Software Engineer Charged for Taking Stolen Trade Secrets to China
Xudong Yao reportedly stole proprietary information from his employer and brought it to China, where he is believed to currently reside.
A newly unsealed federal indictment charges a software engineer for stealing proprietary information from his workplace and bringing it to China, the Department of Justice reports.
Xudong Yao was a software engineer for a locomotive manufacturer in suburban Chicago, where he began working in August 2014. Within two weeks of his hiring date, Yao downloaded more than 3,000 files containing proprietary and trade secret data related to the system that runs the company's locomotives. Over the following six months he continued to download electronic files containing technical documents and software source code, the indictment says.
At the same time he was working for his Chicago employer and stealing information, Yao sought and accepted employment at a business providing automotive telematics service systems based in China. His Chicago employer terminated him in February 2015 for reasons unrelated to the theft, of which it was still unaware. Soon after his termination, Yao copied the stolen data, traveled to China, and began his new job.
According to the indictment, Yao later flew back to Chicago in November 2015 with the stolen information, which included copies of his former employer's control system source code and content explaining how the code worked. He later went back to China, where he is believed to reside.
Read more details here.
Black Hat USA returns to Las Vegas with hands-on technical Trainings, cutting-edge Briefings, Arsenal open-source tool demonstrations, top-tier security solutions, and service providers in the Business Hall. Click for information on the conference and to register.
About the Author
You May Also Like
Transform Your Security Operations And Move Beyond Legacy SIEM
Nov 6, 2024Unleashing AI to Assess Cyber Security Risk
Nov 12, 2024Securing Tomorrow, Today: How to Navigate Zero Trust
Nov 13, 2024The State of Attack Surface Management (ASM), Featuring Forrester
Nov 15, 2024Applying the Principle of Least Privilege to the Cloud
Nov 18, 2024