In immediately’s dynamic menace panorama, securing the digital entrance strains is paramount. At Cisco, with greater than 326 million emails incoming every quarter, we confronted the identical problem many organizations do: the way to defend towards subtle e-mail threats whereas sustaining consumer productiveness. Our reply was a daring, layered safety strategy, powered by AI-driven options like E mail Risk Protection and the superior analytics of Splunk. Right here’s how we did it, and what we discovered.
The rising menace panorama
E mail: It’s the only main assault vector for safety breaches for companies throughout the globe. In 2023, the FBI reported $2.9 billion of enterprise losses attributed to e-mail cyberattacks within the US, an alarming improve of over 805% since 2016. Since 2022, e-mail ransomware incidents are up 18%. These looming threats develop day-after-day and underscore the essential want for a strong, multi-layered e-mail safety technique.
Whereas native e-mail filters present a baseline degree of safety, they’re inadequate in immediately’s advanced menace surroundings. In Cisco IT, we acknowledged this hole and commenced constructing a plan to reinforce our defenses.
Nonetheless, as we had been crafting a plan, a brand new downside rose in precedence. Our executives had been annoyed with inboxes stuffed with spam, advertising, and muddle. A fast session with Cisco Talos confirmed our plan, and we got down to improve our front-line e-mail defenses — and shortly.
Placing our plan into motion
We leverage many options throughout Cisco’s safety portfolio to maintain us digitally resilient. However we knew that bringing the items along with the AI-driven capabilities of Cisco E mail Risk Protection and Splunk would give us an unparalleled benefit: deeply built-in, layered defenses that cut back gaps, improve safety of customers and gadgets, and safe entry to functions. Over the previous decade, we now have applied a layered strategy to guard our customers on any system, wherever they join, leveraging:
- Cisco XDR, which acts as a bridge between our safety functions. It unifies our safety insights and correlates information throughout a number of domains.
- Cisco Safe Malware Analytics, which determines if incoming information comprise malware by isolating and opening them on a digital machine, then analyzing system impacts. This powers extra knowledgeable menace detection.
- Cisco Safe Endpoint, which protects our endpoints by figuring out and blocking information containing malware, together with details about who could have opened and/or shared these information.
- Cisco Safe Endpoint Analytics, which gives endpoint system visibility, discovering endpoint threats earlier than they’re an issue together with day-zero malware, harmful consumer conduct, information exfiltration, and so on. It sees what functions or Software program as a Service (SaaS) are in use, makes use of forensics for incident response, and good points visibility to system sorts and working programs on the community.
- Cisco Umbrella, which provides information and insights about particular domains, enabling us to dam these with poor reputations.
- Cisco Endpoint Safety Analytics Constructed on Splunk (CESA) with Cisco AnyConnect Community Visibility Module (NVM), which feeds us wealthy consumer conduct information for e-mail menace investigations. The NVM is the one know-how for cell gadgets that creates IPFIX information (IP Move Info Export). It plugs into CESA, which delivers all the required Splunk analytics software program vital to research NVM telemetry.
And in Could 2024, dealing with more and more advanced threats, we deployed Cisco Safe E mail Risk Protection to mitigate threats in actual time. This platform enlists 90+ AI language fashions (LLM) detectors to mechanically detect e-mail menaces, then it proactively takes the vital subsequent steps to guard the enterprise. This innovation saves us hundreds of hours of manually sorting, learning, and gauging intent of emails, with plenty of room for human error. As unhealthy actors more and more utilize AI, E mail Risk Protection ranges the taking part in discipline for us.
The E mail Risk Protection influence report provides full visibility into AI-tracked threats, exhibiting developments over time in addition to additional insights and analytics.
For Cisco IT, integrating E mail Risk Protection was seamless, taking solely a matter of days.In reality, since deployment day, we’ve acquired zero complaints from the enterprise and nil adverse influence on our staff’ expertise. With E mail Risk Protection on prime of our current layers of e-mail safety, worker mailboxes not should take care of enterprise e-mail compromise (BEC) the place unhealthy actors impersonate trusted sources to steal cash from companies, phishing, or different threats. From malware to advertising spam, we are able to shortly establish and remediate every kind of undesirable mail, and do with it as we see match organizationally, whether or not it’s transferring it to the junk folder or blocking it altogether.
