News Summary:
- The NFL and Cisco worked together to secure the biggest sporting and television event in the United States.
- A full suite of Cisco Secure solutions, backed by Cisco Talos threat intelligence, provided end-to-end visibility before, during, and after the game.
- In collaboration with Cisco, the NFL is building a repeatable network security playbook that can be readily deployed at future League events.
San Jose, Calif., – February 15, 2022 – Cisco, a leader in enterprise networking and security, and an Official Technology Partner of the NFL, worked with the League to make Super Bowl LVI one of the most secure and resilient on record. As the largest sporting and television event in the U.S., the Super Bowl is a highly visible target for adversaries from around the world, which is why the NFL trusted Cisco’s industry-leading security technology and expertise to defend its mission-critical gameday operations.
Cisco helped the NFL design, implement, and operate the end-to-end security platform for the NFL’s enterprise network at Super Bowl LVI, enabling 100 percent up-time during the game. Across critical aspects of gameday operations and multiple locations leading up to the game, Cisco technology secured the Super Bowl at Sofi Stadium, which has a single, converged Cisco network, that is inherently secure and capable of hosting the world’s largest sporting events.
“Cisco’s extensive experience securing large events and deep understanding of the threat landscape ensured that we were well-prepared ahead of Super Bowl LVI,” said Tomás Maldonado, NFL Chief Information Security Officer. “I am extremely appreciative of the entire Cisco team and their support, and I look forward to continue working with them in the future to refine our network security planning and execution for the biggest game in the world.”
“We are honored that the NFL trusted Cisco technology and talent to ensure vital operations remained resilient during Super Bowl LVI,” said Chuck Robbins, Chair and CEO at Cisco. “We share the vision that connectivity will reshape the sports industry and redefine what is possible to elevate the sporting and fan experiences, but we also have a responsibility to ensure it’s done securely.”
The complete security architecture provided end-to-end visibility with a combination of on-premise hardware and cloud-based software, including Cisco Secure Firewall, Secure Malware Analytics and Umbrella – unified within Cisco’s cloud-native platform SecureX. All solutions are fed intelligence from Cisco Talos, the world’s largest commercial threat intelligence organization. Cybersecurity experts from Cisco Talos Incident Response and Cisco Customer Experience (CX) services supported the NFL on-site to prepare for the event and respond to potential threats during the game to prevent disruptions.
The NFL is also working with Cisco to build a repeatable and portable security platform and playbook for future League events. This will enable the NFL to deploy secure and resilient enterprise networks quickly and effortlessly for its high-profile events going forward.
In its first year as an Official Partner of the NFL, Cisco has connected every NFL stadium’s replay control room back to the Art McNally Gameday Central in New York City via Cisco network infrastructure. In addition, nearly all the league’s Official Partners and two-thirds of NFL stadiums rely on Cisco technology.
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