Cisco Systems

Structure

By August 2019, Cisco's business structure is divided between the following main areas:

• Infrastructure Platforms (switches, routers and data center solutions );
• Applications (teleconferencing software and products);
• Security (information security solutions);
• Services.

Performance indicators

White Paper: Cisco Systems Financials

The fiscal year ends at the end of July.

2024: Revenue cut by 6% to $53.8 billion

Revenue Cisco for the fiscal year ended July 27, 2024 amounted to $53.8 billion. This is 6% less compared to 2022, when the indicator was at around $57 billion. The fall was recorded for the first time since 2020. The network equipment supplier reported on the results of its activities on August 14, 2024.

In total Cisco sales, products in fiscal 2024 accounted for $39.25 billion against $43.14 billion a year earlier. Another $14.55 billion was provided by various services ($13.86 billion in fiscal 2023). This indicates that the company's equipment is selling worse. Cisco's core networking business, which includes switches and routers, has been trending downward since large enterprises began to move en masse to the cloud.

It is noted that the total revenue from subscriptions for the reporting period reached $27.4 billion (including Splunk), which is equivalent to 51% of total income. Sales software amounted to $18.4 billion, which is 9% more than a year earlier. Subscriptions ON to brought in $16.4 billion - plus 15% on an annualized basis: their share was at the level of 89% of total income in the software segment.

In fiscal 2024, Cisco recorded a net profit of $10.3 billion. For comparison, a year earlier, the company earned $12.6 billion. Thus, there was a drop of 18%.

The report also said that in the closed fiscal year, Cisco faced a decline in revenue in all geographic regions. So, in the American market, the fall on an annualized basis was 4% with a final result of $31.97 billion. In Europe, the Middle East and Africa, sales fell by 7%, reaching $14.12 billion. In the Asia-Pacific region, Japan and China, revenue decreased year-on-year by 8% - to $7.72 billion.^[1]

Cisco in Russia

Main article: Cisco Systems Russia (Sisko Systems)

Sisko Systems LLC - operates the company in Russia.

Cisco Systems Partner Program

Основная статья: Cisco Systems Partner Network

Acquisitions of other companies

White Paper: Cisco Acquisitions

Over the course of its history, the American corporation Cisco has acquired hundreds of companies. A roundup of many deals here.

Cisco Employees and Jobs

White Paper: Cisco Employees and Jobs

Everything you wanted to know about staff reductions, employee incidents in the company, etc.

History

2024: Russia closes entry to Cisco and Micro Focus representatives in response to Britain's aggressive anti-Russian course

In connection with the continuation by the British government of the "aggressive anti-Russian course," within the framework of which London declares the task of inflicting a "strategic defeat on the battlefield" on Russia, actively applies the mechanism of sanctions restrictions and conducts a subversive information and propaganda campaign, a decision was made to include in the Russian "stop list" a number of representatives of government agencies, the IT sector and the UK legal services market. The Russian Foreign Ministry announced this on its website on April 10, 2024 ^[2] Among them were employees of Micro Focus and Cisco companies. Read more here.

2023: Scam of the Century: Fraudster sells fake Cisco network devices for $1 billion

On June 6, 2023, the US Department of Justice announced that Florida resident Onur Aksoy pleaded guilty to organizing a large-scale fraudulent scheme to sell fake Cisco network equipment. The total damage is estimated at $1 billion. Read more here.

2022

Florida man arrested on charges of selling $1 billion counterfeit Cisco equipment

On July 11, 2022, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that a Florida resident was arrested and charged with importing and selling counterfeit Cisco network equipment, the cost of which, if genuine, would exceed $1 billion. Read more here.

Hacking the corporate network with voice phishing attacks

On August 10, 2022, Cisco confirmed that the ransomware group Yanluowang had infiltrated its corporate network in late May 2022 and extorted money under the pretext of leaking stolen files to the Internet.

The company said the attackers were able to collect and steal only non-confidential data from a Box folder linked to the account of the hacked employee.

Cisco corporate network hacked

A serious incident occurred on the Cisco corporate network at the end of May 2022, and we immediately took measures to localize and prevent the actions of intruders, a Cisco spokesman said. Cisco has not identified any damage to our business as a result of this incident, including Cisco products or services, confidential customer data or employee confidential information, intellectual property, or supply chain transactions.

On August 10, attackers posted a list of files stolen as a result of this attack on the darknet. We have taken additional steps to protect our systems and are sharing technical details to help the security community.

Members of the Yanluowang group entered the Cisco network using stolen credentials of a company employee after intercepting his personal Google account containing credentials synchronized with his browser.

The attackers convinced a Cisco employee to accept push multifactor authentication (MFA) notifications using the MFA fatigue method and a series of sophisticated voice phishing attacks initiated by Yanluowang that posed as verified support services.

Yanluowang claims that 2.75 GB of data consisting of about 3,100 files was stolen. Many of these files are nondisclosure agreements, data dumps and engineering drawings.

The ransomware also provided a redacted NDA document stolen in the attack as evidence and a "hint" that they had infiltrated Cisco's network and stolen the files.

The ransomware announced the hacking of the Cisco network on its data breach website and published the same list of files that were previously provided, which confirms the group's activities.^[3]

2021

Salary €20 thousand per month and welcome bonus of $500 thousand. How Cisco Hants Russian Developers

The Russian developer Iva Technologies often faces the problem of hunting his specialists from foreign vendors, said the CEO of this company, Stanislav Iodkovsky answering TAdviser questions at a press conference "Russoft" in September 2021. According to him, in 2020 there were about 10 attempts to hunt IVA Technologies specialists by the largest corporations.

As an example, Iodkovsky cited Cisco, which came out with a salary offer of about 20 thousand monthly and a residence permit in Holland. The proposal also included "transportation, home and another welcome bonus of about half a million dollars" for one of the key developers^[4]The salary offer is probably in euros, since we are talking about the Netherlands, the CEO of Iva Technologies added later in a conversation with TAdviser. Read more here.

2020

Cisco will pay Centripetal Networks $1.9 billion for violation of information security patents

In early October 2020 American , the district court ordered Cisco to pay more than $1.9 billion to a startup Centripetal Networks for violating four patents in the field. cyber security More. here

Cisco allowed to pay for all its products in 2021

On April 14, 2020, Cisco announced the Business Resilience financial program, which will allow the company's customers to continue purchasing technology solutions from it, even if they do not have enough funds to do so. Read more here.

