive measures to avert such massive disasters, and it starts at the network foundation.

With a new year come new cyber threats. In 2018, expect more devastating attacks aimed at organizations. As attackers increasingly seek to compromise network infrastructure, aging network platforms are exposing organizations to unnecessary security vulnerabilities.

Why attack the network infrastructure? By controlling switches and routers, attackers can eavesdrop on sensitive communications, steal or manipulate data, and launch attacks against other parts of the network. Networks built with gray market gear or aging devices that are approaching end-of-life/end-of-support expose organizations to unnecessary vulnerabilities and should be upgraded to reduce risk and enhance network security. It’s time to address the urgent need for more advanced and pervasive security at the foundational level: the network node and network systems. A proactive approach is business critical, and now is the perfect time to invest in a trustworthy network infrastructure.

At Cisco, product security begins in our hardware and software. It starts with the Cisco Secure Development Lifecycle (SDL) which reduces design vulnerabilities, enhances product security, and allows Cisco to implement consistent security policy across product lines.  We further enhance the security by designing trustworthy technologies into our solutions which protect against counterfeit and unauthorized software modification; enable secure, encrypted communications; verify that Cisco network devices are operating as intended.

This year, resolve to ensure the security and resilience of your organization with a trustworthy network foundation. As threats are constantly evolving, Cisco Enterprise Networking has made ongoing investments to ensure the security, resilience and trustworthiness of our switching, routing and wireless solutions to ensure they meet tomorrow’s cybersecurity challenges, as well as today’s. Look to Cisco as your trusted security partner.

Learn more about Cisco’s trustworthy systems at Cisco Live Barcelona in the breakout session on Thursday, 1 February from 11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m., and in the Security World of Solutions on Wednesday, 31 January from 5 p.m. – 5:50 p.m. Not attending Cisco Live? Visit the Trust Center to learn more about trustworthy systems at Cisco. To assess the security and resilience of your own network infrastructure, learn how Cisco Security Advisory Services can help you assess the risk profile of your organization.



Authors

Michael (Mike) Elmore

Vice President

Enterprise Infrastructure and Solutions Group