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On Tuesday, Zynga sued two of its former employees. The company claims they stole confidential information and took it to their new employer, rival social gaming startup, Scopely.
Massimo Maietti and Ehud Barlach worked as higher-up employees for the San Francisco-based Zynga until they left in July and September, respectively. Scopely, which makes Dice with Buddies, Wheel of Fortune Free Play, and others, is also named as a co-defendant in the case.
According to Zynga's 28-page civil complaint, Maietti was the creative director on "one of Zynga's most ambitious soon-to-be released games, which goes by the code name 'Project Mars.'" Barlach, for his part, was the general manager of Hit It Rich! Slots.
As Zynga alleges:
On July 4, 2016—during the Independence Day holiday and just one day before he gave notice of his resignation of employment from Zynga–Maietti's Internet history shows that Maietti used the Google Chrome browser on his Zynga-issued laptop to access a Zynga-owned Google Drive account. His browser history shows that he proceeded to download 10 Google Drive folders that he had permission to access, but only as necessary to perform his duties for Zynga. The Google Chrome browser "zipped" those ten files and downloaded them to his File Downloads folder. Once downloaded, forensic analysis shows that Maietti copied nine of those folders to a connected external USB device. The external USB device was disconnected from the computer, and Maietti then placed the .zip files in the Trash, while they remained on the USB device. On July 7, 2016, over 20,000 files and folders were located within the Trash but were subsequently deleted in a failed attempt by Maietti to cover his tracks.
The lawsuit goes on to explain that those zipped files "have identical names to those in Zynga's Google Drive account" and consist of "extremely sensitive, highly confidential Zynga information," including "wholesale copying of the Project Mars folder." Those documents also allegedly included "hundreds of detailed design specifications," "unreleased game design documents," and "financial-related information."
For his part, while he was still at Zynga, Barlach is accused of engaging in similar data copying and even telling a Scopely recruiter whom to target at Zynga.
In response, Scopely recruiter Christina Dunbar responded to Barlach by text: "Thanks!! I was saving that for your first day! LOL I would be happy to hear about anyone you think I should be trying to speak with. Obviously I know you have that clause about not taking people so I am always careful. :-)"
According to the article, "Before returning work laptop, employee searched: "How to erase my hard drive.""
(Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Friday December 02 2016, @12:40PM
That's not an insult.
I was a semi-truck (lorry?) driver instructor. Even I know to overwrite files multiple times.
Why didn't he image his drive, do the dirty, then overwrite the entire drive, and re-image it? I am 'competent' with a computer, but no expert, so maybe this is lacking a step, or five, or wouldn't work the way I think it would. Of course, I've never even considered how to do something like this before just now.
I know it wouldn't get rid of any evidence on other computers in the system, and would likely leave evidence of being re-imaged, but it maybe it would of erased the record of putting it on a flash drive. At least it might of made it more difficult to prove.
And what is it with educated people using texting (assuming it to be his personal phone, no, I didn't RTFA) to plot nefarious acts? Christ a personal phone call with a burner phone would of been more secure, and leave no (virtual) paper trail.
Yes, I do realize I am professing my complete ignorance with the above comment. But now my curiosity is piqued, so please tell me if I'm even in the ballpark.
Ignorance is cured through the application of knowledge, whereas, stupidity is a lifelong affliction.
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Friday December 02 2016, @01:04PM
As a computer-literate truck driver, you should know the only safe way of erasing a hard drive is to drive over it.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Friday December 02 2016, @02:46PM
Just dd over the entire device with zeroes once. Unless the NSA spends its entire yearly budget on it, nobody is going to be able to recover it. They've done studies.
That this guy couldn't even figure out how to do that makes him look pretty dumb. Although I suppose handing a laptop with a wiped hard drive back to Zynga would've looked suspicious, and they still had the web logs.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Friday December 02 2016, @05:49PM
Yes: if the same files/texts etc are sent between computers, there will be a trail that can be (and should be!) followed in a forensic analysis...
...kind of like when someone erases the hard drive on a private email server in order to get rid of email evidence that has been subpoena'd , not realizing that all emails are on at least 2 computers if they are sent and can therefore be 're-enacted', but getting away with the whole shebang because, you know, connections.......
Sorry... had to bring it up :)
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 02 2016, @10:28PM
Well, then why weren't they ever able to find all those GWB White House emails that "disappeared" off of the illegal RNC server? You know . . . connections . . .
(Score: 2) by edIII on Friday December 02 2016, @11:12PM
One Word: Telemetry
If they were going as far as to record USB transfers, Google Drive access, and whatnot, I'm sure their IT department was competent enough to put in administratively protected remote logging. Depending on effort, the management screens could see USB transfer happen in near real time.
Seeing as he was in a company of thieves, I would have expected him to realize just how closely he was watched. Using your suggestions you could remove some of the evidence, the file may already be thick.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.