Second Apple Pickin' Spy Caught in Last 6 Months

The United States FBI this week accused a Chinese citizen working for Apple of attempting to steal trade secrets that are related to the company's autonomous vehicle program, reports NBC Bay Area.

Apple launched an investigation into the employee, Jizhong Chen, when another employee spotted him taking photographs "in a sensitive work space." 

 Apple Global Security employees searched his personal computer and found "thousands" of Apple files, including manuals, schematics, photographs, and diagrams. 

Chen had recently applied for a position with a China-based autonomous vehicle company that is a direct Apple competitor. Chen was arrested a day before he was set to fly to China. 

Apple in a statement said that it is working with the authorities."Apple takes confidentiality and the protection of our IP very seriously," the company said in a statement Tuesday. "We are working with authorities on this matter and are referring all questions to the FBI."

This is not the first time an employee has been caught trying to steal secrets from Apple's car team. Back in July, the FBI charged former Apple employee Xiaolang Zhang with theft of trade secrets for stealing hardware and software that included prototypes and detailed prototype requirements. more

Even Popcorn Has Trade Secrets

Caramel Crisp LLC, the owner of Garrett Popcorn Shops (“Garrett”), the renowned Chicago-based purveyor of deliciously flavored popcorn, recently filed suit in federal court in Chicago against its former director of research and development, Aisha Putnam, alleging that she misappropriated the company’s trade secrets, including its recipes for Garret’s famous popcorn...

Garrett alleges that when she learned about the termination, Putnam began downloading “virtually all of [Garrett’s] trade secrets and confidential information in her possession to a personal USB drive, which she took home.”...

This case offers two helpful reminders to employers that seek to protect their valuable trade secrets.  

First, in determining whether something qualifies as a “trade secret,” one factor considered by courts are the reasonableness of the efforts to maintain the confidentiality of the trade secrets...

Second, whenever an employee with access to trade secrets leaves their employment (either voluntarily or involuntarily), employers should consider whether to conduct a forensic review of their computers and other storage devices to determine whether the employee took any confidential information on his or her way out the door. more

Letter Accuses Uber of Corporate Espionage and Wiretapping

The legal battle between Uber the ride-hailing behemoth and Waymo the self-driving unit of Alphabet reached a pivotal point this week as the Judge presiding over the case released a letter based on the account of a former employee at Uber.

The letter alleged that a division with Uber has been responsible for carrying out acts such as theft of trade secrets, corporate espionage, bribery of officials in foreign countries, and different types of unlawful surveillance.

The letter, given the name “Jacobs Letter,” was authored by an attorney who represents Richard Jacobs, a former employee at Uber who held the position of global intelligence manager prior to his firing last April.

In the highly detailed account accusations are leveled of systematic illegal activities inside the Strategic Services Group (SSG) of Uber, which allegedly sought out the trade secrets of other companies through data collection and eavesdropping. more

Quote from the letter...
Uber’s Marketplace Analytics team…fraudulently impersonates riders and drivers on competitor platforms, hacks into competitor networks, and conducts unlawful wiretapping. more 

Another version of the story...
Uber illegally recorded phone calls and wiretapped the phones of executives at rival companies in a global “intelligence gathering” operation that went on for years, a former employee has alleged.

In a 37-page letter made public in federal court on Friday, Richard Jacobs, a former security employee with the ride-hailing service, alleges Uber set up internal teams whose sole purpose was to spy on competitors. “Uber has engaged, and continues to engage, in illegal intelligence gathering on a global scale,” Jacobs wrote, according to The New York Times.

The teams allegedly infiltrated chat rooms, impersonated drivers of rival companies, and placed surveillance on executives of those companies, including by illegally recording phone calls, the letter claims.

Jacobs’ allegations stem from a trade secrets case against Uber filed by Waymo, Alphabet’s self-driving unit, which says Uber stole information about autonomous driving technology. more

Security Director Budget Booster - The Value Of Corporate Secrets

Here are the findings from a Forrester Consulting paper on the value of corporate secrets.

