Cisco to Acquire Astrix Security to Strengthen AI Agent and Non-Human Identity Security

Cisco has announced its intent to acquire Astrix Security Ltd., an industry leader in Non-Human Identity (NHI) security.

This strategic acquisition aims to protect enterprise environments from the expanding attack surface created by the rapid deployment of AI agents.

The modern workplace is undergoing a massive shift. Employees are increasingly supported by “agentic AI” automated AI agents that work at machine speed to access data, make decisions, and execute tasks.

While these agents unlock incredible productivity, they also introduce severe security vulnerabilities if left unmonitored.

Cisco to Acquire Astrix Security

Unlike human users, AI agents rely on non-human identities to connect to enterprise systems.

These identities include API keys, service accounts, and OAuth tokens. If threat actors compromise these credentials, they can execute malicious actions at scale.

According to Cisco’s AI Readiness Index, only 24% of organizations currently have the guardrails needed to control AI agent actions safely.

Furthermore, emerging AI-driven threats, such as the Mythos model, are forcing security teams to confront high-impact, accelerated cyber attacks.

Astrix Security has spent the last five years specializing in protecting credentials that power machine-to-machine interactions.

By acquiring Astrix, Cisco gains deep technical capabilities to discover, monitor, and secure every AI agent and NHI across an organization.

The integration of Astrix will bring four core capabilities to Cisco’s security portfolio:

• Discovery and governance: Security teams can map all AI agent activity, resolve hygiene issues, and prevent compliance violations.
• Lifecycle management: Administrators can easily manage AI agents from initial provisioning through final decommissioning.
• Threat detection and response: The platform automatically detects compromised credentials and blocks out-of-scope agent actions.
• Secrets management: Organizations gain centralized protection for sensitive keys and tokens across cloud environments and vaults.

Upgrading Cisco Zero Trust

Cisco plans to integrate Astrix’s technology into Cisco Identity Intelligence, enhancing context and visibility across its entire security platform.

These new NHI features will also extend into Cisco Secure Access and Duo Identity and Access Management.

This allows companies to authenticate and authorize non-human identities under a strict Zero Trust model, treating AI agents with the same security scrutiny as human employees.

By feeding this intelligence into Splunk or other SIEM tools, security operations centers (SOCs) get a unified view of agent behavior to investigate threats in real time.

This acquisition is a critical step in Cisco’s broader strategy to secure the AI era.

It builds on recent infrastructure upgrades such as Project Glasswing, Live Protect, and the Galileo acquisition.

By locking down the non-human credentials that AI agents abuse, Cisco is helping organizations adopt automation securely and at scale.

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