Apple engineers lot with a slew of secret information , but leak those secrets could land you in jail . Xiaolang Zhang was sentenced to 120 days in prison house this week after being convict ofstealing Apple ’s ego - tug car applied science , concord to California court filings first reported by9to5MacThursday . The former Apple technologist will also pay over $ 140,000 for assay to reach Apple ’s classified datum to a Taiwanese competitor .
Zhang worked on “ Project Titan , ” the codename for Apple ’s autonomous car class , bulge out in 2015 . Titan has been in the work for roughly 10 years , but it remains one of Apple ’s most secretive projects . Zhang announced he was quit in 2018 , after die on paternity will , to return to China to care for his ill female parent . However , his employer grew suspicious when he learned he was also joining XMotors , a Formosan inauguration develop autonomous cars .
During this final meeting , Zhang ’s employer feel he was evasive , prompting aninvestigation from Apple ’s New Product Security Team . Zhang regularly make out with confidential files , but when he turned in his company laptop computer , his employer observe he ’d been downloading these classified document at a suspect rate .
Photo: Chen Yuyu/VCG (Getty Images)
Security footage showed Zhang entered software and hardware labs during his authorship leave-taking and transferred confidential document to his wife ’s computing gadget . One video recording show him leaving Apple ’s campus with a box of hardware .
This evidence was ultimately forwarded to the Federal Bureau of Investigation , and Zhang was nab on July 7 , 2018 , shortly before boarding a flight to Beijing . The former Apple engineer confess to taking document from Apple and plead guilty to his charges .
It ’s unclear what happened to XMotors . Their site is no longer dynamic , but you may discover aweb archiveof it . The company claimed tonever meet any sensitive entropy about Apple ’s technology . It agreed to work with local authorities in the investigation . The startup was a subsidiary of XPeng Motors , which now boasts its “ world - result smart driving help architecture . ”
The comparatively short slammer prison term will be followed by a three - year supervised release . It remains unknown how much , if any , information was truly queer from Project Titan . Zhang ’s case is a reminder of how confidential Apple ’s trade secrets really are , and what hap to those who endeavor to leak out .
AppleLaw , Crime
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