The U.S. Division of Justice (DoJ) introduced the indictment of a 38-year-old Chinese language nationwide and a California resident of allegedly stealing proprietary data from Google whereas covertly working for 2 China-based tech firms.
Linwei Ding (aka Leon Ding), a former Google engineer who was arrested on March 6, 2024, “transferred delicate Google commerce secrets and techniques and different confidential data from Google’s community to his private account whereas secretly affiliating himself with PRC-based firms within the AI trade,” the DoJ mentioned.
The defendant is alleged to have pilfered from Google over 500 confidential recordsdata containing synthetic intelligence (AI) commerce secrets and techniques with the aim of passing them on to 2 unnamed Chinese language firms trying to achieve an edge within the ongoing AI race.
“Whereas Linwei Ding was employed as a software program engineer at Google, he was secretly working to complement himself and two firms primarily based within the Individuals’s Republic of China,” mentioned U.S. Lawyer Ismail Ramsey.
“By stealing Google’s commerce secrets and techniques about its synthetic intelligence supercomputing programs, Ding gave himself and the businesses that he affiliated with within the PRC an unfair aggressive benefit.”
Ding, who joined Google as a software program engineer in 2019, has been accused of siphoning proprietary data associated to the corporate’s supercomputing knowledge middle infrastructure used for operating AI fashions, the Cluster Administration System (CMS) software program for managing the info facilities, and the AI fashions and functions they supported.
The theft occurred from Might 21, 2022, till Might 2, 2023, to a private Google Cloud account, the indictment alleged, including Ding secretly affiliated himself with two tech firms primarily based in China.
This included one agency through which he was supplied the place of chief know-how officer someday round June 2022 and one other firm based by Ding himself by no later than Might 30, 2023, performing as its chief govt officer.
“Ding’s firm touted the event of a software program platform designed to speed up machine studying workloads, together with coaching giant AI fashions,” the DoJ mentioned.
“A doc associated to Ding’s startup firm said, ‘now we have expertise with Google’s ten-thousand-card computational energy platform; we simply want to duplicate and improve it – after which additional develop a computational energy platform suited to China’s nationwide situations.'”
However in an attention-grabbing twist, Ding took steps to hide the theft of commerce secrets and techniques by purportedly copying the info from Google supply recordsdata into the Apple Notes utility on his company-provided MacBook after which changing the notes to PDF recordsdata earlier than importing them to their Google account.
Moreover, Ding allegedly allowed one other Google worker in December 2023 to make use of his Google-issued entry badge to scan into the doorway of a Google constructing, giving the impression that he was working from his U.S. Google workplace when, in reality, he was in China. He resigned from Google on December 26, 2023.
Ding has been charged with 4 counts of theft of commerce secrets and techniques. If convicted, he faces a most penalty of 10 years in jail and as much as a $250,000 nice for every depend.
The event comes days after the DoJ arrested and indicted David Franklin Slater, a civilian worker of the U.S. Air Pressure assigned to the U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM), of transmitting categorized data on a international on-line relationship platform between February and April 2022.
The knowledge included Nationwide Protection Data (NDI) pertaining to army targets and Russian army capabilities regarding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It is mentioned to have been despatched to a co-conspirator, who claimed to be a feminine dwelling in Ukraine, through the relationship web site’s messaging function.
“Slater willfully, improperly, and unlawfully transmitted NDI categorized as ‘SECRET,’ which he had purpose to imagine could possibly be used to the harm of the USA or to the benefit of a international nation, on a international on-line relationship platform to an individual not approved to obtain such data,” the DoJ mentioned.
Slater, 63, faces as much as 10 years in jail, three years of supervised launch, and a most financial penalty of $250,000 for every depend of conspiracy to transmit and the transmission of NDI. No particulars are recognized concerning the motives or the actual id of the person posing as a Ukrainian girl.