• Secrets comprise two-thirds of the value of firms’ information portfolios. Despite the increasing mandates enterprises face, custodial data assets aren’t the most valuable assets in enterprise information portfolios. Proprietary knowledge and company secrets, by contrast, are twice as valuable as the custodial data. And as recent company attacks illustrate, secrets are targets for theft.

• Compliance, not security, drives security budgets. Enterprises devote 80% of their security budgets to two priorities: compliance and securing sensitive corporate information, with the same percentage (about 40%) devoted to each. But secrets comprise 62% of the overall information portfolio’s total value while compliance related custodial data comprises just 38%, a much smaller proportion. This strongly suggests that investments are over-weighed toward compliance.
 

• Firms focus on preventing accidents, but theft is where the money is. Data security incidents related to accidental losses and mistakes are common but cause little quantifiable damage. By contrast, employee theft of sensitive information is 10 times costlier on a per-incident basis than any single incident caused by accidents: hundreds of thousands of dollars versus tens of thousands.
 

• The more valuable a firm’s information, the more incidents it will have. The “portfolio value” of the information managed by the top quartile of enterprises was 20 times higher than the bottom quartile. These high value enterprises had four times as many security incidents as low-value firms. High-value firms are not sufficiently protecting data from theft and abuse by third parties. They had six times more data security incidents due to outside parties than low-value firms, even though the number of third parties they work with is only 60% greater.
 

• CISOs do not know how effective their security controls actually are. Regardless of information asset value, spending, or number of incidents observed, nearly every company rated its security controls to be equally effective — even though the number and cost of incidents varied widely. Even enterprises with a high number of incidents are still likely to imagine that their programs are “very effective.” We concluded that most enterprises do not actually know whether their data security programs work or not. (more)

Need help. Call us.

Economic Espionage: Competing For Trade By Stealing Industrial Secrets

In September 2012 FBI agents in Kansas City, Missouri, arrested two Chinese nationals, Huang Ji Li and Qi Xiao Guang, after they paid $25,000 in cash for stolen trade secrets pertaining to an American company’s manufacture of cellular-glass insulation, or foam glass.

Huang trespassed onto the company’s flagship plant in Sedalia, Missouri, 3 months prior and asked suspiciously detailed questions about the facility’s manufacturing process for the insulation. It also is believed he approached an employee at the company’s corporate headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, just days before seeking to build a foam-glass factory in China.

A judge sentenced Huang to 18 months in prison and a $250,000 fine in January 2013 and Qi, Huang’s interpreter, to time served, a $20,000 fine, and deportation. During sentencing, company officials estimated the value of the targeted trade secrets at $272 million. 

The threat of economic espionage and theft of trade secrets to U.S.-based companies is persistent and requires constant vigilance. Even after Huang was arrested, pled guilty, and was sentenced, investigators believed the company’s trade secrets still were at risk for targeting by would-be competitors. (more)

Secrets: Managing Information Assets in the Age of Cyberespionage

The following is from Jim Pooley’s new book on trade secrets — Secrets: Managing Information Assets in the Age of Cyberespionage.

Bankrupt networking giant Nortel reveals that its key executives’ email passwords were stolen and the company’s network hacked for a decade.

Boeing, hiring away Lockheed employees who bring documents to their new employer, pays $615 million to avoid criminal prosecution, while two of its former managers are indicted.

Apple scrambles to recover a sample of its unreleased new model iPhone that was left by an employee in a bar – a year after the same thing happened in a different bar.

Starwood employees leave to join Hilton, taking with them ideas for a new kind of hotel.

And the owner of Thomas’ English Muffins goes to court to protect its “nooks and crannies” recipe from being used by a competitor.

What do these corporate crises all have in common? Trade secrets. They reflect the enormous value of – and threats to – the most important assets of modern business...