2019

Court bans eBay from selling counterfeit Cisco equipment

In mid-December 2019, an American court banned online stores from selling counterfeit Cisco equipment. According to the court order, marketplaces like eBay, Amazon and AliExpress should stop selling Chinese-made gray products under the Cisco brand, including transceiver devices.

The lawsuit Cisco alleges that four Chinese companies manufactured fake versions of network equipment and sold them on several online sites. According to a representative of the American corporation, counterfeit equipment can threaten national security systems and, health care USA since these devices are more susceptible to failures, and updating and ensuring security software in such cases is difficult.

Court bans online retailers from selling counterfeit Cisco equipment

The ruling, issued by a federal court in the Eastern District of New York, concerns all Chinese manufacturers caught making counterfeit equipment, namely Shenzhen Tianheng Network, Gezhi Photonics Technology, Shenzhen Sourcelight Technology and Dariocom. It is estimated that these four companies alone account for more than half of the fake network equipment market.

Now Cisco is trying to gain support for industry-wide initiatives to combat the trade in counterfeit network equipment and is working with a Rowan TELS consultant to deploy its own programs. The company is also trying to take advantage of the court's decision to encourage other suppliers to join similar programs. So far, the U.S. government and tech companies are relying more on Chinese initiatives to combat counterfeit products. As part of another deal, Beijing has made certain commitments to protect intellectual property, the U.S. Trade Representative said.^[5]

How much do Cisco bosses earn

At the end of October 2019, Cisco provided documents to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in which it disclosed the income of top managers.

In fiscal 2019, the company's CEO Chuck Robbins earned $25.83 million from $21.28 million a year earlier. Most of the compensation package ($18.58 million) came from the payment of remuneration in the form of shares. In addition, the head was paid a salary of $1.33 million (in the 2018 reporting year - $1.23 million) and a cash bonus of $5.79 million.

Cisco provides documents to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in which it disclosed the income of top managers

The materials for the SEC say that under the leadership of Robbins, Cisco received record revenue, which in 2019 exceeded $50 billion. In addition, Robbins has built a "highly effective leadership team based on his demand for innovation, a deep focus on cross-functional partnerships, diversity and exceptional outcomes."

Kelly Kramer's earnings as executive vice president and CFO of Cisco at the end of fiscal 2019 turned out to be $13.63 million, while in 2018 it amounted to $11.44 million. The salary of the top manager rose from $763 thousand to $850 thousand, the cash bonus was increased from $1.86 million to $2.11 million, the bonus in the form of shares of the company was increased from $8.75 million to $10.61 million.

Cisco noted that thanks to Kelly Kramer, the company made five acquisitions in fiscal 2019 and integrated the purchased companies, which "led to the fulfillment of product and finance tasks" as well as "strong employee retention."

David Goeckeler, executive vice president and head of Cisco Networking and Security, was paid about $12.33 million in 2019, which exceeds the one-year-old figure ($11.09 million).^[6]

Cisco closes its own data centers and transfers data to public clouds

On August 15, 2019, it became known about Cisco's decision to close part of the data centers and transfer more data to public cloud services. Thus, the American company wants to reduce electricity consumption and costs.

By August 2019, Cisco has 22 data centers located in different countries. Within five years, this number is planned to be reduced by 30%, the Chief information officer Jacqueline Guichelaar said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

Jacqueline Guichelaar

As a technology company, we have a huge responsibility to always think about optimizing energy consumption, "she said.

Prior to taking the Chief information officer position in February 2019, Gishelaar held technology-related leadership positions at Thomson Reuters, Deutsche Bank and other major companies. In them, she focused on the problem of environmental impact, and moving to Cisco, Jacqueline Guichelaar made this issue one of the priorities.

Citing data from the Institute electronic engineers of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Chief information officer Cisco says that electricity used by one data center can provide energy to up to 25,000 households. Due to such statistics, it is important for technology companies to remember the importance of using their resources correctly, she added.

For more than 10 years, Cisco has been developing initiatives aimed at environmentally friendly, rational and long-term use of natural resources, Gishelaar said.

Back in 2008, the company began to reduce greenhouse gas emissions using technologies that consume less energy, such as specialized chips and fiber optic cables. U.S. producer network equipment plans to use renewable energy to meet at least 85% of its global electricity needs by the end of fiscal 2022.

Cisco closes its own data centers and transfers data to public clouds

As the WSJ notes, Jacqueline Guichelaar is not the only Chief information officer who raises issues of the environmental impact of the data centers of her companies. As part of these strategies, they are looking to move to public cloud services as their providers develop hyper-scalable data centers that are more energy efficient than enterprise facilities. Hyperscale facilities are often equipped with monotonous equipment that has the same power consumption and service life - due to this, energy efficiency is partially achieved compared to data centers of companies using heterogeneous systems, the joint operation of which is too costly in terms of electricity.

Some of Cisco's competitors have already completely moved their IT infrastructure to the public cloud. For example, Juniper Networks did this using Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. Cisco also uses public clouds for its infrastructure, but does not disclose which one, according to a WSJ publication.

The Internet, including computing infrastructure, can consume up to 15% of all electricity in the world and emit up to 20% of the world's energy-related carbon emissions by 2030, says Huawei Technologies researcher Anders Andrae. By 2019, these indicators are still 7% and 3%, respectively.

Environmental and cost issues sometimes go hand in hand, "said Jacqueline Guichelaar.[7]

Loss of government orders in China

On August 14, 2019, it became known that state-owned companies in China stopped placing orders from Cisco. This led to a 25 percent drop in the revenue of the American manufacturer of network equipment in the country.

For many years, we sold infrastructure to large operators in China, and all this time sales have been declining. Now this fall has accelerated a lot, which we, frankly, expected, - said Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins on a conference call with analysts on the occasion of the publication of financial year 2019 reports. - We are no longer invited to tenders. We are no longer allowed to participate in them.

Cisco cut off from government orders in China

According to Cisco CFO Kelly Kramer, Chinese companies have stopped purchasing Cisco equipment and prefer products from local manufacturers instead.

In a way, it's nationalism, "she said.

