AI Revolution: Netscout Transforms Cybersecurity at MWC25 Summit

Summary

• AI Across Security Products: Netscout used MWC25 in Barcelona to explain how it is adding AI and automation to its security and service assurance tools.
• Telecom Industry Focus: The company’s main customers are mobile operators and other service providers.
• Shared Threat Data: More than 500 service providers feed Netscout data about the threats they see, which it turns into threat intelligence.
• Faster Response: Automation is meant to cut the time operators spend analyzing attacks and changing mitigations.
• Industry Impact: The pitch is less manual work and faster recovery when an attack or outage hits.

AI for Telecom Security

Telecom networks carry everyone else’s traffic, so attacks on them hit far beyond one company. At MWC Barcelona 2025, Netscout laid out how it is using AI to help operators run and defend those networks. Its main focus is cutting the workload for security and operations teams.

Netscout’s CTO for Security, Darren Anstee, said the company is extending AI and automation into its security products through new kinds of threat intelligence and new features. The goal is to reduce operational overhead for customers while speeding up threat response. On the service assurance side, the company promoted Omnis AI Insights, which uses AI on curated packet data to surface the main problem and the root cause behind it.

Why Telecom Is Different

Service providers face a particular problem. Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks now change during the attack itself, mixing several vectors at once. An operator may block one wave, then have to change its configuration five minutes later when the attack shifts.

Scale makes it harder. When a nation-state-linked group targets several organizations at once, a provider may be fighting the same campaign across many customers in parallel. Each change multiplies the work.

Threat Intelligence From Providers

Netscout’s security strategy leans on data. Anstee said more than 500 service providers send Netscout information every hour about their view of the internet and the threats they detect. Netscout refines that into threat intelligence and sends it back to customers every three hours, so they can see where attacks are coming from and act earlier.

Anstee summed up the demand: “What customers fundamentally want is more automated capability, which leads to faster response.” In his view, time to respond is everything, whether the problem is an outage or an attack.

Automation Against Shifting Attacks

The company says it is building AI into its products to analyze attack traffic and automate configuration changes. Operators spend less time on analysis and repeated mitigation work. They get the data they need faster.

Speed is the point. Attacks that change mid-stream punish slow, manual responses, and service providers rarely have spare staff.

What It Means for the Industry

Netscout is one of many vendors adding AI to network security, but its telecom focus matters. Service providers see huge volumes of traffic, which makes them good candidates for automated analysis.

The broader trend is clear across the industry: AI is being used less as a headline feature and more to cut routine work for overstretched teams. Netscout’s message at MWC25 fit that pattern.

The Takeaway

Netscout’s MWC25 message was practical. Use AI to turn large amounts of network data into faster answers and fewer manual steps.

Whether it delivers will show up in how quickly operators can detect and stop attacks. For telecom networks that carry everyone else’s traffic, minutes matter.

John King, CISSP, PMP, CISM

John King currently works in the greater Los Angeles area as a ISSO (Information Systems Security Officer). John has a passion for learning and developing his cyber security skills through education, hands on work, and studying for IT certifications.