Reading my new book — Secrets: Managing Information Assets in the Age of Cyberespionage — will give you a deeper understanding of how your business differentiates itself from the competition, and how it must work to keep its edge. As an executive or manager or small-business owner you will come away armed to protect and exploit your company’s advantages. As an individual you will have a greater appreciation for what intellectually belongs to you and how to use it to advance your career without being sued. And whatever your interest or line of work, you will have a much better understanding of how information has become the global currency of the 21st century.

Budget Booster #493 - Economic Espionage, UP

"The Cold War is not over. It has merely moved into a new arena: the global marketplace." -- The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation also notes that foreign competitors try to find economic intelligence in three ways:
1. Aggressively targeting and recruiting susceptible people, often from the same national background, working for domestic companies and research institutions.
2. Hiring or bribing people to steal information, search through dumpsters and tap telephones.
3. Setting up seemingly innocent business relationships between foreign companies and domestic enterprises to gather economic intelligence including classified information.

During a recession, expect external and internal problem to increase...

Twelve Internal Spybusting Tips...

1. Recognize the threat. Economic espionage is more likely to happen if your business isn't prepared. Once the risk is acknowledged, management must take an active role in ensuring that the company puts into place tactics to effectively combat theft. Prime example.

2. Know the criminals' methods. Confidential information is often stolen, concealed or carried away. Data can be copied, duplicated, sketched, drawn, photographed, downloaded, uploaded, altered, destroyed, replicated, transmitted, delivered, mailed, communicated, or conveyed.
(Electronic eavesdropping is also common and very effective. Fortunately, you can discover it easily.)

3. Monitor database access logs. Many fraud detection engines can be used to keep an eye on the number of times a database is accessed, as well as the number of documents that are printed by each user.

4. Encrypt electronic files so that they cannot be read or taken off the premises.

5. Mark as confidential any sensitive documents, photographs and sketches.

6. Prohibit photocopying of trade secrets and other sensitive company information. Consider forbidding cameras on the premises, including those included in cell phones.

7. Remind departing employees during exit interviews of their obligations and your company's trade secret protection policies.

8. Warn all staff to change their passwords if there is the slightest chance they may have shared them with a former employee. Colleagues often share passwords even when that practice violates an enterprise's policy.

9. Coordinate denial to both the building and computer accounts as soon as an employee leaves the business. Let colleagues know a person has left the company. Otherwise, they might unwittingly allow a former employee on the premises.

10. Maintain logs of employees in the company who have rights to access trade secrets.

11. Review technical literature, service manuals, press releases and other material distributed outside the company. Similar reviews should be made of regulatory filings and patent applications. Watch what employees disclose at industry trade shows.

12. Consult with a forensic specialist to help your business set up the appropriate infrastructure to detect, classify and protect the intellectual property. Trade secrets are the core of your company. (more)

Trade Secret Cases On the Rise

Barnes & Thornburg LLP - Mitchell Berry

In recent years, there has been a noticeable uptick in trade secret litigation, signaling a shift in how businesses safeguard their valuable intellectual property...

Clients are increasingly turning to trade secrets as a means of protecting their innovations, particularly in sectors where rapid technological advancements and short product life cycles render patents less effective. Trade secrets offer perpetual protection as long as the information remains confidential, providing a valuable alternative for companies operating in dynamic and fast-paced markets.

The rise of trade secret litigation also highlights the need for robust internal policies and procedures to safeguard confidential information proactively. Companies must invest in measures such as employee training, restricted access controls, and non-disclosure agreements to mitigate the risk of inadvertent disclosure or theft of trade secrets. more

Did You Know: The legal system does not automatically protect Trade Secrets just on your say-so. You need to prove a history of special protections, like TSCM.

Technical Surveillance Countermeasures To Prevent Corporate Espionage

via Veteran Investigation Services
You're at an important company board meeting discussing a top secret product development project. If this unique product idea gets leaked to your competitors, the consequences could be dire. The key stakeholders are in the conference room or participating via conference call. The meeting goes well and later you find out your competitor has beat you to market with the same product idea. How could this have happened?

