Cisco rolls out new software tools to protect IT systems from AI Agents

By Matthew Griffin Security and Privacy 21st May 2026

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF

As attackers deploy swarms of AI agents, defenders now need their own autonomous agents to fight back at machine speed.

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As we see autonomous systems of systems AI agents emerge that can hack through almost anything Cisco on Tuesday announced a new suite of software tools that businesses can use to build their own armies of AI agents, to protect their IT ‌infrastructure against cybersecurity threats.

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Cisco’s announcement comes as Anthropic is set to release its Mythos model to the public in the coming weeks, an AI tool that some experts fear could be used by hackers to turbo-charge cyber attacks.

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Cisco Cloud Control, as the company calls the system, is designed to allow businesses and governments to ⁠create and manage AI agents that will watch over their systems and block and remove hackers, among other functions. Because cybersecurity threats are increasingly coming from swarms of AI agents acting on behalf of human hackers, IT managers need to respond in kind say Cisco executives.

“You can no longer do things at human scale,” said DJ Sampath, senior vice president and general manager of AI software and platform at Cisco. “It has to be machine scale, from an operational perspective.”

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To ‌build ⁠those AI defender agents quickly, Cisco believes its customers will want to use AI coding tools. The company also rolled out an app-store-like marketplace – similar to Microsoft’s AI Agent security marketplace – where companies can choose among coding tools, with the first offered being OpenAI‘s Codex, which will be embedded directly in ⁠the Cloud Control platform. Sampath said that Cisco will take a cut of the sales through the platform but has not yet determined the exact amount.

“We’re working through the economics. ⁠You should expect that we will have some economics that favour us, because it costs non-trivial amounts to be able to leverage all of these pieces,” ⁠Sampath said.

The Cloud Control software is available in North America on Tuesday, and the marketplace for third-party tools will come in the second half of 2026, Sampath said.

Why fight AI agents with more AI agents?
Automated attacks now move faster than any human team can respond, so defenders need autonomous agents that monitor systems and block intrusions at machine speed, exactly what Cisco’s Cloud Control is built to deploy.

Matthew Griffin / About Author

Matthew Griffin is a multi-award winning Futurist and expert in Disruption and Innovation, Geopolitics, Leadership, and Technology, who NASA have described as a "walking encyclopaedia of the future" and a "futurist Polymath." 15-time best selling author of the "Codex of the Future" series, Matthew is the Founder and Futurist in Chief of the 311 Institute, a global Futures and Deep Futures advisory firm working with royal households, world leaders, G7, G20, and G77 governments, NGOs, and multi-national mid and mega cap firms to help them explore, shape, and lead the next 50 years of business and society.

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