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.
Related:
(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]