2 Men Linked to China's Salt Typhoon Hacker Group Likely Trained in a Cisco 'Academy'

The names of two partial owners of firms linked to the Salt Typhoon hacker group also appeared in records for a Cisco training program--years before the group targeted Cisco's devices in a spy campaign. Cisco's Networking Academy, a global training program designed to educate IT students in the basics of IT networks and cybersecurity, proudly touts its accessibility to participants around the world: "We believe education can be the ultimate equalizer, enabling anyone, regardless of background, to develop expertise and shape their destiny in a digital era," reads the first line on its website. That laudable statement, however, reads a bit differently when the "destiny" of those students appears to be owning a majority stake in companies linked to one of the most successful Chinese state-sponsored hacking operations ever to target the West--and many of Cisco's own products . That's the surprising conclusion of Dakota Cary, a researcher at cybersecurity firm SentinelOne and the Atlantic Council, who, like many security analysts, has closely tracked the Chinese state-sponsored hacker group known as Salt Typhoon . That cyberespionage group gained notoriety last year when it was revealed that the hackers had penetrated at least nine telecom companies and gained the ability to spy on Americans' real-time calls and texts, specifically targeting then-presidential and vice presidential candidates Donald Trump and JD Vance, among many others.