Palo Alto Networks, a global leader in cybersecurity, is intensifying its focus on cloud security with the introduction of Cortex® Cloud. The new version of Prisma Cloud combines releases of its best cloud detection and response (CDR) and cloud-native application protection platform (CNAPP) solutions on the unified Cortex platform. The solution equips security teams with significant innovations driven by AI and automation that go beyond traditional cloud security approaches and disrupt attacks in real time.
Unit 42® reports reveal that 80% of security exposures occurred in cloud attack surfaces, a 66% increase in threats targeting such environments. As cloud adoption and AI usage grow, Cortex Cloud unifies data, automates workflows, and applies AI-based insights to reduce risks, prevent threats, and disrupt attacks in real time. The solution is designed to ingest and analyze data from third-party tools, providing centralized visibility and end-to-end remediation across the entire cloud security ecosystem.
Lee Klarich, Chief Product Officer at Palo Alto Networks, states: “As more critical business applications migrate to the cloud, security must evolve to include rapid, high-level protection. To make full security adoption as easy as possible for our customers, we are including CNAPP at no additional cost for every Cortex Cloud Runtime Security customer. We are delivering the next generation of cloud security, enabling organizations to prevent, detect, investigate, and respond quickly to threats across their entire infrastructure.”
Cortex Cloud reinforces Palo Alto Networks’ platform strategy by restructuring cloud security on the AI-based Cortex SecOps platform, providing a unified and powerful user experience with dashboards and workflows tailored for different profiles. The tool helps customers achieve superior protection with significantly lower total cost of ownership, offering additional value and new features, including:
- Application security: build secure applications and prevent issues before they become vulnerabilities in production that could be exploited by attackers. Cortex Cloud identifies and prioritizes flaws throughout the development pipeline, providing end-to-end context between code, runtime, cloud, and new third-party scanners.
- Cloud security posture: improve risk management in multi-cloud environments with AI-based prioritization, guided fixes to resolve multiple risks with a single action, and automated remediation. Additionally, Cortex Cloud offers a unified user experience with full integration between all Prisma Cloud cloud security posture capabilities.
- Cloud runtime: disrupt attacks in real time. The release natively integrates the unified Cortex XDR agent, enriched with additional cloud data sources, to prevent threats with advanced analytics. All of this is backed by industry-leading results in the latest MITRE ATT&CK tests. The new cloud runtime security offering includes the world’s best CNAPP capabilities at no additional cost, maximizing adoption of end-to-end security on a single platform.
- SOC: the preferred SOC platform for enterprises and cloud environments goes beyond what any SIEM can offer. Cortex Cloud natively integrates cloud data, context, and workflows within Cortex XSIAM, significantly reducing mean time to response (MTTR) to modern threats with a unified SecOps solution.
“Security teams need to mitigate risks to reduce the chance of cyber incidents and, if they occur, must respond as quickly as possible. Our research shows that teams struggle with remediation efficiency because application security tools, cloud security, and related operations have always worked in isolation. With the introduction of Cortex Cloud, Palo Alto Networks delivers a unified platform from code to cloud and SOC. The goal is to provide security teams with the necessary context to prioritize and execute remediation actions with the greatest impact on risk reduction while accelerating detection and response in security operations,” emphasizes Melinda Marks, Director of Cybersecurity Practices at Enterprise Strategy Group.
Customer deliveryCurrent Prisma Cloud customers will have a seamless upgrade to Cortex Cloud and can experience simplified, real-time cloud security. Existing Cortex XSIAM customers who add Cortex Cloud can easily adopt CNAPP capabilities, which are natively designed into the world’s most comprehensive AI-based SecOps platform for enterprises and cloud. The solution will be available to customers by the end of April.
Cortex Cloud partner launch
Introducing Cortex Cloud to customers are Palo Alto Networks’ integration partners: CyberCX, Deloitte, IBM, and Orange Cyberdefense. Together with each, Palo Alto Networks will drive end-to-end transformation of security operations (SecOps) in enterprise and cloud environments, enabling organizations to achieve superior risk reduction, rapid threat prevention, and enhanced operational efficiency.