Problems in the Chinese market led Cisco to forecast earnings below analysts' expectations. According to the results of the first quarter of fiscal 2020, Cisco expects sales growth of 0-2%, to $13.07-13.33 billion, while analysts polled by Refinitiv predict revenue of $13.4 billion. Cisco's forecast for adjusted earnings also fell short of Wall Street expectations of 80-82 versus 83 cents per share, respectively.

The weak forecast led to a 4% drop in Cisco quotes to the exchange close on August 14, 2019. At electronic trading on the same day, the shares fell by 8%, to $46.6, notes The Register.

According to Reuters, although Cisco sales in China have declined sharply, they account for less than 3% of the company's total revenue. The decline in orders from large enterprises, especially in Britain, also negatively affected the vendor's financial performance.^[8]

Cisco punished for selling defective video surveillance software to US government

On July 31, 2019, it became known that Cisco agreed to settle a lawsuit, the initiators of which accused the company of selling defective software to the American government. This case could set a precedent for similar proceedings in the future. Read more here.

Opening the EMEAR Competence Center

Cisco on March 5, 2019 announced the expansion of the business support network in the EMEAR region, which includes Russia and countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. To this end, the company is opening a competence center in Lisbon, Portugal. Along with already operating similar organizations in Brussels and Krakow, the Lisbon centre will provide high quality maintenance, network management and optimization services throughout the EMEAR region.

In the competence center, both experienced engineers and recent graduates of educational institutions will be able to show their ability to serve customers in the areas of planning, design, implementation, optimization and technical support of networks. The set of personnel started at the end of February, with preference given to specialists in the field of information security, corporate networks and data centers.

Customers in the EMEAR region and around the world are accelerating digitalization processes in all sectors of the economy. By serving customers and partners implementing Cisco technologies that serve as the basis for digital transformation, the Lisbon Center will help them get the most out of their technology solutions, the company is confident.

Providing quality services for complex technical support is one of the key areas of Cisco development. We are pleased to open a competency center in Portugal, which will play a key role in the implementation of Cisco's global strategy for serving customers, partners and internal stakeholders of our organization both in the EMEAR region and beyond, "said Phil Wolfenden, vice president of Cisco, responsible for the work of competency centers in the EMEAR region.

2018

Rising prices of thousands of products due to Trump duties

In the fall of 2018, Cisco raised prices by almost 3 thousand of its products after the president USA Donald Trump introduced additional duties.

There has been a trade war between China and the United States since June 2018. A strong aggravation of the conflict occurred on September 24, when the US government introduced 10 percent customs duties on goods from the Middle Kingdom, the cost of which is estimated at $200 billion.

As the head of one of the American partner companies Cisco told CRN, the manufacturer of network equipment shifted the costs increased in connection with the new duties to the prices of each of its devices manufactured in China. Cisco sent its partners a list of 2,850 products affected by the increase in value.

Cisco raises prices of thousands of products after imposing additional duties on the import of goods from China

According to the interlocutor, many lines of Cisco equipment have risen in price, including some Catalyst routers, HyperFlex HX hyper-converged infrastructure solutions, 3900,  4300 and 4400 routers, ASR 900, 920, 1000 and 9000 routers.

Cisco confirmed to CRN an upward update to product prices, saying the duties "include networking equipment throughout the market and associated costs are offset by price changes."

Cisco will continue to interact with the presidential administration on this issue. We hope that the United States and China will be able to jointly find a solution through negotiations, the company noted.

Cisco also warned partners of another wave of price increases expected in January 2019 over new duties against China. The White House said that if China retaliates, then Washington will immediately impose additional tariffs for another $267 billion.

Partners surveyed by CRN say competition could escalate if Cisco makes and supplies more network components from China to the U.S. than other companies in the market.^[9]

Payments to top managers, including the head, were made public

At the end of October 2018, Chuck Robbins' earnings as Cisco CEO became known. The top manager earns 160 times the average employee of the company. The income of other executives is also considerable. Read more here.

Removing ads from YouTube

On May 10, 2018, Cisco announced the removal of its ads from YouTube, as the company fears that its ads began to appear in inappropriate videos.

As marketing director Karen Walker wrote in a Cisco blog post, the company doesn't like that its ads "accidentally fall into inappropriate places, like streaming videos with unwanted content." She also added that the network equipment maker will continue to use YouTube as a platform to distribute its videos.

Cisco removed ads from YouTube due to their appearance in unwanted videos

Some platforms do not properly track content on their sites. We at Cisco would prefer not to wait for something bad to happen. While Google and Facebook have taken some steps to address the issue, we have withdrawn all online ads from YouTube until the platform meets our standards, "Walker wrote.

According to Business Insider, Cisco's message about refusing to advertise on YouTube was removed from the site for several hours, after which an edited version was published, in which the mention of YouTube disappeared. In a new entry, the marketing director wrote that the company makes sure that its ads are not placed in videos or on sites that do not coincide with brand values.^[10]

Cisco explained the adjustment of the message by the fact that the company wanted to point out a problem in the market without specifying partners or customers.

In April 2018, CNN reported advertising from 300 companies, including Cisco, on extremist YouTube channels. The plot noted that business, without knowing it, can help finance these channels by placing ads.

As a result of this scandal, Google decided to revise YouTube rules, increase the staff of moderators and introduce additional AI algorithms for filtering content.^[11]

2017

City Infrastructure Financing Acceleration Program

In cities that are called "smart," cleaner air, safer streets and higher overall quality of life. At the same time, many of those in charge of financial flows struggle to find funds to fund transformations that would make their cities "smart." Helping to cope with budget difficulties, Cisco proposed in November 2017 the City Infrastructure Financing Program^[12], a total of $1 billion. The goal of the program is to make it more accessible for cities around the world to finance and implement technologies that will contribute to transformation.

The financing will be provided through Cisco Capital with the participation of the Digital Alpha Advisors investment fund and pension funds APG Asset Management (APG) and Whitehelm Capital.

The program is designed to help cities assemble a particular package of financial instruments for the introduction of innovative technologies with minimal initial investments. Whatever the municipality's goal - to reduce energy consumption, reduce traffic jams and facilitate parking, increase the occupancy and profitability of public transport, the new program will help find suitable solutions. Thus, financing based on the distribution of income will allow the city to tie investment to the desired results and then expand the future operating budget through revenues from new services that will appear as a result of digitalization of infrastructure.

