Astrix is a top specialist in securing identities and credentials used by modern systems such as API keys, OAuth tokens and service accounts, Cisco’s Peter Bailey wrote in a post announcing the deal.
Cisco Systems announced Monday it has reached an agreement to acquire identity protection startup Astrix Security, in a bid to bolster the tech giant’s offerings for securing AI agents.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed by Cisco. A report from Calcalist pegged the value of the deal at approximately $400 million. CRN has reached out to Cisco for comment.
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In April, The Information had reported that Cisco was in “advanced talks” to acquire Astrix for between $250 million and $350 million.
Founded in 2021, Astrix Security has been named to multiple CRN startup to watch lists in recent years and has raised $85 million in total funding from investors including Menlo Ventures and Anthropic.
In a post announcing the deal Monday, Peter Bailey, general manager of Cisco’s security business, wrote that Astrix is a top specialist in securing identities and credentials used by modern systems such as API keys, OAuth tokens and service accounts. These are “the very credentials that AI agents are now using (and abusing) to gain access and execute work at scale,” Bailey wrote.
The planned acquisition of Astrix will provide Cisco with “deep capability to discover and secure every AI agent and non-human identity (NHI), including excessive privileges and real-time threats, enabling organizations to adopt AI securely and at scale,” Bailey wrote in the post.
Key capabilities include AI agent discovery and governance, agentic access management and threat detection and response for agents, according to the post.
The Astrix technology will be folded into the Cisco Identity Intelligence platform, and builds on the launch of Cisco’s Zero Trust Access for AI agents offering in late March at RSAC.
Astrix capabilities will also be extended to the Cisco Secure Access and Duo Identity and Access Management offerings, according to Bailey.
Crucially, Cisco is highly differentiated in securing agents thanks to its “visibility across identity, network, application and infrastructure layers,” he wrote. “We don’t just know what an agent is, we understand how it behaves.”
