COLUMNS

An Arrest at Apple Shows How Corporate Spies Worm Their Way Into the System

Scott Stewart

VP of Tactical Analysis, Stratfor

Feb 5, 2019 | 09:30 GMT

Journalists gather for a product launch event at Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California, on Sept. 12, 2018. Corporations like Apple must always be on their toes against would-be agents stealing their secrets.

(NOAH BERGER/AFP/Getty Images)

Highlights

Two cases in which engineers working on Apple's autonomous vehicle program allegedly stole trade secrets show that corporate espionage will continue to be a major threat to companies.
Nevertheless, the prosecution of an insider may not necessarily discourage future employees from following the same path.
The differences in the tactics in the two cases demonstrate that corporate spies will learn from the mistakes of predecessors, and adapt to changes in security policy.

Chen Jizhong was all ready to head for China on Jan. 22 when FBI special agents swooped in on the Apple engineer. Chen's alleged crime, according to a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, was to have stolen trade secrets relating to the company's autonomous vehicle program. In doing so, Chen appeared to be following in the footsteps of Zhang Xiaolang, a Chinese compatriot and Apple colleague whom authorities also nabbed as he prepared to flee to China in July 2018. In both cases, the men were planning to start employment with Apple's Chinese competitors in the driverless car market. The Chen and Zhang cases bear some striking similarities but also feature some intriguing differences. Together, they illustrate that the threats to in-demand intellectual property will persist even after a successful prosecution and that agents will alter their tactics in response to efforts...

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