See also Cisco Kinetic

In Cisco controllers, logins and passwords are statically defined in the control code

On July 7, 2017, Cisco Systems published security bulletins in connection with the identification and elimination of a number of critical errors in its cloud products. Some of the errors are a consequence of the ability to remotely run arbitrary code or elevate privileges in the system.

The Elastic Services Controller cloud controller revealed the presence of "static" pre-installed authorization data - unchanged, "sewn" into the code of administrative logins and passwords. With their help, attackers can remotely access the Cisco management console^[13].

Since this data is common to several different installations, an attacker can "generate a session administrator token that will allow access to all active ESC web consoles."

ESC discovered an error that allows you to elevate privileges: a preinstalled user with the nickname tomcat has access to some shell commands that allow overwriting any files in the system and elevating privileges to root (superuser).

In the Ultra Services Framework (USF) automation system, an unsafe configuration of the Apache ZooKeeper configuration and synchronization service was discovered. In theory, it can be used remotely to gain access to a particular device if an attacker manages to get into the orchestrator's network.

The framework contains a bug in the auxiliary server: a vulnerability in the AutoIT service allows you to remotely run arbitrary shell commands with superuser permissions.

Two more errors relate to USF. The first in the AutoVNF tool allows, in theory, administrative access to the entire ESC. The problem is that the administrator login and password are stored in a log file in an open (unencrypted) form, and if the attacker knows the address of this file, he can obtain authorization data.

The second error is in AutoVNF, and its method of generating a symbolic link ("simlink"). If there is a working exploit, an attacker can read any file or run arbitrary code without authorization on the system.

Updates have been released for all errors. Given their significance, patches should be installed as quickly as possible.

Reaction to leaked secret CIA documents

At the end of March 2017, the media reported on Cisco's reaction to, leak of classified documents CIA of which it became known about the use of tools by the American special services to hack IT equipment and. software

In materials published on the WikiLeaks website, it was reported that the CIA managed to find out about vulnerabilities in Cisco switches, which theoretically allowed surveillance of users of this technique.

Cisco logo at Mobile World Congress 2017 in Barslon

According to the Reuters news agency, citing unnamed Cisco employees, after the emergence of this leak, the company's leaders instantly attracted specialists from their various projects to find out how CIA hacking methods work, help Cisco customers fix their systems and prevent criminals from using the same cyber methods.

Around the clock for several days, Cisco programmers analyzed CIA hacking tools, fixed vulnerabilities and prepared notifications for company customers about possible risks when operating equipment. It is noted that more than 300 models of Cisco products were under threat of hacking.

CIA spokesman Heather Fritz Horniak did not comment on the Cisco case at the request of Reuters and only noted that the department had "the goal of being innovative, advanced and on the front line in protecting the country from foreign enemies."

Cisco reported that the CIA did not inform the company about the leak of information about the tools for possible hacking of the company's equipment.

Cisco still takes a firm position that they [in the CIA - approx. TAdviser] should report all the vulnerabilities found, since this is how we can fix them and warn our customers, said company spokeswoman Yvonne Malmgren[14]

Identify defects in company devices

On February 20, 2017, Cisco announced the identification of defective clock management schemes in a number of proprietary network devices. Clock generators in the company's devices can fail 18 months after the start of operation.

The company announced the identification of cases of degradation of the Clock Signal Component (Clock Signal Component), which occurs over time. While these components manufactured by Cisco are working properly, however, over the years, the risk of their failure increases.

The start of component problems at Cisco is estimated at about 18 months from the start of equipment operation. After the component fails, the device will stop loading - the motherboard will need to be replaced. The budgeted $125 million to cover the costs for potential compensation, millions in the company called client support.

According to experts, the problem with the generators affected the products:

• NCS1K-CNTLR
• NCS5500 Line Cards
• IR809/IR829
• ISR4331, ISR4321, ISR4351
• UCS-E120
• ASA 5506, 5506W, 5506H, 5508, and 5516
• Cisco ISA3000
• N9K-C9504-FM-E/N9K-C9508-FM-E/N9K-X9732C-EX
• MX 84
• MS350 Series

When planning to cover damage from defective control schemes in network communicators and routers, Cisco reserved $125 million.

Despite the decrease in net profit, the company's total quarterly revenue reached $11.580 billion instead of the projected $11.557 billion. Experts noted Cisco's "moderate optimism" - the company plans to compensate for the damage from the reduction in its profile business in the field of network equipment by the development of cloud services. But an additional financial blow to the company could come from failing clock control circuits in the devices. The list of devices was published on the Cisco website.

2016

Revenues of top managers

In October 2016, Cisco revealed the income of its top managers. The salary of the new head of the American company turned out to be higher than that of his predecessor.

According to the Reuters news agency, citing documents provided by Cisco to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), at the end of fiscal 2016, the compensation package of CEO Chuck Robbins amounted to $16 million. This amount included a salary of $1.2 million. Most CEO rewards are bonuses in the form of stocks, most of which have limited circulation and are tied to Cisco's financial results.

New Cisco chapter unexpectedly earns more than predecessor

John Chambers, who headed the company until July 2015, and by the end of October 2016, serving as executive chairman of the board of directors, earned $9.9 million in this position, while in fiscal 2015 the employer paid him $19.6 million. Chambers' annual salary was $1.02 million.

Nora McCord, managing director of the consulting company Steven Hall & Partners, says that it is rare to meet an American company in which a new head began to earn at least as much as his predecessor, especially when it comes to appointing an employee of the same company to the highest position. As a rule, the new CEO is first paid only 15% of the amount that the previous manager received, and the increase in income to the same level occurs no earlier than two to three years after the appointment, McChord notes.

Cisco CFO Kelly Kramer received total remuneration of $9.1 million for fiscal year 2016, which is 7% more than a year earlier. The salary of a top manager was measured at $749 thousand.^[15]

Cisco admits a hole from US intelligence agencies in its devices

On September 21, 2016, experts from the Shadowserver Foundation group, which monitors the activity of hacker botnets, calculated the number of Cisco network devices containing a vulnerability that could be exploited by American law enforcement agencies for cyber espionage in the national interest.

