A former employee leaked information from Apple. He faces 10 years in prison and a quarter million dollar fine

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has charged a former Apple employee with stealing trade secrets. Upon joining, Xiaolang Zhang had to sign an intellectual property agreement and attend mandatory trade secret training. However, he violated this agreement by stealing confidential data. And Apple takes these things very seriously.

The Chinese engineer was hired by Apple in December 2015 to work on Project Titan, which was primarily focused on developing hardware and software for autonomous vehicles. After the birth of his child, Zhang went on paternity leave and traveled to China for some time. Shortly after returning to the United States, he informed his employer that he wanted to resign. He was about to start working for the Chinese car company Xiaopeng Motor, which also focuses on the development of autonomous systems. However, he had no idea what awaited him.

His supervisor felt that he had been evasive in the last meeting and therefore had some suspicions. Apple had no idea at first, but after his last visit, they started looking into his network activities and the Apple products he used to use. In addition to his former devices, they also checked security cameras and were not surprised. In the footage, Zhang was seen moving around the campus, entering Apple's autonomous vehicle labs and leaving with a box full of hardware equipment. The time of his visit coincided with the times of the downloaded files.

A former Apple engineer has admitted to the FBI that he downloaded confidential internal files to his wife's laptop so he would have constant access to them. According to the investigators, at least 60% of the transferred data was serious. Zhang was arrested on July 7 while trying to flee to China. He now faces ten years in prison and a $250.000 fine.

In theory, Xmotor could have benefited from this stolen data, which is why Zhang was charged. Company spokesman Tom Neumayr said Apple takes confidentiality and the protection of intellectual property very seriously. They are now working with the authorities on this case and are doing everything they can to ensure that Zhang and the other individuals involved are held accountable for their actions.