- On Tuesday, Cisco announced that it will share "cybercrime" data with the international police network Interpol.
- The data includes information and analysis on security threats that Cisco already adds through an existing research arm, Cisco Talos.
- The company said it will not share information about the vulnerabilities of customers.
- It is a warm nod to the application of the law in an industry that generally requires search warrants before sharing any data.
Cisco will now share "cybercrime" data with the international police network Interpol, the company announced on Tuesday. That information includes "threat intelligence" to support Interpol's work "focusing both on 'pure cybercrime' and on crimes committed to help member countries identify cyber attacks and their perpetrators."
A spokeswoman for the company told Business Insider that Cisco will not share customer data with Interpol, which includes data on individual customer networks or security vulnerabilities.
Cisco is a large provider of enterprise hardware, such as routers and switches, which functionally serve as a backbone for the entire Internet. This means that the company has access to data about some of the largest corporations and governments in the world.
Part of the data shared with Interpol will come from Cisco Talos, an existing security research group that aggregates and analyzes security data. Cisco said its security technology currently blocks 19.7 billion "threats" per day.
US technology companies generally require orders before sharing data
Although a letter is politically neutral, Interpol has been accused of benefiting some countries over others. In October, for example, Russia was allowed to put a British critic of Vladimir Putin on the wanted list of Interpol in what was considered a politically motivated request.
Although many technology companies have government agencies as clients, Cisco's collaboration with Interpol is a big shift from the historical approach of technology to data requests from law enforcement agencies. Companies like Apple and Twitter, for example, generally require orders before sharing any information with the police.
However, Cisco is billing this partnership as a necessary step to address global cybersecurity challenges.
John Stewart, senior vice president and director of security at Cisco, said in a statement that it is up to the public and private sectors to address cybersecurity with "the same force."
"We are pleased to work with Interpol to exchange intelligence on threats and find other knowledge exchange opportunities to fight cybercrime around the world," said Stewart.
