Cisco Secure Access is integrating with Microsoft's Edge for Business, combining Cisco's security service edge (SSE) platform with Microsoft's enterprise browser to add browser-based security, data protection, and AI governance capabilities.

The integration allows organizations to enforce Cisco security policies directly within Edge for Business, including zero-trust access controls, data loss prevention (DLP) protections, and threat detection capabilities for users accessing applications and data through the browser.

Organizations will be able to apply DLP policies to generative AI tools accessed through Edge for Business, helping prevent employees from sharing sensitive information with public AI models. AI agents operating through Microsoft's Copilot environment will also be subject to the same security and data protection policies as human users.

The integration extends beyond browser activity to include visibility into AI agent actions through Cisco's model context protocol (MCP) security capabilities. Cisco said the technology gives organizations visibility into what AI agents are doing and allows them to apply policy controls at the AI tool-call layer.

Cisco has been expanding its AI security portfolio to govern AI models, applications, and agentic systems as enterprises move beyond experimentation and begin deploying AI into production environments. That push has included partnerships with the likes of Nvidia and Red Hat around Cisco’s Secure AI Factory, a full‑stack, security‑fused AI infrastructure platform.

The new integration with Microsoft’s Edge for Business combines browser-level and network-level security controls into a single policy framework. Organizations can use one set of DLP policies across web browsing, private application access, and endpoint environments rather than managing separate controls for each layer.

Cisco positioned the offering as a way to support bring-your-own-device (BYOD) environments and third-party contractors by providing browser-based access controls without requiring traditional VPN-based access methods. The company also said the combination of Edge for Business and Secure Access could serve as an alternative to some virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) deployments.

On the data protection side, Cisco's DLP technology inspects browser activity and web traffic to identify and prevent unauthorized transfers of sensitive information. Organizations can create policies targeting specific users, applications, or destinations while leveraging prebuilt data identifiers and custom rules to detect regulated or proprietary information.

As employees increasingly access generative AI applications through browsers, vendors have been adding browser-level controls to monitor data sharing, enforce governance policies, and manage AI-agent activity. In April, for example, Cato Networks launched an enterprise browser focused on securing AI usage and BYOD environments, arguing that browser-based controls provide better visibility into employee interactions with AI tools.