This is a CVE-2016-6415 vulnerability that Cisco reported remains in IOS software (4.3.x, 5.0.x, 5.1.x and 5.2.x; version 5.3.0 and higher is out of danger), IOS XE (all versions), and IOS XR (all versions) for network equipment. This vulnerability was exploited by the hacker group Equation Group, whose activities are directly associated with the US National Security Agency (NSA).

According to the Shadowserver Foundation, by September 21, 2016, more than 840,000 devices from the American manufacturer are vulnerable

The existence of CVE-2016-6415 in Cisco routers, switches, and firewalls allows attackers to remotely access memory where sensitive information can be stored. According to the Shadowserver Foundation, by September 21, 2016, more than 840,000 devices from the American manufacturer were vulnerable.

Most unsafe equipment (more than 255 thousand) was found in the United States. Russia in this indicator is in second place (42,281), Great Britain - in third (42,138).

This is followed by Canada (41,115 ), Germany (35,132), Japan (33,092 ), Mexico (26,970 ), France (26,818 ), Australia (22,827 ), China (22,767) and Italy (21,308 ). In Ukraine , 8,514 Cisco devices have been spotted containing the CVE-2016-6415 vulnerability.

Shadowserver Foundation experts note that there is no evidence that other manufacturers' products are exposed to the same vulnerability, but the risk still remains.

By September 21, 2016, a fix for the bug CVE-2016-6415 not released. Cisco also reports that there are no temporary ways to protect against the problem, and promised to release a patch as soon as possible.

Hacking Cisco equipment using NSA tools

In September 2016, Cisco reported that unknown hackers attacked the company's customers using hacking tools that the American authorities worked with to conduct cyber espionage.

In the summer of 2016, hackers from The Shadow Brokers released tools from the arsenal of the Equation Group cyber team, which is suspected of having ties to the US National Security Agency (NSA). The applications are designed to exploit vulnerabilities in various IT products, including those manufactured by Cisco.

Hackers attack Cisco customers using NSA tools

On September 16, 2016, Cisco said it was aware of a software vulnerability in its firewalls, switches, and routers. The manufacturer is also aware of hacker attacks on users of this equipment, as a result of which attackers gain access to data stored in memory and confidential information.

The manufacturer did not specify which customers could suffer from the actions of cybercriminals. Cisco plans to release updates soon that fix a security flaw in its products.

In August 2016, Cisco representatives confirmed for the first time that the EXTRABACON, EPICBANANA and JETPLOW tools stolen from the NSA were indeed aimed at vulnerabilities in the company's products. It was reported that the ASA model line, PIX firewalls and Cisco Firewall Services Modules were vulnerable.

Then it turned out that the hacker tools accessed by The Shadow Brokers were aimed at the old CVE-2016-6367 bug, fixed back in 2011, as well as the zero-day vulnerability of the CVE-2016-6366, which was discovered precisely thanks to this scandalous leak.^[16]

2015

Search for vulnerabilities after a bookmark incident in Juniper hardware

On December 21, 2015, Cisco announced the start of a thorough check of the software code of its products for vulnerabilities. Thus, the American corporation responded to a resonant incident related to the discovery of a bookmark in the firewalls of the rival Juniper Networks.

As reported in the Cisco blog, the company audits its products with the involvement of software engineers with deep knowledge of network technologies and cryptography. As part of the study, it is planned to launch a penetration test, which is an attempt to hack IT solutions in order to obtain an objective assessment of their information security, detection of vulnerabilities and weaknesses.

Cisco started looking for "holes" in its products after discovering a bookmark in the Juniper firewall

"While it is common practice for us to find unauthorized software, we recognize that it is completely impossible to eliminate all risks," Cisco said.^[17]

Anthony Grieco, senior director of Cisco Security and Trust, assures that no extraneous code has been found in the company's products before. The representative of the vendor also noted that the new check was initiated by Cisco itself, and not by law enforcement officials.

In mid-December 2015, Juniper announced the discovery of code of unknown origin in the code of its ScreenOS operating system. It is known that an extraneous component has been hidden in the NetScreen firewall since 2012.

It is not known who placed it there, the special services were engaged in clarifying the details, USA suggesting that the malicious code could affect the work of large companies governmental and bodies.

According to Anthony Grieco, Cisco's product development policy completely eliminates bookmarks, and there is no reason to believe that the company's solutions may contain problems similar to those found in ScreenOS.

According to information security experts, the Juniper-related incident will encourage many IT companies to begin in-depth analysis of the software code of their products, similar to what Cisco is now conducting, according to Reuters^[18]

Collaboration with Ericsson

On November 9, 2015, Ericsson and Cisco announced the start of a strategic collaboration aimed at creating new generation networks. On this union, each of the companies expects to earn $1 billion over three years.

The partnership between Ericsson and Cisco involves the markets of the "Internet of Things," IP networks and fifth generation networks. The companies combine their capabilities in the areas of routing, network, mobile and cloud technologies, data centers, network infrastructure management and control, as well as global network services.

Annual income of the head of the company Chuck Robbins - $16.7 million

In early October 2015, it became known about the earnings of top Cisco managers. According to the published data, in the first year of Chuck Robbins's presence as CEO of the company, he is planned to pay up to $16.7 million.

According to Business Insider, citing documents sent by Cisco to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), in the 2016 fiscal year, which began July 26, 2015, Chuck Robbins was issued a base salary of $1.15 million and a grant to receive shares in the amount of $13 million tied to the financial performance of the American manufacturer. In addition, the CEO is entitled to a target bonus of 225% of the salary, that is, almost $2.6 million.

For the first year of work at Cisco, Chuck Robbins will receive up to $16.7 million

Thus, in the first year of work as head of Cisco, Chuck Robbins can receive $16.7 million, which is significantly less than the starting earnings of Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, whose compensation package in 2014 was $90 million, the newspaper notes.

John Chambers, who in July 2015 transferred the authority of the head of Cisco to Chuck Robbins, earned over $19.6 million in fiscal year 2015. This amount included a salary of $1.1 million, bonuses of $4 million and share rewards of $14.5 million. In 2016, Financial Chambers is entitled to a base salary of $1 million and grants to receive shares in the amount of $7 million. Bonuses will not be paid to him, since he left the management staff of Cisco and headed the board of directors.

