思科警告随着生成式 AI 加速攻击者的漏洞发现与利用效率，老旧网络设备的安全风险急剧放大。路由器、交换机、NAS 等遗留设施往往运行已废弃配置、缺乏补丁支持，成为入侵首选目标。英、美、德、法、日五国关键基础设施风险对比显示：英国遗留技术风险最高、美国次之；日本最低，因其持续升级、基础设施更分散、且国家层面数字韧性投入更一致。研究强调全球大量入侵事件源于对已知漏洞的重复利用，而这些风险本可通过更新或淘汰 EOL 技术避免。

思科推出“Resilient Infrastructure”计划，将在设备接近生命周期终点时新增强制性警告，并逐步移除不再安全的历史配置与互操作选项。公司指出全球基础设施老化严重，而遗留系统从未为当前威胁环境设计。不升级使攻击者成本更低、成功率更高。研究方 WPI Strategy 指出“维持现状并非无成本”，未计入的安全债务正在累积；将该风险提升至董事会层级，有助于推动必要投资。

尽管升级可能被视为厂商自利行为，思科强调其并不从 20 年前售出的设备获利；问题在于组织是否应升级，而不在于是否选择继续购买思科设备。生成式 AI 虽无法独立执行复杂攻击，但已显著提高社会工程、漏洞发现与恶意软件改进速度，使低技术攻击者获益，熟练攻击团队效率进一步提升。思科称必须“打破沉默风险”，推动基础设施现代化。

Cisco warns that generative AI sharply amplifies the security risks of aging routers, switches, and NAS devices, which often retain deprecated configurations and lack vendor patch support. Cross-country analysis of critical infrastructure in the US, UK, Germany, France, and Japan found the UK faces the highest relative risk from legacy tech, followed closely by the US; Japan the lowest due to more regular upgrades, greater decentralization, and stronger national focus on digital resilience. The research stresses that many global breaches stem from exploitation of known vulnerabilities that could be eliminated by retiring end-of-life systems.

Cisco’s “Resilient Infrastructure” initiative introduces explicit end-of-life warnings and will eventually remove unsafe historic settings and interoperability modes. The company notes that legacy infrastructure was never designed for modern threat environments and that failure to upgrade makes adversaries’ jobs easier. Consultants at WPI Strategy argue that maintaining outdated systems carries hidden costs; elevating infrastructure aging to a board-level issue is necessary to spur investment.

Addressing concerns of self-interest, Cisco emphasizes it no longer profits from equipment sold decades ago; whether organizations upgrade is separate from whether they choose Cisco. Meanwhile, AI tools—though unable to independently execute complex attacks—are already accelerating social engineering, vulnerability identification, and malware refinement, boosting both low-skill attackers and highly resourced teams. Cisco argues it is time to “make loud” the silent risk of aging infrastructure.