Chinese national Linwei Ding is accused of pilfering more than 500
  files containing Google IP while affiliating with two China-based
  startups at the same time.

  Close up of finger on keyboard with word TRADE SECRET

  Source: kenary820 via Shutterstock

  The US Justice Department has charged a former Google software engineer
  with stealing artificial intelligence-related trade secrets from the
  company, with an eye to using it at two AI-related firms he was
  associated with in China.

  If convicted, Linwei Ding, aka Leon Ding, faces up to 10 years in
  prison and a fine of $250,000 on each of the four counts of trade
  secrets theft on which he has been indicted.

  Some examples of the type of data that Ding allegedly pilfered include
  the chip architecture and software design specs for two new tensor
  processor versions for machine learning and AI; complete technical
  details of GPUs at Google's supercomputing data centers; and software
  design specs for the central cluster management system (CMS) at these
  centers.

Protecting Against Trade Secret Theft

  Attorney General [1]Merrick Garland announced the charges at an
  American Bar Association event in San Francisco this week. He
  highlighted it as an example of the vigor with which the US government
  will pursue those caught stealing secrets related to AI and other
  advanced technologies to benefit America's rivals.

  "The Justice Department will not tolerate the theft of artificial
  intelligence and other advanced technologies that could put our
  national security at risk," Garland said in a statement. "We will
  fiercely protect sensitive technologies developed in America from
  falling into the hands of those who should not have them."

  Google hired Ding, 38, a Chinese national and resident of Newark,
  Calif., as a software engineer in May 2019. Indictment papers unsealed
  March 6 in US District Court for the Northern District of California
  described Ding's job responsibilities as including software development
  for optimizing graphics processing units (GPUs) for machine learning,
  at Google's supercomputing centers. The job gave Ding authorized access
  to reams of confidential information related to the hardware
  infrastructure, software platform, AI models, and the applications they
  supported at Google's supercomputing centers.

  The [2]indictment charged Ding with using his authorized access to
  pilfer some 500 unique files containing Google AI-related trade secrets
  and secretly uploading them to a personal Google Cloud account. The
  alleged illicit activity began in May 2022 and continued through May
  2023.

Affiliating With Rivals

  In May 2023, Ding is alleged to have quietly founded Shanghai Zhisuan
  Technology, a China-based company focused on developing a CMS that
  promised to accelerate ML workloads and speed up AI model training.
  Shortly thereafter, Ding, acting as CEO of his startup, applied for and
  got acceptance to a China-based incubation program for high-tech
  startups. In pitching his company to investors with the incubator, Ding
  is alleged to have openly touted his Google experience, and stated that
  his goal to "replicate and upgrade" Google's technology to "develop a
  computational power platform suited to China's national conditions."

  Separately, and starting sometime last June — a month after he had
  completed his alleged data theft — Ding also began corresponding with
  the CEO of an early-stage technology startup in China that developed
  software for accelerating machine learning on GPUs. The CEO offered
  Ding $14,800 a month plus an annual bonus and company stock to join the
  company as its chief technology officer. Ding is alleged to have
  traveled to China in October 2022, staying on until the end of last
  March, during which time he attempted to raise capital for the company
  in his role as CTO.

  Ding resigned from Google on Dec. 26, a couple of weeks after he
  allegedly uploaded a set of additional documents containing
  confidential information from Google's network to his own private
  account. Ding had explained that upload away to Google investigators
  who detected the activity. But after he resigned, a subsequent
  investigation exposed Ding's alleged data theft, leading to Google's
  investigators retrieving Ding's Google laptop and mobile device from
  him.

A History of Insiders Stealing Secrets for China

  The FBI seized Ding's electronic devices and other evidence after they
  executed a search warrant on his home in early January. They discovered
  the theft of the 500 files when going through the contents of his
  Ding's personal Google accounts for which they obtained a separate
  search warrant. The FBI arrested Ding in Newark earlier this week.

  Ding's arrest and indictment focuses attention once again on what the
  US government and others have described as the rampant theft of US
  trade secrets and intellectual property by individuals and agents
  working for China-based companies in recent years. In many instances,
  cyber-threat groups — often thought to be [3]working on behalf of the
  Chinese government — have been the ones responsible for the heists.

  But as with the latest arrest, there have been several recent instances
  in which individuals working for US companies have stolen secrets and
  attempted to pass them on to Chinese companies and entities. In
  February 2024, the US government accused [4]Chenguang Gong , a
  naturalized American citizen, of stealing nuclear secrets from a
  California defense contractor an attempting to pass it on to China's
  military. Last May, a federal jury indicted former [5]Apple employee
  Weibo Wang of attempting to steal information related to autonomous
  vehicle technology and using it at a China-based company in the same
  space.

About the Author(s)

  [6]Jai Vijayan, Contributing Writer

  Jai Vijayan is a seasoned technology reporter with over 20 years of
  experience in IT trade journalism. He was most recently a Senior Editor
  at Computerworld, where he covered information security and data
  privacy issues for the publication. Over the course of his 20-year
  career at Computerworld, Jai also covered a variety of other technology
  topics, including big data, Hadoop, Internet of Things, e-voting, and
  data analytics. Prior to Computerworld, Jai covered technology issues
  for The Economic Times in Bangalore, India. Jai has a Master's degree
  in Statistics and lives in Naperville, Ill.

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References

  1. https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/chinese-national-residing-california-arrested-theft-artificial-intelligence-related
  2. https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/media/1341391/dl?inline
  3. https://www.darkreading.com/endpoint-security/chinese-spies-exploited-critical-vmware-bug-2-years
  4. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.913902/gov.uscourts.cacd.913902.1.0.pdf
  5. https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/former-apple-employee-charged-theft-trade-secrets
  6. https://www.darkreading.com/author/jai-vijayan