Your business or organization could be the victim of corporate espionage. Someone could be collecting competitive intelligence through unethical means, such as listening devices, video surveillance, or even something as basic as rummaging through your trash. Whether the threat comes from bugging devices at a one-time event, or ongoing surveillance at your corporate site, make sure you are aware of surveillance techniques, find the threats, determine who is behind the intelligence gathering and put systems in place to prevent future breaches.

COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE GATHERING
Your competitors and corporate enemies want to know what is said at meetings with shareholders, new business partners or clients or new product development teams. They may be seeking information about your financial outlook, or access to your intellectual property. Some companies will stop at nothing to gain that information and for many reasons, it's easier than ever for them to get it.

Today, surveillance is easier than ever. Advanced wireless devices such as covert listening devices, miniature cameras, concealed, wearable recording devices or hidden micro-cameras are just a click away online and can be very inexpensive. Employees or someone on the cleaning crew could be paid to place a device in a conference room or collect paper trash afterwards, or look for computer passwords left on desks or taped under keyboards. Safeguarding your company secrets requires a preventative approach.

The most common surveillance targets are CEO offices, their private conference rooms, and assistant's work area, since these spaces are the most likely locations for strategic meetings where valuable company information is discussed. These areas should be swept for bugging devices before critical meetings and at regular intervals, based on the level of risk.

TECHNICAL SURVEILLANCE COUNTERMEASURES
If you suspect that someone is obtaining company secrets or you've already experienced a damaging leak of information, we recommend screening for potential threats to prevent further leaks. A TSCM (technical surveillance countermeasure) examination can be performed to look for surveillance equipment or detect other risks. These can be done before an important meeting, at an off-site event, or at your site at regular intervals.

A TSCM examination may include such counter surveillance tactics as:

• Full Radio Frequency (RF) Spectrum Analysis
• Infrared Spectrum Analysis (IR)
• Detecting transmitting devices in the electrical system/wiring
• Computer forensics (for example, searching for emails that mention a sensitive topic after a meeting has taken place to look for leaks).
• Disrupting laser frequencies with static "white noise" and or window coatings to prevent laser listening systems from gathering micro-vibrations from the surface of a window to listen in on conversations from outside of a room.
• Conducting a physical search looking for:
  • Idle surveillance equipment that may be turned off or out of batteries.
  • Cameras or microphones in the ceiling.
  • Reflections from camera lenses.
  • Radio transmitters that could broadcast to an external radio.
  • Bugged telephones. Polycom phone systems are easy to turn into listening devices.
  • Easily found passwords left on desks or under keyboards.
  • Computers left on and logged in.
  • Document disposal and inadequate document shredders.

COUNTER SURVEILLANCE TECHNIQUES OFF-SITE
Important business meetings held off-site at hotel convention centers can be easy opportunities for surveillance. Sweeps of the meeting rooms, guest rooms, or bathrooms can be done, and then security staff should maintain custody of the room to ensure the room stays free of bugs until after the meeting. Executive cars can be targeted and especially at risk if using valet parking, as well as executive phones which are susceptible to Trojan horse software that can allow someone to listen in on all the conversations or steal data from email or text messaging.

AFTER THE TSCM EXAMINATION
What happens if listening devices are found during a sweep? If surveillance equipment is found during the TSCM examination, it should not be removed immediately because it can be used as a trap to find out who put it there. The TSCM examination is just the stepping off point for a full analysis and investigation. Suspects need to be interviewed. A full security assessment may be necessary if many problems are found. Systems should be established to prevent this kind of activity. Embedded and dedicated security personnel may be needed to keep security at the forefront of executives' minds, staff who can be there to watch, learn, listen and report on surveillance threats. Everyone in the organization can contribute to prevent leaks. Policies and procedures should be developed and communicated to employees regarding the handling of passwords, access, and confidentiality agreements.

