Cisco on Monday announced its intent to acquire Astrix Security, a startup focused on securing non-human identities (NHIs) such as API keys, service accounts, and OAuth tokens increasingly used by applications and AI agents.
In a blog post, Cisco said the acquisition is aimed at extending zero trust principles to the emerging “agentic workforce,” where AI agents and machine identities are rapidly expanding the enterprise attack surface. Astrix’s technology is designed to help organizations discover, govern, and secure these identities, including detecting excessive privileges and real-time threats.
Astrix provides visibility into non-human identities and the activity of AI-driven agents, along with lifecycle management and automated detection and remediation of over-privileged, unnecessary, or malicious access — including compromised credentials and rogue agent behavior. Cisco plans to integrate these capabilities into its broader security platform, including identity intelligence, secure access, and Duo IAM.
The move reflects growing industry concern over risks tied to autonomous AI agents and machine-to-machine access. Analysts and reports have highlighted rising urgency among enterprises to secure non-human identities as AI adoption accelerates.
While Cisco did not disclose financial terms, Calcalist reports the deal to be valued at roughly $400 million.
The company raised $45 million in a Series B round in late 2024.
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