The U.S. Division of Justice (DoJ) introduced the indictment of a 38-year-old Chinese language nationwide and a California resident for allegedly stealing proprietary data from Google whereas covertly working for 2 China-based tech corporations.
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 corporations within the AI trade,” the DoJ mentioned.
The defendant is alleged to have pilfered from Google over 500 confidential information containing synthetic intelligence (AI) commerce secrets and techniques with the objective of passing them on to 2 unnamed Chinese language corporations trying to acquire 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 corporations based mostly within the Folks’s Republic of China,” mentioned U.S. Lawyer Ismail Ramsey.
“By stealing Google’s commerce secrets and techniques about its synthetic intelligence supercomputing techniques, 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 heart infrastructure used for working AI fashions, the Cluster Administration System (CMS) software program for managing the information facilities, and the AI fashions and purposes they supported.
The theft occurred from Could 21, 2022, till Could 2, 2023, to a private Google Cloud account, the indictment alleged, including Ding secretly affiliated himself with two tech corporations based mostly in China.
This included one agency during which he was provided the place of chief expertise officer someday round June 2022 and one other firm based by Ding himself by no later than Could 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 massive AI fashions,” the DoJ mentioned.
“A doc associated to Ding’s startup firm said, ‘we have now expertise with Google’s ten-thousand-card computational energy platform; we simply want to copy and improve it – after which additional develop a computational energy platform suited to China’s nationwide situations.'”
However in an fascinating twist, Ding took steps to hide the theft of commerce secrets and techniques by purportedly copying the information from Google supply information into the Apple Notes software on his company-provided MacBook after which changing the notes to PDF information 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 actual fact, 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 high quality for every rely.
The event comes days after the DoJ arrested and indicted David Franklin Slater, a civilian worker of the U.S. Air Drive assigned to the U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM), of transmitting categorised data on a overseas on-line courting platform between February and April 2022.
The knowledge included Nationwide Protection Info (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 residing in Ukraine, by way of the courting web site’s messaging function.
“Slater willfully, improperly, and unlawfully transmitted NDI categorised as ‘SECRET,’ which he had purpose to consider might be used to the damage of america or to the benefit of a overseas nation, on a overseas on-line courting 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 rely of conspiracy to transmit and the transmission of NDI. No particulars are recognized concerning the motives or the actual identification of the person posing as a Ukrainian girl.