Cisco Secure Access is integrated with Microsoft’s Edge for Business, combining Cisco’s Security Services Edge (SSE) platform with Microsoft’s enterprise browser to add browser-based security, data protection, and AI governance capabilities.
This integration enables organizations to apply Cisco security policies directly within Edge for Business, including zero trust access controls, data loss prevention (DLP) protection, and threat detection capabilities for users accessing applications and data through the browser.
Organizations can now apply DLP policies to generative AI tools accessed through Edge for Business, preventing employees from sharing sensitive information with public AI models. AI agents operating through Microsoft’s Copilot environment are subject to the same security and data protection policies as human users.
This integration extends beyond browser activity and includes visibility into AI agent actions through Cisco’s Model Context Protocol (MCP) security capabilities. Cisco said the technology allows organizations to gain visibility into what AI agents are doing and apply policy controls at the AI tool invocation layer.
Cisco has expanded its AI security portfolio to manage AI models, applications, and agent systems as enterprises move beyond experimentation and begin to deploy AI into production environments. That push includes partnerships with Nvidia, Red Hat and others around Cisco’s Secure AI Factory, a full-stack, security-fused AI infrastructure platform.
New integration with Microsoft’s Edge for Business brings together browser-level and network-level security controls into one policy framework. Organizations can use one set of DLP policies across web browsing, private application access, and endpoint environments instead of managing separate controls for each layer.
Cisco positioned this product as a way to support Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) environments and third-party contractors by providing browser-based access control without the need for traditional VPN-based access methods. The company also said that the combination of Edge for Business and Secure Access may serve as an alternative for some virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) deployments.
For data protection, Cisco’s DLP technology inspects browser activity and web traffic to identify and prevent unauthorized transmission of sensitive information. Organizations can leverage pre-built data identifiers and custom rules to create policies that target specific users, applications, or destinations while detecting regulated or proprietary information.
As employees increasingly access generated AI applications through their browsers, vendors are adding browser-level controls to monitor data sharing, enforce governance policies, and manage AI agent activity. For example, in April, Cato Networks announced an enterprise browser focused on using AI and securing BYOD environments, claiming that browser-based controls would provide better visibility into employee interactions with AI tools.
