Google Engineer Steals AI Trade Secrets for Chinese Companies

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.

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 Googles supercomputing data centers; and software design specs for the central cluster management system (CMS) at these centers.
Attorney General
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 Americas 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 Dings job responsibilities as including software development for optimizing graphics processing units (GPUs) for machine learning, at Googles 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 Googles supercomputing centers.
The
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.
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 Googles technology to develop a computational power platform suited to Chinas 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 Googles 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 Dings alleged data theft, leading to Googles investigators retrieving Dings Google laptop and mobile device from him.
The FBI seized Dings 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 Dings personal Google accounts for which they obtained a separate search warrant. The FBI arrested Ding in Newark earlier this week.
Dings 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
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
Chenguang Gong
, a naturalized American citizen, of stealing nuclear secrets from a California defense contractor an attempting to pass it on to Chinas military. Last May, a federal jury indicted former
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.

Last News
▸ Scan suggests Heartbleed patches may not have been successful. ◂ Discovered: 23/12/2024 Category: security	▸ IoT Devices on Average Have 25 Vulnerabilities ◂ Discovered: 23/12/2024 Category: security	▸ DHS-funded SWAMP scans code for bugs. ◂ Discovered: 23/12/2024 Category: security

**Cyber Security Categories**
Google Dorks Database	Exploits Vulnerability	Exploit Shellcodes

CVE List

Tools/Apps

News/Aarticles

Phishing Database

Deepfake Detection

Trends/Statistics & Live Infos

Tags:
Google Engineer Steals AI Trade Secrets for Chinese Companies