Report: Cisco could acquire AI agent security startup Astrix Security for $250M+ #AI

Cisco Systems Inc. is reportedly in talks to buy Astrix Security Ltd., a startup that helps companies secure their artificial intelligence agents.

The Information today cited sources as saying that the deal could be worth between $250 million and $350 million. That’s about three times the amount of funding Astrix has raised to date. The company’s investors include Workday Inc. and the Anthology Fund, an investment vehicle backed by Anthropic PBC.

Tel Aviv-based Astrix sells a platform that can automatically out all the AI agents in a company’s network. It also identifies the tools they use to automate work. The software detects MCP servers and non-human identities, the user accounts that agents use to log into external applications.

Astrix scans the assets that it finds for vulnerabilities. It spots configuration-related issues, such as situations where an internal agent can be accessed via the public web. The platform can also detect when an agent itself poses risks. For example, Astrix might flag a coding assistant that only requires read access to a GitHub repository but also has the ability to delete files.

The platform displays the issues that it finds in a centralized dashboard. It also provides controls that enable administrators to mitigate the discovered risks.

Astrix includes a JIT, or just-in-time, access feature that makes it possible to limit the duration of agent interactions with sensitive applications. For example, a JIT policy might specify that the credentials with which an agent logs into a database expire after 10 minutes. Expired credentials don’t pose a threat even if they fall into the hands of hackers.

Astrix detects unusual agent activity such as attempts to download a large number of sensitive records at once. According to the company, its platform revokes malicious agents’ access permissions without manual input. Additionally, it can sync its findings to third-party cybersecurity tools that automate breach investigation and response tasks.

Another workflow that Astrix promises to streamline is agent provisioning. Before developers deploy a new agent, they have to loop in administrators to ensure that it meets cybersecurity rules. Astrix skips that step by enabling administrators to configure cybersecurity rules in advance. That enables developers to provision agents on a self-service basis without creating vulnerabilities.

The report that Cisco could buy Astrix comes just a day after the company announced another AI security acquisition. The company has agreed to purchase Galileo Technologies Inc., a venture-backed startup that sells a so-called hallucination firewall. The platform protects AI models from malicious prompts and ensures that their responses don’t contain sensitive business data. 

Photo: Cisco