- CEO Chuck Robbins says the "Mythos effect" — fear of AI-driven attacks — is scaring organizations into replacing aging systems
- Cisco Resilient Infrastructure Services identifies aging network systems that could present security vulnerabilities
- Cisco also shipped Quantum Safe Infrastructure, grading devices on crypto agility against 'harvest now, decrypt later' attacks
Cisco is providing AI-assisted support for organizations seeking to remediate security vulnerabilities presented by aging networking systems. Resilient Infrastructure Services helps find exposed devices, patch what Cisco still supports and plan replacement of the rest.
"We cannot protect or secure what you can't see," said Vikas Butaney, Cisco SVP of CX product management and marketing, in an interview with Fierce. "First step really is get that assessment or that visibility."
The services target infrastructure debt. End-of-life systems accounted for nearly 40% of the 100 vulnerabilities attackers targeted most in 2025, according to Cisco's Talos threat intelligence group. The Salt Typhoon attack, which targeted end-of-life equipment, is a stark example of this problem. The new services are designed to address those problems, providing exposure assessment, infrastructure modernization and continuous defense.
Resilient Infrastructure Services are available as part of Cisco IQ, the AI-powered support and services platform Cisco launched April 24.
How Resilient Infrastructure Services work
Resilient Infrastructure Services comprises three parts: Rapid Exposure Assessment provides AI-driven discovery and prioritization of vulnerabilities, mapping the attack surface. Infrastructure Modernization systematically updates the environment and Continuous Defense provides ongoing protection that evolves with emerging threats with zero trust, Butaney said.
In an earnings call this month, Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins identified the "Mythos effect" as driving customers to scour their networks for unsupported devices — which Cisco calls "LDOS," for "Last Day of Support" — and replace them as fast as possible.
"We have seen the pipeline increase meaningfully as a result of Mythos, which is really showing up as a network refresh, but is probably underneath viewed as a cybersecurity spend," Robbins said. In other words, organizations are buying networking systems out of their security budgets.
Another factor driving sales for Cisco is the need to protect against quantum threats, and Cisco IQ covers that contingency as well. Cisco shipped Quantum Safe Infrastructure — previewed at Cisco Live in June as Quantum Ready Assessments — to general availability alongside the resilience services. It grades secure communications, platform hardening and crypto agility at the device and infrastructure level, then sorts each device into one of four outcomes: needs a hardware refresh, a software update, a configuration change or a feature activation.
The threat is "harvest now, decrypt later" collection, in which attackers capture encrypted traffic today to crack once quantum computers can break current public-key cryptography. Compliance complicates the problem — countries are adopting different post-quantum cryptography standards on different timelines, so Cisco IQ lets customers select the applicable standard and plan against the requirements of each geography they operate in.