Jakub Karnik The FBI has charged a Chinese Apple employee with stealing trade secrets related to Project Titan. This is the second such suspicion in the last seven months.
Project Titan has been the subject of speculation since 2014. It was originally supposed to be an electric vehicle, but then it turned out that it would most likely be an autonomous system for cars, which employs over 5000 employees, and Apple recently had to lay off more than 200 of them. Moreover, the accusations come at a time when the US suspects China of espionage, further escalating the atmosphere between the two countries.
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In addition, Jizhong Chen, the man facing charges, was a member of a select group of employees who work with patents and other classified information. He is therefore the second Chinese employee to be accused of theft. In July, the FBI detained Xiaolang Zhang at the San Jose airport after he bought a last-minute ticket to China, with which he also carried a highly confidential twenty-five-page document in his suitcase, which contained schematic drawings of circuit boards for an autonomous vehicle.
Chen's co-workers noticed on more than one occasion that he was discreetly taking photographs at work, which he admitted to after being charged. He allegedly transferred data from his work computer to his personal hard drive. Apple subsequently discovered that it had copied a total of 2 different files that contained confidential material related to Project Titan. They also discovered hundreds of screenshots of the work computer with additional information. The data comes from June 000, immediately after Chen took up his position in Cupertino.
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Amaya Toman However, to this day it is not clear whether he copied the data for espionage purposes or not. Chen defends himself by saying that the files were only an insurance contract. At the same time, however, he stated that he applied for a position at a competing car company that focuses on autonomous systems. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250.
Source: BusinessInsider