Cisco's report to the SEC identifies compensation packages for Cisco CFO Kelly Kramer (Kelly Kramer; in 2015, Fingodu earned $8.4 million), development director Pankaj Patel ($13 million), former Cisco financial director Frank Calderoni ($27.2 million), former chief operating director Gary Moore (Gary Moore; $26.8 million) and former director of sales and product design Robert Lloyd (Robert Lloyd; $26.5 million). The last three top executives left Cisco in the summer of 2015.^[19]

Cisco and Inspur created the joint venture

September 24, 2015 Cisco announced the start of cooperation with one of the largest China server manufacturers. Inspur Thanks to this partner, the American company intends to strengthen its position in the Chinese market, where it is not easy for many IT manufacturers to work from. USA

As part of the agreement signed during the business visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to the United States, Cisco and Inspur are creating a joint venture (JV), in which the share of the Chinese vendor will be 51%.

Cisco announces collaboration with one of China's largest server manufacturers Inspur

Together, the company will develop a wide range of software and hardware for data centers, smart cities, cloud solutions and Big Data solutions. In addition, the agreement provides for the distribution of Inspur network equipment and cloud products manufactured by Cisco in the PRC.

Cisco and Inspur will initially invest $100 million in the creation of the joint venture. This amount is part of a $10 billion investment allocated to Cisco to develop its Chinese business.

In June 2015, Cisco signed a memorandum of understanding with the State Development and Reform Committee of China to create innovation and the Association of Universities of Applied Sciences to promote educational programs. The Celestial Empire brings Cisco about 3% of total revenue, said CEO Chuck Robbins, commenting on the partnership with Inspur.

Working with Inspur will accelerate the growth of Cisco's business in the world's second-largest economy, according to a top executive.

Cisco and other American companies found it harder to work in China after former US intelligence officer Edward Snowden spoke about illegal surveillance conducted by the US National Security Agency via the Internet. After that, Beijing and Washington put forward a number of mutual accusations of espionage. Cisco has added problems to the program launched in China to support the domestic IT industry.

In order to strengthen relations between American and Chinese IT companies, Chinese leader Xi Jinping arrived in Seattle (Washington, USA) on September 23, 2015, where he met with the leaders of such giants as Apple, Microsoft and Facebook.^[20]

Cisco routers with bugs found in Ukraine and other countries

Specialists information security from Mandiant found 14 routers integrated into the network infrastructures of enterprises Cisco in the To Ukraine Philippines, Mexico and India infected in Mandiant terminology with an "implant" called SYNful Knock. For what purposes they are used by cybercriminals, CNews is not specified^[21]

SYNful Knock is a replacement router operating system remotely installed by hackers instead of the standard OS of the Cisco IOS manufacturer.

After the implant is installed, the router continues to work and perform its functions as before. But at the same time, it also - since it is now under external control - executes remote commands of attackers and provides them with full access to network data.

"Typically, attackers attack enterprise network devices to disable the infrastructure through a DDoS attack (distributed denial-of-service attacks). This goal is still most common. However, we see an increase in the number of cases when hackers seek to break into infrastructure, and not just attack it for a while, "commented

Mandiant specialists notified Cisco of the presence of infected routers. According to representatives of the Cisco, the firmware was replaced without exploiting any vulnerabilities, but by logging in with valid logins and passwords or by physical contact with the router.

SYNful Knock is just the tip of the iceberg, according to Mandiant researchers. Experts say that there are many more such infected routers in the world. In this case, the news concerns routers of a particular manufacturer.

In May 2015, Incapsula published a report stating the presence of over 40 thousand infected home and office routers, which turned out to be links of a large botnet ("zombie network") used to carry out DDoS attacks.

More than 80% of all infected IP addresses were in Thailand (64%) and Brazil (21%). In addition to Thailand and Brazil, the United States (4%), India (3%) and Serbia (1%) are leading in the number of infected routers. In total, a botnet of infected routers covered 109 states.

Resignation of Cisco presidents in connection with the change of head of the company

On June 1, 2015, Cisco announced the resignation of two presidents who had worked for many years in the camp of a network equipment manufacturer. The departure of top managers is timed to coincide with the change of the CEO of the American corporation.

On July 25, 2015, Cisco will be left by President and COO Gary Moore and President of Development and Sales Robert Lloyd. Chuck Robbins wrote about their resignation in his blog, who in May 2015 was appointed CEO of Cisco instead of John Chambers, who led the company for more than 20 years. Robbins will begin acting as head of Cisco at the end of July 2015.

July 25, 2015 Cisco will leave the operating director Gary Moore and President of Development and Sales Robert Lloyd (right)

The company, which has been criticized for its large number of vice presidents and more senior staff, needs to level up management to speed up the pace of work, develop innovation and improve management efficiency, according to the newly minted CEO.

According to The Wall Street Journal, another reason why veterans of the company are leaving Cisco is the process of rejuvenating a team of top managers. By May 2015, John Chambers and Gary Moore are both 65 years old. Rob Lloyd is 58, Chuck Robbins is 48.^[22]

The resignations of Lloyd and Moore may not be the last in the Cisco leadership team. By mid-June 2015, Chuck Robbins plans to introduce new changes in the organizational structure and leadership structure of the company.^[23]

According to the Re/Code technology portal, after Chuck Robbins officially becomes the head of Cisco, the company will leave chief technology officer and strategist Padmasree Warrior, who joined the vendor in 2008. The media reported on the possible dismissal of Warrior back in January 2015, but then Cisco denied this information.^[24]

Chuck Robbins is the new CEO of Cisco

On May 4, 2015, it became known about the departure of John Chambers from the post of CEO after 20 years in charge of the company. It will be replaced by one of the veterans of the American manufacturer.

According to Cisco, starting July 26, 2015, John Chambers will cease to serve as head of the company and transfer them to Chuck Robbins, vice president of international operations at Cisco. In this position, Robbins was responsible for sales and relationships with corporate partners. Robbins has been with Cisco since 1997.

Chuck Robbins to assume Cisco CEO duties July 26, 2015

Having resigned as CEO, John Chambers will become executive chairman of the board of directors and will help the new CEO adapt to the management of the corporation, whose market capitalization as of May 4, 2015 is about $149 billion.

