Gaming Company Sues Ex-Employees Over Data Theft

Social gaming company Zynga has filed a lawsuit against two of its ex-employees on charges of stealing “extremely sensitive, highly confidential Zynga information” and passing it on to rival gaming company Scopely, which they joined, Ars Technica reports. Massimo Maietti and Ehud Barlach, who resigned from Zynga earlier this year, are also accused of luring other Zynga employees to Scopely, which is named co-defendant.

The lawsuit charges Maietti and Barlach of downloading huge amounts of important data from their computers just before they left the company. The data allegedly stolen included “hundreds of detailed design specifications,” “unreleased game design documents,” and “financial-related information."

Ars Technica reports the company has also leveled charges against former product manager Derek Heck, claiming he deleted thousands of files from his computer before he left to join Scopely.

Zynga reportedly discovered the alleged data theft while probing departure of talent from the company.

Read more on Ars Technica.