Aug 23, 2022 15:00:00

Convicted former engineer who stole top secret materials from Apple's automatic driving car related project

Engineer Xiaoran Chan, who was involved in

the self-driving car project being developed by Apple , was indicted for stealing confidential materials about the project and was convicted by the federal court on Monday, August 22, 2022. I was.

Former Apple employee Xiaolang Zhang pleads guilty
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/08/22/former-apple-employee-xiaolang-zhang-pleads-guilty-.html

Chan is an engineer who was involved in Apple's self-driving car development project. He said that he downloaded a 25-page confidential document including the design drawing of the circuit board of the self-driving car that was being developed in the project, and a manual describing the prototype of the self-driving car developed by Apple and its requirements. , was indicted by Apple.

Former Apple employee arrested for stealing top secret information from automatic driving car development project - GIGAZINE

Zhang was due to return to China in July 2018, but was arrested by federal agents at San Jose airport before leaving the United States. According to an indictment from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the US Department of Justice, Chan has been working for Apple since 2015 and in recent years worked as a hardware engineer in Apple's self-driving car development project.

According to the FBI's public document, Apple has ``about 5,000 employees'' who are aware of the existence of the self-driving car development project, and ``about 2,700 core employees'' who can access project-related materials and databases. It seems that there was Also, according to the complaint, Apple makes full use of internal software to track `` which employee has accessed which data on the database '', and not only this, but also to participate in confidentiality training for employees It is said that it is obligatory to

Chang was in charge of designing and testing circuit diagrams related to sensors for self-driving cars. CNBC points out that the material stolen by Chan is ``particularly important,'' because schematic design is considered ``one of the most important trade secrets'' in the electronics industry.

Apple first suspected that Chan had stolen confidential materials when he took childcare leave and returned to China temporarily. After that, when Chan returned to Apple, he submitted a letter of resignation, claiming that he wanted to go back to China and take care of his mother. At this time, Chan said that he plans to work for Xmotors, a major Chinese electric car manufacturer, after returning to China. At this time, Apple blocked Chan from accessing the company's database and started investigating him. As a result, it was revealed that he had downloaded the above-mentioned confidential materials before blocking access to the database. Also, it seems that Chan was filming hardware such as circuits in the laboratory, and it seems that the surveillance camera was reflected, so from here Apple will accuse Chan to FBI.

Another former employee, Jizhong Chen, has also been charged with stealing confidential materials from Apple's electric vehicle division in 2019. At this time, Mr. Chen, an American citizen, was also planning to travel to China, suggesting that he would have planned to distribute top secret materials to Chinese companies. In addition, Mr. Chen's lawsuit has not been convicted, and the same lawyer as Chan is in charge of defense.

Chan, who was convicted, could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $ 250,000 (about 34 million yen). Sentencing is expected in November 2022.