Cisco Systems Inc. is reportedly in discussions to acquire Astrix Security Ltd., a startup focused on securing artificial intelligence agents.
The potential deal is valued between $250 million and $350 million, according to sources cited in a recent report.
Astrix offers a platform that automatically identifies and secures AI agents within a company's network, including the tools they utilize and the user accounts they employ for accessing external applications. The software scans these agents for vulnerabilities and configuration-related issues, such as publicly accessible internal agents or agents with excessive permissions.
The platform provides a centralized dashboard to display identified risks and offers controls for administrators to mitigate them. Astrix also features a just-in-time access control, limiting the duration of agent interactions with sensitive applications to enhance security.
This potential acquisition follows Cisco's recent announcement to purchase Galileo Technologies Inc., another AI security startup specializing in protecting AI models from malicious prompts and ensuring data privacy.