A Chinese ex-Google software engineer, Linwei Ding, has been arrested for allegedly stealing over 500 sensitive files containing Intellectual Property (IP) about the company’s cutting-edge Machine Learning (ML) platform and the (AI) models it supports. Unbeknownst to Google, he was also working for two PRC-based AI companies. Chinese state and non-state actors pursue sophisticated forms of IP theft against U.S. companies. It is vital to assess and mitigate the risk associated with your employees, partners, and suppliers. Pamir can help.
On 5 March, an ex-Google Chinese software engineer and U.S. national, Linwei Ding, 38, was arrested on four counts of stealing trade secrets around Google’s cutting-edge hardware infrastructure and software platform that allows Google’s supercomputing data centers to train large Artificial Intelligence (AI) models through Machine Learning (ML). During his employment, he was also secretly working for two technology companies in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Each count carries a maximum sentence of 10 years and a $250,000 fine. The case is being investigated by the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice.
Ding was hired by Google in 2019 to develop the architecture and functionality of Google’s cutting-edge AI supercomputer data system, where he was a part of the team that designed the software to orchestrate ML to build advanced AI models. As part of his employment, he had privileged access to the hardware infrastructure, the software platform, and the AI models and applications they supported.
Granting privileged employee access to trade secrets encourages risk
In December 2023, Ding abruptly resigned from Google and booked a one-way ticket to Beijing. After his departure, Google searched his network activity history and found that between 21 May 2022 and 2 May 2023, Ding had secretly uploaded over 500 unique files containing sensitive data to a personal Google Cloud account. By copying Google source files into the Apple Notes application on his Google MacBook laptop, and then those files into PDF files and uploading them from the Google network into a separate account, Ding allegedly evaded Google’s loss detection systems.
It also became apparent that during this period he was associated with two PRC-based tech companies. Ding worked for Beijing Rongshu Lianzhi Technology Co (Rongshu), where he was introduced to investors as the company’s new CTO and awarded a monthly salary of $14,800 and 20% of the company’s stock. Ding stayed in the PRC between 29 October 2022 and 25 March 2023 in which time he participated in investor meetings to raise new capital for Rongshu.
In addition, some time before 30 May 2023, Ding founded his own PRC-based company, Shanghai Zhisuan Technology Co (Zhisuan), and named himself CEO. He touted his company as a cutting-edge developer of software platforms that can accelerate ML workloads, including the training of large AI models. Company documents state: “we have experience with Google's ten-thousand-card computational power platform; we just need to replicate and upgrade it - and then further develop a computational power platform suited to China's national conditions.”
IP theft: “The defining threat of this generation”
Ding did not inform Google of either position at the time. Furthermore, in December 2023, Ding allegedly gave another Google employee his Google access badge to enter the Google building to make it look as if he was in the U.S. Allegedly, he was in Beijing promoting his own company to investors at the time.
In October 2023, Christopher A. Wray, FBI Director, stated that IP theft from China was the “defining threat of this generation.” Following Ding’s arrest, he said that Ding’s arrest illustrates “the lengths affiliates of companies based in the People’s Republic of China are willing to go to steal American innovation. The theft of innovative technology and trade secrets from American companies can cost jobs and have devastating economic and national security consequences.”
The theft of U.S. IP by Chinese employees and companies has been a growing issue in recent years. For example, in 2015, a Chinese national was arrested for selling IBM source code to entities in the PRC and, in 2018, a former Apple employee was arrested as he boarded a flight to Beijing with IP relating to Apple’s self-driving vehicle.
In 2019, Tesla alleged that a former engineer uploaded complete copies of its self-driving source code and handed over more than 300,000 files to a Chinese competitor. In the same year, a Motorola engineer was stopped at U.S. customs with more than 1,000 digital documents containing Motorola IP, which was intended for Huawei to build out its wireless technology.
The lengths China will go to: Steganography
As an example of the lengths that Chinese companies will go to in order to access U.S. IP, in January 2023, Zheng Xiaoqing, a U.S. citizen and former employee with energy giant General Electric (GE) Power, was alleged to have mailed an innocuous-looking digital photograph of a sunset to a Chinese accomplice allegedly working for the Chinese government.
On further investigation, the photograph was found to contain binary codes relating to the design and manufacture of GE’s cutting-edge gas and steam turbine IP. The technique, known as steganography, can hide data within the code of another data file. Zheng is alleged to have used it on several occasions to pass on GE trade secrets.
Pamir provides extensive Insider Risk Assessment and Employee Evaluation
Insider threats represent a significant risk to U.S. organizations, but Pamir has decades of assessing and mitigating that risk from Chinese employees and companies. As part of our risk assessment and strategic advisory services, we apply a multi-stage process to identify the level of risk and its distribution across your activities and landscape.
Insider Risk Assessment and Monitoring, Brand Protection and Monitoring, Anti-Counterfeiting Assessment, and Employee Evaluation are essential components of a broader, comprehensive risk assessment.
Our services assess how to protect company IP, prevent people from being poached by PRC-based rivals, and the risk posed by individual employees. We seek to understand, manage, and minimize the risk associated with all domains, including employees, partners, and suppliers. We can monitor transactions from a data loss protection perspective, determine insider risks, and investigate emerging threats.
Pamir can unpack this risk landscape on your behalf to ensure end-to-end risk analysis across the whole ecosystem. Get in touch today to find out more.
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