Elevating incident response with Splunk’s superior analytics
Even with our entrance strains being well-protected by our sturdy layered defenses, our groups wanted extra to remain forward of unhealthy actors. In April 2025, our incident response workforce built-in Splunk into our operations, giving us entry to a number of the most revolutionary safety developments available on the market.
With Splunk Assault Analyzer, Cisco now permits automated menace evaluation and digital forensics for credential phishing and malware. Its proprietary know-how extracts and analyzes malicious content material hidden in textual content, photographs, macro supply code, web site content material, and extra. This automation considerably improves our workforce’s operational effectivity, saving analysts’ time and enhancing the power of our workforce to analyze advanced phishing threats with better velocity and accuracy.
Quantifiable influence: Attaining resilience at scale
For Cisco, our layered strategy is constructed to frustrate the attacker, not the consumer. In the case of attackers, we’ve had lots. Throughout a typical quarter, Cisco mailboxes collectively obtain greater than 326 million inbound emails. For us, “one in 1,000,000” isn’t adequate with regards to safety. Our unified portfolio stops threats of their tracks.
Let’s break down the influence of our strategy over a typical quarter:
- 41,000,000 (12.57%) emails blocked for having poor IP reputations
- 23,000,000 (7.05%) emails blocked for DMARC failures (Area-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance)
- 6,800,000 emails blocked for spam
- 49,000 emails blocked for having poor area reputations
- 1,940 emails blocked for holding viruses
- 840 emails blocked for holding malware
- 70,000 extra emails confirmed threats blocked by E mail Risk Protection’s LLM detectors
- 1000’s extra emails blocked for different numerous causes
This degree of visibility, integration, and automation is unmatched out there. While you’re coping with various customers, workplaces, and a mixture of managed and unmanaged gadgets, there’s no various to a layered complete, platform-based strategy. Our technique successfully closes gaps within the assault floor to make our programs as well-defended as attainable.
For IT and safety groups our journey provides essential classes:
- A layered protection is non-negotiable: Counting on single-point options is inadequate. A complete, built-in portfolio is crucial.
- AI is a power multiplier: AI-driven options like Cisco Safe E mail Risk Protection considerably improve menace detection and cut back guide overhead, even leveling the taking part in discipline towards AI-powered assaults.
- Automation and analytics are key to effectivity: Options like Splunk Assault Analyzer automate essential processes, releasing up priceless safety workforce sources and bettering incident response.
- Integration is paramount: The true energy comes from seamlessly connecting safety instruments, guaranteeing information correlation and unified insights throughout your surroundings.
Trying forward: Persevering with to construct a future-proofed office
We’re not achieved constructing but. Cisco’s integration of AI, Splunk, and e-mail safety represents a paradigm shift in how organizations can strategy safety and office innovation. By combining cutting-edge know-how with a unified imaginative and prescient for a way they’ll work extra successfully collectively, we’re not solely defending our entrance strains but additionally setting a brand new customary for resilience and adaptableness within the fashionable office. We’re bringing know-how collectively to realize issues which have by no means been attainable earlier than.
Constructing on this basis, our incident response workforce is within the early levels of deploying Splunk Enterprise Safety as a part of our evolving e-mail safety technique. Whereas this integration continues to be in progress, it displays our ongoing dedication to strengthening detection, investigation, and response capabilities throughout our surroundings. As we proceed to discover and develop sensible use circumstances, we anticipate that Splunk Enterprise Safety will grow to be a key element in our general strategy to figuring out and mitigating email-based threats — additional future-proofing our safety posture for what’s forward.
Because the menace panorama evolves, so does Cisco. Taking these learnings, we push ahead, persevering with to innovate, combine, and strengthen our defenses to guard what issues most.
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