Former Apple employee charged with stealing self-driving secrets | Mashable.
Man allegedly stole entire source code of Apple's self-driving project
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| Apple's self-driving car project hit a major roadblock in 2018. Credit: iStock Editorial / Getty Images Plus |
A former Apple engineer has been charged with stealing trade secrets, specifically concerning the company's work to develop self-driving cars.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California announced on Tuesday that software engineer Weibao Wang has been indicted by a federal grand jury. Though the case was only made public this Tuesday, the investigation into Wang began back in 2018. According to the allegations, Wang began working as a software engineer at Apple in Mar. 2016. Over two years later in Nov. 2017, he signed an employment agreement with another company that was also allegedly developing self-driving cars.
However, Wang reportedly neglected to inform Apple of his new position or resign from his job for four months, only leaving in April 2018. A subsequent review of his past activity on Apple's network determined he had accessed "large amounts of sensitive proprietary and confidential information" within days of his departure from the company.
Wang's California home was searched in Jun. 2018, at which time Apple data was discovered, however he promptly left the U.S. for Guangzhou, China.
The U.S. Attorney's Office did not reveal the name of Wang's second employer, but did state that it was a "U.S.-based subsidiary of a company headquartered in the People’s Republic of China."
What's notable about the case is the sheer scope of data allegedly stolen by Wang. According to the indictment, in 2016 he stole (or attempted to steal) the "entire autonomy source code." Wang also allegedly stole an "architecture design for an autonomous system," as well as "descriptions of hardware systems, including architecture, modules, power, and inputs."
Apple's self-driving project, codenamed Project Titan, has reportedly been in development for years, hitting numerous roadblocks along the way. Last we heard of it, the company scaled its ambitions down from a fully autonomous, steering wheel-less vehicle to launching a car that can autonomously drive on highways only (which some modern cars can to some degree) by 2026.
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He tried to make a getaway, but the car turned itself in!
ReplyDeletethat's next level, very few will get it
Delete😆
I’m too good for this lot!! 😂
Deletethis is what I’m here for 💯🤣👍
Deletehe sold it to musk?
ReplyDeleteGuy should be locked up in jail and not allowed to ever touch a computer again
ReplyDeleteAll code should be open source. I bet half of it was written using open source libraries and stolen code anyway.
Deletewe found an apple fan boy
Deleteyes and no - I knew of someone that was working at one business and at another company - all remote - and was steeling IP from one and giving it to the other company (collecting 2 paychecks and working the 2 jobs concurrently) and they ended up in jail.
Deletewe often don't treat violent criminals that harshly. 😎
Deleteyou touch on the disrepair our criminal justice system is in
DeleteHe stole information they stole land 🤷oh well ✌️
ReplyDeleteSo 4 year old Android code?
ReplyDeleteGenius, have two jobs at one time.
ReplyDeleteAnother Chinese software engineer stealing self driving software.
ReplyDeleteNo Elon headlines today?????? 🤣🤣🤣
ReplyDeleteGood one Les
ReplyDeleteHe should be public execution hang by his thing
ReplyDeleteMake millions but ended up serving lunch in prison
ReplyDelete/var/log/audit
ReplyDeleteWuhan Says Hold My Beer
ReplyDeleteCheck with Gizmodo…
ReplyDeleteIts always a Man. It seems women dont have the creative evil genius in them, they just like to steal in other ways.
ReplyDeleteThis is a serious crime. I cannot believe they let them fly back to china after the arrest.
ReplyDeleteWhat the heck?!? Apple spends the money, does the hard work, takes the time, and China gets to just rip them off? What is the US government doing to protect them? Nothing???
ReplyDeletethe DOJ is always ready and willing to jump all over Apple for being successful (as if it were a crime), but sits on their thumbs when the pride and joy of private sector USA has their hard earned trade secrets ripped off - multiple times and then hand delivered to China so they can sell a cheaper thing since they didn’t have to pay the R&D, hardware, and staffing costs? And homeboy over here isn’t confined to the ISA in the meantime? He’s free to go and deliver the stolen goods to China (which he likely did via Snapchat or encrypted email the day he downloaded it)??
unbelievable.
If you look at the Hyundai Ionic series you'll see Apple's minimalist design language written all over it. I believe this is one of the reasons why Apple broke ties with Hyundai-Kia a couple of years ago, shameless idea theft.
ReplyDeleteminimalist design? So, what would Tesla be?
DeleteHyundai-Kia copying the car Apple never built?
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DeleteThe Iconic is more minimalist than a Tesla, actually I wouldn’t describe Tesla’s design language as minimalist.
DeleteEither way when two companies explore working together, NDAs are signed, visions and design concepts are shared. I believe Hyundai shamelessly mimicked Apple’s design language from confidential documents which pissed off Apple
If that's the design language that Apple was going for, then I'm glad that they haven't made their own vehicle yet. Personally, I think that the Ioniq is fairly hideous. Also, the fact that they didn't better utilize the LED matrix lighting on the front and rear is a lost opportunity.
DeleteTo me, Hyundai Ionic looks more like Ford Mustang (the sport car, not SUV). I double Apple will go for that look. On top of that, Tesla already has that minimalist design look from the start.
DeleteDespite the abundance of evidence and the search, Wang was still able to leave the country, after promising he wouldn't. Wang left on a flight to Guangzhou, China, making prosecution difficult.
