Cisco has announced its intention to acquire cybersecurity startup Armorblox. The deal will give Cisco a range of AI-powered tools to deliver enterprise-level cybersecurity. This week, US networking giant Cisco announced its acquisition of cybersecurity startup Armorblox. The acquisition will provide Cisco with a new set of products and services to secure email systems, cloud applications, office applications, and business communication systems.
Armorblox, founded in 2017, has over a hundred employees and has raised $46.5 million (43.4 million euros) in funding, with the most recent round led by SentinelOne Ventures in September 2022. The company initially focused on corporate email security and has since expanded into other areas of cybersecurity.
Raj Chopra, SVP and Chief Product Officer for Cisco Security, discussed the acquisition in a blog post. He stated that managing the modern threat landscape is a complex challenge and that complexity requires data. To take full advantage of the available internal telemetry, he said, organizations must train Large Language Models (LLMs) to deliver intelligent, adaptive, and automated security capabilities.
Chopra explained that Cisco is taking a step forward in its plans for an AI-first Security Cloud with the acquisition of Armorblox, a company that has pioneered the use of LLMs and natural language understanding in cybersecurity. By deploying active and generative AI across the Cisco portfolio, the company hopes to revolutionize the way customers interact with their security checkpoints, Chopra said. He added that there are virtually limitless ways to improve the current security experience, from improved attack prediction to rapid threat detection and efficient policy enforcement.
The financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, but Cisco expects the deal to close by the end of its fiscal fourth quarter in July.
