OVERVIEW
ROLE
Research
Ideation
Conceptualization
UX Design
User Testing
2 UX Designers
TEAM
March '24 - May'24
TIMELINE
Miro
Figma
Dovetail
TOOLS
Enhancing Cisco's AI Firewall Assistant and Policy Assistant builds user trust, improves transparency, and aligns with facilitating more effective and secure firewall management.
WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?
Users were hesitant to trust Cisco's AI Firewall Assistant and Policy Assistant for automatically deploying security rules due to lack of transparency, and concerns over data usage and critical task handling.
HOW AM I SOLVING IT?
We enhanced the AI assistants by allowing users to control their data usage and making AI actions transparent. The system identifies redundant rules, prompts to test new rules before deployment, and asks follow-up questions to ensure accuracy.
WHAT IS THE IMPACT?
These enhancements build user trust, improve transparency, and align the AI with user-specific security outcomes, resulting in more effective and secure firewall management.
Project in a nutshell - TL; DR
But, wait. Why care about the problem?
Because…
AI policy writing tools could save policy administrators untold hours of time as well as level some skill gaps within security teams.
- Cisco Security Team
Security Products
We wanted to understand examples of AI enhanced security products CISCO is currently working on.
The challenges that CISCO has come across with clients working with AI.
Client Challenges
Cisco's Solution
To understand what has CISCO already done to address these concerns.
Understanding The Problem!
Before we deep dive into the problem space we wanted to understand the current AI usage and gap
We wanted to cover three broad themes;
Yeah, exactly!!
Nathan
Keith
Hey Keith, what do you think about Security Management AI Assistants?
Me
Oh, so probably something where you are kept in the loop?
Me
I am just concerned about what happens behind the scenes when we provide all the information to these AI assistants.
Keith
Also, AI performs actions in the background. We have no clue how our data is used. We don't have immediate control over it.
Nathan
To understand more about the issues faced by clients, we spoke to Nathan and Keith from the University Technology Department.
User Control
Users want to be in control of their data and decide what to share.
Users want to know what's happening with their data.
System Visibility
Regular Updates
They want to stay informed and receive updates regularly.
We were able to gain some powerful insights into what users want;
What are the challenges for Cisco clients working with AI?
Me
A few of our clients are a bit hesitant to trust AI Assistants to handle tasks.
Cisco Employee
Oh, so was your team able to figure out why are the clients reluctant?
Me
And these tasks significantly impact security operations!
Cisco Employee
Yes, because these AI assistants are trained on our enterprise page data.
Cisco Employee
We interviewed Cisco employees to learn more about the product by covering the three themes and discovered three important key insights.
There’s scope for Cisco to be more transparent about their AI integrations.
By now, we had a key insight that;
But HOW???
Empower Users
Instill Transparency
Build Trust
This allowed us to analyze the three main goals of the project;
AI Tools To Instill Trust!
We chose two products: Policy Assistant and Firewall Assistant because….
To empower users to proactively identify and respond to security threats with confidence.
Firewall Assistant
Policy Assistant
To instill transparency and control mechanisms, allowing users to create and edit security rules.
Security Simplified, Trust Amplified
PRESENTING
Onboarding
Users can see how their data is used and customize/deactivate data sources, ensuring control and transparency.
AI Analysis
The AI assesses if more information is needed, providing follow-up questions for clarity and collaboration.
Rationale & Suggestions
The AI supplies reasoning for its suggestions using the firewall assistant, enhancing trust and transparency.
credits: Ritwik Mittal (teammate)
Policy Testing
The integrated umbrella policy tester allows users to run tests
on rules before implementing reducing errors.
Feedback Loop
The AI makes suggestions and takes user feedback, creating a feedback loop for improved results.
Continuous Learning
The AI improves with user interactions, increasingly helping administrators achieve their goals.
credits: Ritwik Mittal (teammate)
Establishing Framework
To achieve the three goals, to empower users, instill transparency and build trust, we enhanced the user experience by first establishing a framework!
We designed the enhanced framework that integrates various tools into one system.
Handing Over Control
When users start a chat with the AI assistant, they will see a badge prompting them to learn about data usage.
User will have full control over what data they want to share and what they don't want to share with the system.
credits: Ritwik Mittal (teammate)
Visibility of System Status
We followed a heuristic from the NN group, the AI will vocalize all its actions, ensuring users are informed and not left in the dark.
credits: Ritwik Mittal (teammate)
Avoiding Redundancies
AI assesses the current security setup to find redundancies and suggest changes, if needed.
Additionally, we provided links to rule details to reinforce transparency, ensuring that nothing is hidden from the users.
credits: Ritwik Mittal (teammate)
Testing Before Deploying
Once a rule is approved by the user, it doesn't go straight to deployment. The AI will ask if the user wants to test the rule before deploying it.
This step is optional, putting the user in control. Users also have option to view the testing live.
credits: Ritwik Mittal (teammate)
Transparency and Live
During testing, the AI shows progress to enhance transparency and trust. Users also have the option to view the test live.
credits: Ritwik Mittal (teammate)
Being Relevant
When needed, the AI will ask follow-up questions to gain sufficient information, rather than providing irrelevant results.
credits: Ritwik Mittal (teammate)
FINAL SOLUTION
After presenting the enhanced framework to the team, we designed mockups for the final design concepts.
Learnings
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