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It was an innocuous-looking photograph that turned out to be the downfall of Zheng Xiaoqing, a former employee with energy conglomerate General Electric Power:
According to a Department of Justice (DOJ) indictment, the US citizen hid confidential files stolen from his employers in the binary code of a digital photograph of a sunset, which Mr Zheng then mailed to himself.
It was a technique called steganography, a means of hiding a data file within the code of another data file. Mr Zheng utilised it on multiple occasions to take sensitive files from GE.
[...] The information Zheng stole was related to the design and manufacture of gas and steam turbines, including turbine blades and turbine seals. Considered to be worth millions, it was sent to his accomplice in China. It would ultimately benefit the Chinese government, as well as China-based companies and universities.
Zheng was sentenced to two years in prison earlier this month. It is the latest in a series of similar cases prosecuted by US authorities. In November Chinese national Xu Yanjun, said to be a career spy, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for plotting to steal trade secrets from several US aviation and aerospace companies - including GE.
Originally spotted on Schneier on Security.
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(Score: 4, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Sunday January 22 2023, @02:37AM (5 children)
What would the US be willing to do, to capture trade secrets and technology from other nations? Does Operation Paperclip ring any bells? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paperclip [wikipedia.org] What about all the ongoing intel operations around the world? Is that all military, or are we routinely stealing industrial secrets?
But, back to walking a mile - what if we were the tech underdogs? What if the UK, Europe, Russia and China were all ahead of us, and denying us their tech? What if we were Canada's poor southern neighbor, instead of a world power? What would we do about it?
If you answer, "We'd just steal everything we could!" then you are correct.
(Score: 2) by crafoo on Sunday January 22 2023, @03:18AM
that is correct. international politics is amoral, and it cannot be any other way, ever. morality is subjective. each nation advances their own best interests. it's a good reason to build a strong, cohesive culture. It really is your nation against everyone else and anyone telling you differently is an outsider trying to take your stuff.
(Score: 2) by Rich on Sunday January 22 2023, @03:22AM
I'd say Paperclip was fair game with war booty. And Von Braun even, after losing two world wars with Germany, stated he'd once like to be on the winning side. Really immoral US dealings with war booty were the Unit 731 affair.
But e.g. the issue where wind generator manufacturer Enercon was denied entry into the American market is quite nasty stuff that could come straight from a bad thriller novel.
(Score: 2) by Captival on Sunday January 22 2023, @04:03AM (1 child)
I'm not going to blame China for trying, but I am going to blame the US corporations that keep giving them manufacturing jobs to steal, and US politicians who are bought and paid for and always appease China.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 24 2023, @02:28AM
And makes stuff cheaper.
For example China copies Japan's tech
https://japan-forward.com/japans-transfer-of-bullet-train-technology-a-mistake-china-of-course-has-copied-it/ [japan-forward.com]
Now China is complaining others are copying their stuff: http://en.people.cn/n3/2017/0816/c90000-9256275.html [people.cn] ).
And hopefully we get more progress all around. More cheap high speed rail = cheaper train tickets, lower travel costs.
Good luck with that "freedom of the press" stuff if printing press tech was still only in China. 😉
Lastly: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smuggling_of_silkworm_eggs_into_the_Byzantine_Empire [wikipedia.org]
https://www.historiamag.com/stealing-the-secret-of-silk-the-first-international-industrial-spies/ [historiamag.com]
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Monday January 23 2023, @02:31AM
Takeaway: Everybody steals whatever they can. But Chinese spies are so ham-handed that they are the most likely to get caught.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.