The media began writing that Chambers was going to end Cisco's leadership a few years before the official announcement of his resignation. Then the most likely successors were the chief operating officer Gary Moore and the president of development and sales Robert Lloyd. According to analysts, the appointment of Robbins came as a surprise. Former Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz, a Cisco board member, called Robbins "not the best Cisco leader at the moment."

According to The Wall Street Journal, at first the board of directors held a confidential preliminary vote, following which Chuck Robbins took first place among candidates for the position of head of the company. On May 1, 2015, an official vote was held, where board members confirmed their choice.^[25]

According to the publication, the strongest candidates for the role of successor to John Chambers were Chuck Robbins and Robert Lloyd. Both performed well as sales specialists, but Robbins was favored by his higher popularity among employees and good work in managing the company. Cisco said Robbins helped the company make a number of strategically important decisions, one of which concerned the diversification of Cisco's business in the information security product market.

Competition with VMware

On February 12, 2015, during a conference on the publication of Cisco's quarterly report, Chairman of the Board and CEO John Chambers commented on the competition situation in the global network equipment market.^[26]

According to Chambers, Cisco does not see a threat from VMware, although it considers this company a competitor.

"We recognize them as competitors, but from this position we will get ahead of them and do it with pleasure," said the head of Cisco.

VMware offers a network virtualization platform for software-defined NSX data centers. This solution is an alternative to traditional networks, which still remain the main market for Cisco, despite the fact that the American company is actively exploring the software-defined networks (SDN) market using an architecture called Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI).

Cisco CEO considers VMware a competitor

By the end of the second quarter of fiscal 2015, which ended on January 24, 2015, the number of Cisco ACI platform customers (VMware NSX is its direct competitor) grew to 1,700 from 970 three months earlier. At the same time, sales of the new Cisco Nexus 3000 and 9000 switches, which are a key element of the vendor's software-defined network infrastructure, jumped 350%.

VMware is part of a corporation with EMC which Cisco connects a long-standing relationship in the form of a joint venture (VCE Virtual Computing Environment), engaged in the development of converged infrastructure. John Chambers stated that the relationship with EMC remains strong, although Cisco also partners with several EMC competitors, such as and. NetApp IBM

During a speech at the conference, the head of Cisco touched upon manufacturers of unbranded (white-box) network equipment. The company does not see them as competitors either now or in the future, since it believes that such vendors offer unsafe solutions of limited functionality.

"Customers will probably be willing to pay 3-5 times more for a ready-made business than buy a separate switch or router," said the head of Cisco.

2014

The transition to SDN puts pressure on the company's business

Main Article: SDN (Global Market)

Cisco's backbone network equipment business is facing the pressure of a budding transition to programmable network infrastructure (SDN), a technology that moves the high-level functions of switches and routers to a software layer that can run on low-cost, typical equipment. Revenue from Cisco switches and backbone routers in Q4 (ended July 26, 2014) decreased by 4% and 7%, respectively.

The last few quarters have not been the most financially successful for Cisco. In December, the company lowered its long-term revenue growth forecast for the next three to five years to 3-6%. (Previously, an increase of 5-7% was expected.)

Cisco invests $1.7 billion in India

On November 17, 2014, The Economic Times published excerpts from an interview with Cisco President Dinesh Malkani. He spoke about the company's plans to invest about $1.7 billion in its own business in the country.^[27]

Of the declared amount, approximately $40 million will go to the development of innovations and research activities. Most of the money is intended to participate in tenders for government contracts as part of the Digital India India initiative, which involves universal internetization of the population, expanding the local market smartphones and introducing smart solutions into the urban infrastructure.

Indian business Cisco will receive $1.7 billion from the parent company, about $40 million will go to R&D work

By 2017, it is planned to spend more than $5 billion on connecting Indian villages to the World Wide Web, which will increase the volume of the local Internet of Things market to $15 billion by 2019.

Cisco CEO and Chairman John Chambers has high hopes for the Indian market and believes the right strategy has been chosen by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Chambers estimates India's contribution to the company's total revenue will increase from 2% to 5%. Following this goal, Cisco launched a new division in the country called Growth Vertical, which will help the authorities in building smart cities, implementing e-government projects and expanding broadband coverage.

As of November 2014, Cisco employs 11,300 people in India, about 15-20% of employees are transferred to the newly minted Growth Vertical structure. Cisco has already gained access to a number of large state projects and invested more than $100 million in local startups.

In particular, the money was received by the developer software for organizing the production of Covacsis and the novice firm MobStacs, which develops a network ON for smart campuses. Software these companies are already integrated with Cisco products, Dinesh Malkani said.

According to him, by the end of 2014, Cisco will launch the first product that is fully designed and manufactured in India. The top manager did not specify what solution was in question, but noted that it would complement the manufacturer's main product line.

Since the beginning of 2014, Cisco's profits have been steadily declining, which is largely to blame for weak demand for the company's products in emerging markets. For example, for the quarter closed on July 26, 2014, the vendor's revenue in China fell by 26%, a quarter earlier - by 33%. In India, Cisco sales, on the contrary, increased - by 18% and 6%, respectively.

2012

Competition with Huawei

Competition in the telecommunications market has noticeably tightened. Its permanent leader Cisco Systems is still withstanding increasing pressure from Arista Networks, Avaya, Juniper Networks, HP. However, most of all, John Chambers, the chief executive of Cisco, apparently worries Huawei. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) in early April 2012, he called the Chinese giant a feared long-distance competitor who doesn't always play by the rules. Recall that in 2011 Huawei launched active activities in the United States and now claims to be part of Cisco's share not only in the telecommunications, but also in the corporate IT market.

Chambers did not consider it necessary to go into details and explain which rules Huawei violates, specifying only that it is about intellectual property rights. The Cisco executive did not draw parallels between a separate company taken and China as such. In his opinion, the Celestial Empire will protect intellectual property based on national interests, and "this day will soon come."

Huawei's official reaction to Cisco's remarks was immediate. William Plummer, vice president of external affairs, called Cisco's comments "inappropriate." Huawei has 50,000 of its own patents, and therefore has always respected the protection of intellectual property rights, as well as defended its own rights. By analogy with Cisco, it has managed to gain customer confidence in its products in more than 140 markets around the world. Plummer added that there are 500 telecom operators among his company's customers.