ReplyDeleteSo they knew he was a criminal but decided to believe him when he "promised" he wouldn't leave? Who made that decision?
DeleteWhite collar crime……
DeleteAmerican companies are unable to fill their tech job vacancies with American labor alone, so they are forced to import them from India and China. Even though it is risky and expensive they have little to no choice. If you wanna point the finger at someone, you can point it at the privileged US education system, entitled mindset, and the two bickering political parties that don't seem to know how to solve for anything.
ReplyDeleteAmerican companies need to place Chinese nationals under the most intense microscope when given jobs that grant access to U.S. tech. If they have roots in China, they should have their passports immediately taken. This is ridiculous. Shame on the judge that allowed this miscreant to take the thief's word that he would not leave the country. It's an embarrassment.
ReplyDeleteI hope Wang knows that he is now a wanted man the moment he leaves China. As big a China is, it will feel like a small country for the rest of his life knowing he can't travel to any country that honors warrants and U.S. extradition laws.
What a piece of garbage.
Good point, but difficult to do when you are an American company that has major investment in China and is endeavoring to fulfill a promised 275 billion dollar investment in the country itself.
Deleteah... priorities...
And the US goverment wants to sell the chinese farm land.
ReplyDeleteApple self-driving car tech has not been installed on any car. The theft happened in 2018. That is five years ago. These engineers probably thought to steal the code to China to implement it.
ReplyDeleteAnd if the republicans get their way, it will be even worse. No science, no books. What else?
ReplyDeleteNo more teachers' dirty looks?
ReplyDeleteThat's not accurate. It's a money thing. It's cheaper to pay non-USA wages. there are plenty of qualified Americans who would go for these jobs - that don't get the opportunity.
ReplyDeleteIt reminds me back in the old days when Soviet Union stole lots of American and European inventions and ip. Concord airplane and Manhattan Project's Atomic bomb are just to name a few.
ReplyDeleteIt’s not exactly unusual for a young, undeveloped country to steal from a more industrialised one…
Deletehttps://apnews.com/article/north-america-us-news-ap-top-news-theft-international-news-b40414d22f2248428ce11ff36b88dc53
It's cheaper to pay non-USA wages. there are plenty of qualified Americans who would go for these jobs - that don't get the opportunity.
ReplyDeleteou’re not wrong, but there aren’t “plenty” of qualified Americans anymore (like there were in NASA’s golden era). The shifting of the economy and education systems to lower-skill, lower-paying jobs has severely shriveled the pool of US candidates for this high-end level of engineering.
DeleteMeanwhile, China has invested in producing STEM-type graduates who can qualify for work in the US, and perhaps steal IP and technology from the US. Lower-wage workers are mostly for the less-skilled jobs, both in and outside the US when it comes to working for tech companies.
This is called the second law of capitalism, paraphrase the second law of thermodynamics.
DeleteHas Apple not heard of Data Loss Prevention? Do they not have a cybersecurity team monitoring classified information exfiltration? It's preposterous that such an advanced company could allow gigabytes of IP to be stolen from their network, yes even if it is an insider actor. There are systems to prevent this.
ReplyDeleteNope, they get paid American wages because the company sponsors them.
ReplyDeleteIndustrial espionage is universal.
ReplyDeleteApple may be found wanting in this case or maybe not. No one knows the details.
I have experience in PV for classified positions but a PV for a position in a place like GCHQ is overkill for a private company.
That said, I know of far smaller tech and fintech companies where the kind of theft mentioned here would be very difficult to pull off without getting noticed.
On the subject of Apple and China, Chinese nationals or people with Chinese heritage, you only need to take a look at a random selection of Apple's patent filings to see Chinese names on many documents.
The US cannot match China for the pool of available qualified talent.
The Trump era shenanigans also provoked a bit of an exodus of Chinese talent that was already working in the US.
This sort of industrial/government espionage is going on constantly. Its easy to point a finger and say that Apple (or whatever company is the victim) should have prevented, but the reality is that doing so is extremely difficult. The people stealing these materials are smart and technically very capable engineers -- if they want something, they're going to get it. The fact that the thieves are being discovered and prosecuted means Apple is doing their job. Locking down completely is very counter to being productive and able to develop bleeding edge state of the art technology. It is a delicate balancing act for companies, and can be an existential threat to them... the sad case of Nortel being a prime example (i.e. if you invested in Nortel at its height and held on until the end, you would have been better off buying beer and returning the cans for the deposit).
ReplyDeleteSimilarly, it is impossible to hire entirely US engineers in a company of any significant size. The number of skilled engineers required simply does not exist. A huge fraction of the employees in US companies come from outside of the US -- Europe, India, China. And they are paid the same as any US worker (i.e. very well as these skill sets are in high demand, and short supply). The fraction of the available engineers that are from the US has been in a steep decline for 30+ years, and I have personally observed this first hand. I'm sure everyone has their favourite target to blame for it, but the problem is very real and will take decades to fix (if even possible).
They shouldn’t be hiring anyone who isn’t a citizen of the United States, particularly from countries known to hold family members hostage, China, Russia, and probably Turkey. For example.
ReplyDeleteWill make it pretty hard to staff the stores in China and Turkey.
ReplyDelete