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The security check at San Jose Mineta International Airport in San Jose, California, was a little more exciting than normal when Xiaolang Zhang crossed the TSA checkpoint on July 7th. The FBI arrested Zhang at Terminal B for stealing information on the autonomous or autonomous car of Apple.
Zhang, clearly not the brightest light in the chandelier, shared with his supervisor his intention to leave Apple and take a position in a Chinese start-up XMotors (aka Xiaopeng Motors). After his statement of intent to pbad to a competitor, he immediately went out the door; It was April 30, 2018. Prior to this meeting, however, Zhang had downloaded the plans on a sophisticated circuit developed by Apple.
Who is XMotors?
XMotors is the wholly owned US subsidiary of Xiaopeng Motors in Guangzhou, with XMotor's office located in Palo Alto, California. They are a well funded vehicle builder who has stated publicly that they are researching the self-driving market.
According to XMotors, Xmotors stated that his relationship with Zhang had been broken and that he did not share any business secrets with the company. The company is cooperating with law enforcement in their investigation of the theft of Apple 's trade secrets by Zhang.
What is the criminal complaint against Zhang telling us?
From April 1 to April 28, 2018, Zhang and his family traveled to China while Zhang was on paternity leave. When Zhang returned to work on April 30, 2018, he told Apple that he was planning to resign and go to work for Xmotors. The supervisor brought security; they chatted with Zhang and informed him that he was being fired immediately. They had her turn around in her Apple devices and then escorted her out of the building.
His devices included two iPhones and a MacBook.
Apple's Protocol for Employees Licensed
The Apple Protocol, as described in the criminal complaint, is one that every company should strive to imitate.
- They ordered a review of Zhang's physical access to Apple's buildings and rooms inside the buildings, collecting a written record documenting his access to R laboratories and facilities. & D.
- They ordered a review of Zhang's intranet activity to document the areas of business he accessed. Did he stay in his swimming lane or went on a treasure hunt for intellectual property? What did he print, what did he copy, where did he store data and with whom did he communicate? Everything would be available.
- They ordered the forensic examination of his devices. This review would clearly reveal which external storage devices are connected and whether data has been moved from the network or device to the external storage device.
As might be expected, they found that their intranet activity in the days leading up to April 30 had increased exponentially compared to the previous two years. The investigation showed that he conducted wide sweeps, looking for documents and drawings, and then downloaded those that caught his eye. In a nutshell, Zhang was in harvest mode.
The review of physical access records shows him entering the laboratory of autonomous vehicles late in the evening on Saturday, April 28, the day of his return from China. Apple reviewed the security videos for this building and saw that Zhang was seen leaving the building with the equipment.
Awesome, they were able to do all the above in 24 hours.
Apple reached out to Zhang and asked him to meet them. He accepted.
On May 1, 2018, the day after the departure of the building, Zhang returned for this voluntary interview with the security and legal team of Apple. During the interview, Zhang admitted to taking the intellectual property of Apple and stole a Linux server and printed circuit boards from the laboratory. He also said that he had transmitted stolen information on his wife's laptop through an "air drop". He said that he would return the articles.
He left Apple and returned in the hour with his wife's laptop, showing that more than 40 gigabytes of Apple data had been shared and that the dropping activity had occurred. April 28th and 29th. the woman's device, he said that he had not. He was terminated previously, voluntary termination, they called him on May 5th.
Entering the FBI
On June 27, 2018, the FBI interviewed Zhang. While they were questioning him, a search warrant was served at his residence. He told the FBI that he knew that he would return his Apple laptop to resign and that he wanted to save his job, so he copied it to personal devices.
On July 7, the FBI learned (how not provided) that he bought a return ticket to leave the same day in China. Zhang never did it in China; he did it to the TSA checkpoint at Terminal B San Jose.
Many lessons
Apple's ability to conduct post-event surveys with an abundant amount of data is clearly evident. In addition, their closures of intellectual property protection to both rent and fire provides the written record that Zhang knew that what he was doing was bad, and he provides to the forces of order a good package. Add to that Apple's willingness to be a cooperative plaintiff, and the FBI and the US Attorney will have the information they need to pursue this case.
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