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

To try to determine the probability of those name repetitions being a coincidence, Cary checked two databases of Chinese names and consulted with Yi Fuxian, a professor of Chinese demography at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. The name Qiu Daibing—or 邱代兵 in Chinese characters—turned out to be a relatively unlikely name to show up twice just by chance, he says. The surname 邱 alone, Yi confirmed to WIRED, represents just 0.27 percent of Chinese names, and in combination with the specific 代兵 given name would represent a far smaller percentage.

The name Yu Yang (余洋 in Chinese characters) is more common. But the two names appearing in association seems less likely to be a coincidence, Cary theorizes. “The sheer improbability of somebody having this name also being paired with a Yu Yang, having this skill set and going to the same university in the same location where these companies are registered, it’s just an incredibly small chance that these are not the…