Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
Xiaolang Zhang, a former Apple employee charged by the FBI in 2018 for stealing trade secrets about Apple's autonomous vehicle project, has pleaded guilty in a federal court in San Jose on Monday.
Zhang stole the trade secrets while preparing to work for Chinese electric vehicle startup Xiaopeng Motors, also known as XPeng. The FBI arrested Zhang at San Jose airport, California, on 7 July, while he was en route to China.
Zhang was hired by Apple in 2015 where he would eventually work on hardware for Apple's secretive autonomous vehicle project.
[...] After Zhang told Apple he planned to work for Xmotors, the iPhone-maker cut off his network access. A subsequent investigation by Apple found he'd downloaded documents and information from Apple databases.
Besides downloading trade secret intellectual property, he also took a circuit board and server from Apple's car labs. But the key documents, which formed the basis of the charge he pleaded guilty to, was a 25-page PDF file containing highly sensitive electrical schematics of circuit boards.
Zhang now faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for the charge of theft of trade secrets.
(Score: 1, Troll) by Username on Wednesday August 24 2022, @12:42PM (7 children)
I assume it was all stuff he made there, and he assumed he had a right to his work.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 24 2022, @02:07PM (6 children)
You're not wrong, but I don't think he actually cared. He was and is a Chinese IP spy and only cared about bringing tech back to China.
We (USA) make it far too easy for them. I don't understand how and why the US is so naive to China's intent on absolute world domination.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by sorokin on Wednesday August 24 2022, @02:35PM (2 children)
I think there is no need to divide people even more on US vs China or "we" vs "they".
I would rather say that this is a fraud of a specific person who (presumably) acted for his personal gain unless we have some evidence that he worked for the Chenese government.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 24 2022, @06:54PM
Hey, if you want to live in a fantasy world, go ahead. But stop telling other people to ignore reality.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Mykl on Wednesday August 24 2022, @11:27PM
I think the problem here is that there are a _lot_ of examples of fraud from specific persons whose circumstances closely match this case. Let's not also forget that the gain was not purely for the individual alone - the company they were going to work for stood to gain quite a great deal out of it too, and it's not outside of the realm of possibility that they encouraged this behavior.
When the same factors seem to keep popping up repeatedly, it's reasonable to infer a pattern.
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Wednesday August 24 2022, @03:49PM
Butbutbutbut... they are cheap...
(Score: 2) by legont on Wednesday August 24 2022, @10:09PM
So far the world domination was a pure western thing exercised by Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, England and lately by the USA. Meantime China gave it up centuries ago and actually destroyed her military ships. Can it change now? Probably. Can we resist it? Unlikely. It's too late.
The important part is the western paranoia about being concurred if they do not concur first. Is it reasonable assumption? Probably. Is it likely for the USA to go the way other western countries went? Absolutely.
That's unless someone finds a stronger good.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2) by legont on Wednesday August 24 2022, @10:23PM
And once again, if he were a spy, he would not tell Apple he is going to work for Xmotors. He would just leave.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2) by istartedi on Wednesday August 24 2022, @06:19PM (2 children)
So this guy can infiltrate to that degree, but you can't even get a guided tour around their campus?
OK, this is mostly a review of a recent visit to the Apple Visitor's Center adjacent to the "space ship". My expectations were set low, and yet I was still disappointed.
I knew ahead of time that you couldn't just walk in to the middle of the circle, and no tours are offered, not even pricey tickets for a guided tour which I know a lot of people (maybe not me, but surely many) would be willing to buy.
The Visitor's Center doesn't even talk about the building. It's just a slightly different Apple Store with a big screen, presentations on how to use the products, etc.
Admittedly I'm not an Apple user, but this experience did nothing to convert me, and everything to convince me that Apple is just resting on its laurels. It's hard to blame them, what with them having such an enormous cash cow and being, what, the first $trillion company?
So on one hand, you just can't argue with that kind of success but that doesn't stop me from being turned off. So many opportunities to bring me over, and none taken.
Another case in point. You can actually interact with one of their top-end machines there. I think the one on the floor was spec'd out around $14k--fantastic machine, dozens of cores, ridiculous amounts of RAM. What's it doing? Playing a video. I pulled up CPU usage and it was like 0.1%. For the love of God, show us what that baby can do! That thing is crying out for Mandelbrot generator, rendering or something. So lame. Didn't see anything on the box that looked like it would show off its power.
So anyway, if you're in Cupertino the Apple Visitor's Center is a must miss unless you want, totally serious here, Apple SWAG you can't get at other locations; like T-shirt or something. I forget.
You won't even get much of a view of the space ship from the top floor, or any information about this architectural marvel, or even history of the company. You'll just get a bunch of "anything we can help you with" if you're there too long, like any other Apple Store. Oh. And you can get coffee, LOL.
No tour of the campus. I get it. It's a workplace; but not even guided with a ticket? For "security purposes". But this guy can infiltrate, no problem. I think their campus might be nuclear powered. I'm given to understand that the reactor is cooled via a small thermal exhaust port, just 2 meters wide.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 2) by legont on Wednesday August 24 2022, @10:18PM
He did not infiltrate - he developed it. Then he got an offer he could not refuse.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 25 2022, @01:17AM
Two meters?? That's impossible, even for a computer!