While Cisco is trying to infiltrate the Chinese market, Huawei has to follow a thorny path into Western markets. Given that many experts see the company as closely aligned with the Chinese military and government, it's not always easy.

New Board of Directors

In August 2012, with the arrival of the founder of Salesforce.com, Mark Benioff, on the board of directors of Cisco, its composition expanded to 14 people. It also includes:

• the head of Ending Hydro, LLC and former power engineering specialists USA deputy minister Dr. Christina M. Johnson;
• former CEO of Yahoo! Inc. Carol Bartz;
• former board chairman and CEO of Mercer LLC Michelle Barnes;
• former CEO of VCE Company, LLC Michael D. Capellas;
• former senior vice president, board chairman and chief executive officer of Cisco Systems, Inc. Larry Carter;
• board member and CEO of Cisco Systems, Inc. John Chambers;
• former board member and CEO of National Semiconductor Corporation, Bayan Halla;
• the president of Standfort University, Professor John L. Hennessy;
• former Wells Fargo & Company Chairman and CEO Richard Kovasevich;
• board member of Tegile Systems, Inc. Roderick S. Mackgray;
• senior advisor, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co and
• former Vodafone Group Plc chief executive Arun Sarin;
• Emerging Company Partners LLC founder and partner Stephen West;
• co-founder and former head of Yahoo! Inc. Jerry Yang.

September 21, 2012 Jerry Yang left the post of member of the board of directors of the company. The number of directors decreased to 13 people. According to the company, there are no plans to attract anyone to the Jerry Yang site.

The head of Cisco is looking for a replacement

CiscoJohn Chambers CEO may retire in 2-4 years and is now drawing up a list of candidates for his post, Bloomberg reported on September 26.

In total, there are 10 names on the shortlist so far that are reviewed quarterly, including: Gary Moore - Chief Operating Officer; Robert Lloyd is executive vice president of operations worldwide, Chuck Robbins is senior vice president of America and Izard Overbick is senior vice president of global services.

In case of unforeseen circumstances, Gary Moore will take over the company, John Chambers said.

At the same time, John Chambers does not exclude that he will not finally leave the company. "If the shareholders decide to nominate me to the post of chairman of the board of directors, then I will accept it and remain," he said.

The head of Cisco noted that the next CEO will be "his own person," i.e. - a receiver from Cisco.

John Chambers is 63. He has led Cisco since 1995.

2011: Accusations of encouraging the regime of the Communist Party of China

In August 2011, Chinese political prisoners Du Daobin, sentenced to 3 years, Zhou Yuanzhi, 10 years old, Liu Xianbin, imprisoned under house arrest, and 10 other people, who were not named, filed a lawsuit in Maryland, accusing USA Cisco Systems of encouraging the Cisco Communist Party regime China^[28]

Daniel Ward of the American law firm Ward & Ward, who agreed to speak in court on behalf of the applicants, believes that Cisco's actions are consistent with IBM's behavior in Nazi Germany. We can recall that the German subsidiary of IBM, Dehomag, in the 1930s supplied equipment for processing the results of the racial census in Germany. According to its results, Jews, gypsies and half-breeds were registered, subject to destruction.

Cisco denied the allegations, calling them empty. The company said they were only delivering solutions and were not responsible for how they were used. Cisco chief lawyer Mark Chandler explained in a corporate blog that the company stands for freedom of speech and open Internet.

Meanwhile, the company was unable to answer questions related to one of its internal presentations. It says that Cisco was one of the participants in the Golden Shield project, also known as the Great Firewall of China. This mechanism allows Chinese users of the global network to block access to materials that do not please the ruling party.

The presentation, dated 2002, discusses how Cisco technologies will help "maintain stability" in the state, "stop crimes related to the Internet," suppress the spiritual movement of Falun Gong and various inappropriate Chinese Communist Parties. A special section of the presentation is devoted to technologies for spying on dissidents.

The case, however, is not limited to simply selling network equipment for a corrupt regime. According to Ward, in addition to this, Cisco released special software and participated in training Chinese officials on how to monitor people and put pressure on them with the help of its technology. At the same time, Cisco knew how tough methods the Chinese authorities use to suppress dissenters, and this, according to the lawyer, is not subject to forgiveness.

Note that this is not the first court hearing of this kind. In 2005, human rights organizations condemned the activities of another American company - Yahoo - which disclosed information about Internet users at the request of the Chinese government. This information was used as an argument to put some journalists in prison, where they were deprived of food and beaten. Two years later, Yahoo settled this lawsuit, paying compensation to the families of the victims.

2010: The opening of the competence center in Prague

In November 2010, a competence center was opened in Prague, Cisco using the latest technologies, including Cisco TelePresence, to stimulate sales and support company partners in 27 CIS countries, Central and Eastern. Europe Previously, Cisco opened such centers in Lisbon, Cairo, Reilly (North Carolina,) USA and Toronto. Cisco specialists working in Prague can participate in personal virtual meetings with customers and partners and assist them in implementing technology projects. Prague serves approximately 350 partners and 2,500 customers: Albania, Armenia Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic Estonia,,,, Georgia Hungary Kosovo, Kazakhstan Lithuania, Latvia Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, Slovakia, Romania Slovenia, Serbia, Turkey, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and. To Ukraine Uzbekistan The competence center facilitates the creation of a community of specialists, offers continuous training services and helps to improve the quality of work and productivity.

1984: Founding of the company

The company was founded by married couple Leonard Bosack and Sandra Lerner in 1984.

Products

• Ethernet-switchboards,
• routers,
• IP telephony products (IP, PBX, VoIP gateways),

The company is considered the world's largest provider of hardware solutions for information security of enterprises. These include firewalls, intrusion prevention systems (IPS), E-mail security products and services, web traffic protection and network access control (Identity Service Engine) technologies, ScanSafe cloud services and others.

Cisco was the first to put forward the idea of ​ ​ "networks without borders," which is consistent with the company's general strategy of protecting customers from any threats, regardless of where, at what time and from which device access is made.

• Wi-Fi access points,
• optical switching platforms,
• ATM switches,
• cable modems,
• DSL equipment,
• Universal and remote access gateways
• Storage Area Network (SAN) switches,
• network management software.

Links

• Cisco Systems under Yahoo! Finance

Notes