Cisco has disclosed a recent data breach, revealing that a cybercriminal successfully tricked a company representative into granting access to a third-party database. The attack, identified as a voice phishing or "vishing" scheme, led to the theft of basic profile information for users registered on Cisco.com. The networking giant stated that the hackers accessed and exported a subset of user data, though the company did not specify the number of people affected. "On July 24, 2025 (GMT+9), Cisco was made aware of an incident involving a bad actor targeting a Cisco representative through a voice phishing attack, also known as vishing. As a result, the actor was able to access and export a subset of basic profile information from one instance of a third-party, cloud-based Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system that Cisco uses," Cisco said. "Upon learning of the incident, the actor's access to that CRM system instance was immediately terminated and Cisco commenced an investigation," the company added.

What user data is stolen from Cisco hacking

According to Cisco's public disclosure, the stolen data included users' names, organization names, addresses, Cisco-assigned user IDs, email addresses, phone numbers, and account-related metadata like the account creation date. According to cybersecurity news outlet Bleeping Computer, this breach may be part of a series of attacks targeting companies' Salesforce data. Other companies that have been impacted include Allianz Life, Tiffany and Co., and the Australian airline Qantas. Cisco is a known customer of Salesforce, a leading cloud-based CRM provider.

What is voice phishing or vishing

Voice phishing, also known as "vishing," is a type of hacking attack in which hackers use fraudulent phone calls to trick people into revealing sensitive personal, financial, or company information. It's the voice-based equivalent of email phishing. Usually, the cybercriminal pretends to be a trusted entity, such as a representative from a bank, a government agency (like the IRS), a tech support company (like Microsoft), or even a colleague.

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