One Year Later: How Cisco's Support Fueled OpenSSL Foundation's Mission

In August 2025, Cisco Systems signed on as a Premier Sponsor of the OpenSSL Foundation, a three-year commitment designed to give the Foundation the kind of long-term funding that ongoing security work actually requires. This partnership was championed on Cisco's side by Jeff Johnson, Senior Software Engineering Manager. This month marks the partnership’s one-year anniversary and it's worth looking back at what this partnership has made possible.

The sponsorship was structured to fund a new full-time software engineer at the Foundation, plus part-time support from an engineer seconded from Cisco, addressing what was then the Foundation's top priority following the OpenSSL project's organizational reform. That additional engineering capacity was earmarked for fundamental engineering work and continued development of QUIC, post-quantum cryptography, and DTLS1.3.

Over the past year, that funding has translated into real engineering capacity — most visibly through two engineers whose work the sponsorship helped make possible. Tomáš Mráz, CTO of the OpenSSL Foundation, explains how that capacity has been used: 

“Cisco's support for the OpenSSL Foundation allowed us to fund an additional senior software engineer to improve the OpenSSL Library code. Igor Ustinov, who is partially funded by Cisco, is helping the team handle the increased workload caused by the rise in security and bug reports generated by AI. Ryan Hooper, who is employed by Cisco, is a key contributor to the development of DTLS 1.3 protocol support. Both have already become OpenSSL committers thanks to the high quality of their work.”

Igor Ustinov, the Foundation’s Senior Software Engineer partially funded through the sponsorship, describes what sustained funding changes day to day: 

“As an engineer, I see Cisco's support translated directly into more capacity to work on the OpenSSL Library. Sustained funding allows us not only to respond to immediate needs, but also to spend time on deeper, longer-term engineering work that is essential to keeping OpenSSL secure, reliable, and maintainable.” 

Ryan Hooper, Technical Leader and the Cisco Systems engineer seconded to the DTLS 1.3 effort, sees the benefit flowing in both directions: 

“Cisco’s funding has been instrumental in advancing the development of the DTLS 1.3 protocol, positioning it strongly for future adoption. This support has enabled Cisco to collaborate closely with some of the brightest minds in the industry, fostering innovation and deepening our expertise in secure communications.”

This sponsorship wasn't Cisco's first touchpoint with the project. Barry Fussell, Principal Engineer with Cisco, has served on the Foundation's Technical Advisory Committee since May 2025, and Jeff Johnson, Senior Software Engineering Manager at Cisco has served on the OpenSSL Corporation's Business Advisory Committee since January 2025 — giving the company a hand in the project's direction well before last year's sponsorship agreement kicked off. 

Jeff Johnson had this to say on how the sponsorship partnership is working out, 

“A secure internet relies on a sustainable and resilient open source ecosystem. Critical open source infrastructure can thrive when industry leaders step up not just with financial sponsorship, but with hands-on engineering. Over the past year of our Premier Sponsorship, our collaboration with the OpenSSL Foundation—from embedding dedicated engineering talent to co-authoring the future of DTLS 1.3 with Post-Quantum Cryptography—has demonstrated how powerful this model can be. Securing OpenSSL means securing the foundational plumbing of the entire internet, and Cisco is proud to partner with the Foundation to build a safer digital world.”

We're excited to keep building on what this partnership has started, and we’re grateful for Cisco’s continued support as we move into year two. 

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