ARE YOU AT RISK OF CORPORATE SURVEILLANCE?
Companies are hungry for that competitive edge that will help crush their competition. They may hire corporate surveillance companies to gather company secrets from their competitors, often through unethical means. Low level employees with low moral or low paid personnel from external maintenance services can be paid off to gather intelligence or plant bugs. Most companies are naive and feel that industrial espionage and surveillance does not happen in real life, it only happens in the movies and "cannot happen here." They feel they can trust all of their employees like family. But all it takes is a hungry competitor and a disgruntled employee passed over for a promotion to initiate the leaking of your company secrets that could be devastating to your business. Then, with the preponderance of equipment easily available, your company's most important information and conversations could get into competitors hands in an instant.

What proprietary business information could cause damage to your company if your competitor was able to listen in on your meetings? Have you done all that you can to protect that information?  more

Why Do Business Spies Spy?

In this week's issue of Chemical and Engineering News, Marc Reisch authors a rather interesting look at the multitude of US-based multinational employees who have taken company trade secrets and intellectual property and gone east with them. After talking about Michael David Mitchell, a DuPont employee who gave his company's IP to a South Korean competitor:

Nobody has a clear fix on just how often employees steal vital confidential information from their employers. What is clear is that over the past five years six former chemical company employees have admitted to or been convicted of stealing trade secrets from their employers. In five of the cases, the employee involved was of Asian descent. And in all of the cases, the intended recipient of the proprietary information was an Asian company or university.

The reasons for the IP (Intellectual Property) theft aren’t clear either. “Those who engage in a major scam are likely to have complex motivations,” says Chris MacDonald, author of the Business Ethics Blog and a visiting scholar at the Clarkson Centre for Business Ethics & Board Effectiveness at the University of Toronto. “It’s hard to boil it down to a single factor.”

MacDonald points out that “when people do the wrong thing, it’s generally not because they lack the relevant values.” Instead, wrongdoers find ways to rationalize their behavior. For instance, employees who steal IP may believe they serve a higher purpose in committing the act, such as helping fellow countrymen or bringing the benefits of technology advances to underprivileged people.

Although the motives of those who steal corporate secrets may be complex, monetary gain was involved in most of the chemical industry cases, according to a review of court documents by C&EN. After Mitchell stopped working for DuPont in 2006, he began to work as a paid consultant for Kolon and e-mailed proprietary DuPont documents to Kolon employees. Court documents ascribe the crimes of former Dow Chemical researcher Kexue Huang mostly to greed but also to feelings of patriotism and paternalism. (more)

Why do people betray their country? MICE, of course: Money, Ideology, Compromise, Ego.

Aerospace Company Accuses California Aviation Start-Up of Stealing Trade Secrets

Aerospace supplier Moog Inc. said stolen trade secrets and an all-out raid of its flight software employees by an aviation startup in California have jeopardized its foray into unmanned helicopter aviation.

The Elma company called the data allegedly stolen by a former employee "breathtaking in its scope."

Moog, in a federal lawsuit filed this week in Buffalo, said a software engineer who quit the company's Los Angeles-area office in December took more than 136,000 digital files related to flight control software to her new employer, Skyryse, a six-year-old startup.

Moog accuses Misook Kim, a former employee, of copying to an external hard drive files that contained the source code of Moog's proprietary software programs, which it said took more than 15 years to develop by dozens of Moog engineers at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Moog said it is not aware of any other instance where a Moog employee copied to an external hard drive even a fraction of the data it said Kim did in November.

According to the lawsuit, "What Kim did is entirely without precedent at Moog." more

Corporate Espionage in the News

RedCurl is its name.
Corporate espionage is its game.

Security researchers today published findings on a new APT group they claim has been stealing data from organizations around the world as far back as 2018. Since then, RedCurl has targeted at least 14 private companies in 26 attacks designed to steal documents containing commercial secrets and employees' personal information.

