The latest products, which expand the company's relationship with antivirus software maker Trend Micro, are part of its Adaptive Threat Defence initiative. With that initiative, the networking giant seeks to build "intelligent networks" capable of defending themselves against security attacks.
Cisco is launching two products: Incident Control System, as part of its collaboration with Trend Micro, and Distributed Threat Mitigation for Cisco Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS).
Under the collaboration, Trend Micro TrendLabs will provide Cisco Incident Control System customers with current information on virus outbreaks and virus signatures. That information is designed to enable users to configure their systems to block the threats before they reach the core network assets.
Distributed Threat Mitigation for IPS is designed to let users identify, manage and eliminate attacks that are locally based. The feature is part of add-ons to the Cisco Security Monitoring Analysis and Response System (CS-MARS) version 4.1.
With its new product, Cisco's IPS appliance sensors detect threats, and then the Monitoring, Analysis and Response System version 4.1 distributes the information across the network to Cisco IPS-enabled routers to block the threat.
"The ICS takes information from Trend Micro's threat management services and sends a simple set of instructions to Cisco IPS software on either dedicated appliances or on switches and routers," said Jeff Platon, vice president of product and technology marketing at Cisco.
The instructions sent to the Cisco IPS systems could be to shut down a network service or network ports to block attacks, Platon said. "Customers need solutions that can be effectively managed within the first few minutes of an outbreak or detection of damage occurring."
Cisco on Tuesday also announced that it plans to release a new version of IPS this month and a new version of its Internetwork Operating System for routers and switches in November.
CNET News.com's Joris Evers contributed to this story.
