Thank you for your e-mail and for the opportunity for Cisco to respond to your questions related to illicit operations that could potentially lead to unauthorized transfers of products to Russia. At Cisco, we take this very seriously, and have numerous initiatives in place to help address and prevent it.

When Cisco, in March 2022, decided to stop all business operations in Russia, our Brand Protection Team intensified existing – and introduced new – initiatives to address operations that potentially could lead to unauthorized transfers of Cisco solutions to Russia. The team deploys a range of mechanisms and tools, including advanced methods based on ML and AI to identify suspicious hardware orders and monitoring of Smart Licenses for unusual relicensing and software download activities.

Cisco pays particular attention to trends and activities in countries surrounding Russia and has fruitful collaborations with authorities in that region aimed at thwarting illicit operations. Additionally, we continue to use open-source intelligence to gather information about potential unauthorized product deliveries.

Recognizing this is challenging for the entire tech industry, and that we cannot solve it on our own, Cisco offers training to our global network of partners and even extends training to customs and law enforcement officials to enable them to better spot signs of such operations in their country.

Cisco's Brand Protection Team encourages reporting of any suspicious activity via our “Brand Protection Contact Form”, and to learn more about the Team and their efforts to combat illicit operations, please visit this site.