Its targets span a range of industries and locations. The group has targeted organizations in construction, finance, consulting, retail, banking, insurance, law, and travel...

There is no indication who might have hired RedCurl, where they might be based, or who is behind these attacks, he adds. The group is fairly new, and researchers hope to learn more over time.

"Corporate espionage is not something that we're used to on the cyberscene," Mirkasymov says. Researchers believe the frequency of these attacks indicates it's likely to become more widespread in the future. more

----------

Three corporate espionage reasons why VW was not a good career choice...

March 14th - Former VW employee says he was fired after questioning deletion of documents. more

June 16th - Former VW employee sought by U.S. arrested in Croatia... more 

August 14th - Former VW employee under investigation for corporate espionage found dead in burned-out car...was investigated by the police on suspicion of violating business secrets. more

----------

The U.S. National Security Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation today issued a joint cybersecurity advisory warning on a previously undisclosed form of Russian malware...although the objectives of Drovorub were not detailed in the report, they could range from industrial espionage to election interference. more

----------

Once again, LinkedIn is the battleground for nation state espionage operations. Every counterintelligence and insider threat professional should be paying attention...The goal of the social engineer is to entice the target to at least take a gander at the job offering being discussed and click the attachment which is provided. This attachment carries the payload of malware designed to compromise the device and network of the target. Once the device is compromised and the group has access to the content, their espionage goals are achieved. more

----------

...and Corporate Espionage can also be entertaining...

How 'American Ronin' Explores Superhumans and Corporate Espionage
As the conflict between global corporations heats up, one man decides to strike back against the unseen forces that quietly rule the modern world, using an entirely unanticipated weapon — his own mind. That’s the idea at the center of American Ronin...The series is the first collaboration between writer Peter Milligan (Shade the Changing Man, Hellblazer, X-Force) and artist ACO (Midnighter, Nick Fury), with the two playing off each other’s strengths to create a story that’s part-corporate espionage, part-superhuman thriller and unlike anything else on the stands at the moment. more

You Like Business Class. Trade Secrets Like USB Class.

TX - A state district judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by Houston-based Schlumberger Ltd. against a former employee who had left the company for a vice president job at a rival oilfield services company, Baker Hughes Inc.

Schlumberger had accused former employee Humair Shaikh of allegedly stealing trade secrets, but the two parties have reached a settlement...

The initial lawsuit alleged that Shaikh had violated confidentiality and noncompete agreements by taking trade secrets on four different USB drives when he left. (more) 

Business espionage goes undiscovered, ignored, swept under the carpet, and settled out of court all the time. 

Espionage is difficult to stop without a real commitment to protection. 

The common thread is that the stolen digital data often travels via USB memory sticks, and this is preventable. We can show you how.

A Very Weird Tale of Corporate Espionage and Murder and More Corporate Espionage

Apotex claims longtime chemist went rogue and stole drug secrets...

Apotex Inc., the generic-drug giant founded by murdered billionaire Barry Sherman, has been waging a year-long court battle against an ex-employee who was fired for allegedly stealing millions of dollars’ worth of pharmaceutical trade secrets from a laboratory computer—in the hopes of launching a rival company in his native Pakistan...

Barry Sherman, 75, and his wife, Honey Sherman, 70, were discovered strangled inside their North York mansion nearly three months ago, the victims of what police have labeled a “targeted” double homicide. Since then, detectives have said little else about the high-profile murders...

News of the lawsuit comes at the same time as Apotex tries to defend itself against similar allegations of corporate espionage. In a court action launched last July in the United States, Sherman’s company is accused of using sex, lies and USB drives to illegally obtain valuable trade secrets from the world’s largest generic drug-maker, Israel’s Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. As Maclean’s reported last month, a Pennsylvania judge denied Apotex’s attempt to throw out the sensational lawsuit, which accuses a former Teva executive of leaking confidential information to her boyfriend—then-Apotex CEO Jeremy Desai. Desai abruptly resigned in January, six weeks after the Shermans were killed, “to pursue other opportunities.” more

Further insights... Business Espionage: The Employee Competitor… and what to do about it.

