Cisco to protect routers and switches with Trend Micro anti-virus software

Cisco said today that it wil incorporate tools and virus signatures from anti-virus company Trend Micro into the security software that runs on its routers, switcher and other equipment.

This agreement is an extension of already existing deals between the two companies. It's ment to help avoid vulnerabilities on networks, and to adopt real-time outbreak-prevention strategies on Cisco routers and switches.

In the first phase of the agreement, the networking giant will integrate Trend Micro's worm and virus signatures with the intrusion-detection system Cisco uses in its networking equipment. Later, Trend Micro will install software designed to help with vulnerability assessment, outbreak prevention and damage cleanup.

Better vulnerability assessment helps companies isolate and shield vulnerable machines from attack. Outbreak prevention, meanwhile, aids in detecting, filtering and containing outbreaks in the early stages of a new attack. Filtering is said to be one of the weak points of Cisco networks.

Research from Gartner recently pointed out that more than 30% of traffic on some network backbones excists out of spam, worms and viruses.

Source: Zdnet