Considering Cisco
Many public sector organizations today have highly sensitive data being transported over an aging infrastructure that is approaching an end-of-life and/or end-of-support stage of maturity.
This older infrastructure often lacks the latest security features, and may no longer be receiving critical software patches and security updates. This leaves the network vulnerable to cyberattack and exposes the governmental organization to unnecessary and unacceptable risks.
Cisco is helping its public-sector customers reduce IT risk, as well as prepare for digital transformation, by ensuring that security is built into the underlying architecture of Cisco’s solutions and throughout the company’s business. One way the company is doing this is by following a Secure Development Lifecycle (SDL) to increase the security, resiliency, and trustworthiness of its products. Cisco SDL provides tools and repeatable, measurable processes for the development and validation of products and ensures that security is foundational to its product designs.
SDL is mandatory for Cisco product development, and is focused on both hardware and software. At the product level, this means that Cisco is designing security technologies into the underlying architecture of many of its switching, routing, and other platforms. It’s important to note that this is not merely bolting a layer of security onto existing products as an afterthought. It is about building foundational security into products at the design phase, so that security is integral to the product architecture.
Built-in, foundational security provides platform integrity, enables secure communications, protects data, helps guard against counterfeit, and gives customers confidence that the products they receive from Cisco are secure, genuine, and untampered. Cisco’s commitment to designing foundational security into its solutions and the company’s business is ongoing. As new products are developed and existing products are updated, Cisco will continue to embed foundational security into additional platforms.
As government customers refresh their networks to reduce risk, improve operational resiliency, and position their organizations to benefit from digital transformation, they should be aware of Cisco’s company-wide commitment to security and the availability of product platforms with built-in security and trustworthiness. With cyberattacks escalating, and with government agencies increasingly focused on regulatory compliance and risk management, Cisco platforms with built-in security and trust appear to be worthy of consideration.