Former Microsoft Employee Arrested for Allegedly Stealing Windows 8 Trade Secrets

Alex Kibkalo, a former senior architect at Microsoft who most recently served as a Director of Product Management in 5nine Software (according to his LinkedIn profile), has been arrested for allegedly stealing Windows-related trade secrets while working for Microsoft.

Kibkalo was arrested on Wednesday, according to a report in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

According to a complaint filed on March 17 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, Kibkalo -- a Russian national and former Microsoft employee based in Lebanon -- passed on trade secrets involving Windows 8 to an unnamed technology blogger in France. (more)

Siemens Employee Arrested in Netherlands for Business Espionage

Siemens said on Friday that an employee had been arrested in the Netherlands in a case which the country's financial crimes prosecutor said involved suspected espionage for a Chinese competitor...

He did not disclose which department the employee worked for or whether it was known if secrets had been leaked.

Click to enlarge.

Investigators said the man was detained on a train station platform as he was about to travel to China.

In addition to searching his baggage, they raided his home and workplace, seizing several digital memory devices.

Corporate espionage cases rarely come to light in the Netherlands. more

Michelin Spy Re-tired

Marwan Arbache, a former Michelin executive, has been found guilty of trying to sell industrial secrets to the company’s main competitor Bridgestone. 

What particularly seems to have grieved Michelin, which already has a well-deserved reputation for stringent security surrounding its industrial secrets, is the fact that their former employee was trying to sell secrets relating to what the AFP news agency called “new tyre manufacturing techniques for heavy transport designed to improve durability.” (more)

Guess Who... Offered Bonus to Workers who Stole Confidential Information from Companies Around the World

A 10-count indictment unsealed today in the Western District of Washington State charges Huawei Device Co., Ltd. and Huawei Device Co. USA with theft of trade secrets conspiracy, attempted theft of trade secrets, seven counts of wire fraud, and one count of obstruction of justice.

The indictment, returned by a grand jury on January 16, details Huawei’s efforts to steal trade secrets from Bellevue, Washington based T-Mobile USA and then obstruct justice when T-Mobile threatened to sue Huawei in U.S. District Court in Seattle.

The alleged conduct described in the indictment occurred from 2012 to 2014, and includes an internal Huawei announcement that the company was offering bonuses to employees who succeeded in stealing confidential information from other companies. more

White Paper: Business Espionage: The Employee Competitor… and what to do about it.

Business Espionage: FBI Thwarts Akamai Info Heist

http://www.bottomsupcomic.com/2009/06/trade-secrets/

MA - A former employee of a website content delivery company has agreed to plead guilty to a charge of foreign economic espionage for providing company trade secrets to an undercover FBI agent posing as an Israeli intelligence officer, federal prosecutors announced Thursday.

Elliot Doxer, 42, will admit to providing trade secrets from Cambridge-based Akamai Technologies Inc. over an 18-month period to the agent, whom he believed was an Israeli spy, the U.S. Attorney's Office for Massachusetts said in a statement. A plea hearing is scheduled for Aug. 29. (more)

Corporate Espionage: ASML Claims Employee Stole Chip Secrets–Sold them to China

ASML has a monopoly over the global semiconductor industry, and has currently restricted the sale of its machinery to China. 

ASML claims that in an episode of corporate espionage, an employee stole their chip manufacturing secrets and sold it to China...

Based on its preliminary investigations, ASML believes that the misappropriated data will not have a negative impact on its current operations, although it concedes that some “export control requirements” may have been breached. ASML has subsequently disclosed the data breach to the appropriate authorities, and it is “implementing further corrective steps in light of this event.” more