US tech giant Cisco buys Israeli AI cyber startup to protect digital workforce

Astrix is the developer of a platform to address the security gap created by AI agents or digital employees gaining unrestricted access to enterprise systems

US tech giant Cisco Systems Inc. has agreed to buy Israeli cybersecurity startup Astrix Security to bolster its security arsenal to address emerging threats tied to the rapid use of autonomous AI agents, the companies said Tuesday.

No financial details were provided, but Hebrew media reports estimated the deal’s value at between $300 million and $400 million.

Founded in 2021 by Alon Jackson, CEO, and Idan Gour, CTO – both veterans of Israel’s vaunted IDF intelligence unit 8200 – Tel Aviv-based Astrix is the developer of a software platform that addresses the security gap created by AI agents or digital employees gaining unrestricted access to enterprise systems without governance, oversight, or identity management.

“We founded Astrix with a clear conviction: the identities and credentials powering modern enterprise systems — API keys, service accounts, OAuth tokens — were dangerously under-secured,” said Jackson. “These non-human identities were everywhere, growing fast, and largely invisible to security teams.”

“We built Astrix because we believed this was one of the most important unsolved problems in enterprise security,” said Jackson.

The startup’s platform is designed to map all AI agents in a company’s network. The platform tracks the tools AI agents deploy to automate workloads, including the use of credentials to gain access to sensitive data and execute tasks across a sprawling web of machine-to-machine connections of modern enterprises. It identifies risks by tracking abnormal or malicious behavior patterns and addresses real-time security threats.

“What began as a mission to bring visibility and control to NHIs [non-human identities] evolved into something bigger: a platform purpose-built for the age of agentic AI – where autonomous agents already operate inside your most sensitive systems, holding privileged access, largely unseen,” said Gour. “That gap is the next great attack surface – closing it is the work that matters.”

The acquisition deal comes as companies are rapidly integrating autonomous assistants into existing software systems, business processes, and workflows. Agentic AI or virtual AI agents act similarly to smart assistants, using reasoning to make real-time decisions and complete complex tasks with minimal human input such as collating and analyzing vast amounts of data.

“We’re seeing an explosion of AI agents that are already reshaping the digital enterprise,” said Peter Bailey, general manager of Cisco’s security business. “Soon, every person in an organization will be supported by a network of AI agents working continuously at machine speed, accessing data, making decisions, and taking action on their behalf.”

“These agents represent an entirely new class of coworker: capable of incredible productivity, but also capable of unintended harm or malicious behavior if left unsecured – This is the new attack surface, and it is growing faster than most organizations realize,” Bailey cautioned.

Bailey said Cisco plans to integrate Astrix’s agentic AI platform into the tech giant’s security platform to support its identity intelligence and zero trust applications.

“The gap between agentic capability and organizational readiness is widening,” said Jackson. “Closing it requires the kind of platform, reach, and expertise that this combination brings.”

To date, Astrix, which employs 120 people, has raised more than $85 million in funding. Its investors include Menlo Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Workday Inc. and the Anthology Fund, an investment vehicle backed by Anthropic PBC.