Hacking group has hit Taiwan’s prized semiconductor industry, Taiwanese firm says

Taiwan’s semiconductor industry, a centerpiece of the global supply chain for smartphones and computing equipment, was the focus of a hacking campaign targeting corporate data over the last two years, Taiwan-based security firm CyCraft Technology claimed Thursday. The hackers went after at least seven vendors in the semiconductor industry in 2018 and 2019, quietly scouring networks for source code and chip-related software, CyCraft said. Analysts say the campaign, which reportedly hit a sprawling campus of computing firms in northwest Taiwan, shows how the tech sector’s most prized data is sought out by well-resourced hacking groups. “They’re choosing the victims very precisely,” C.K. Chen, senior researcher at CyCraft, said of the hackers. “They attack the top vendor in a market segment, and then attack their subsidiaries, their competitors, their partners and their supply chain vendors.” It was unclear which companies were targeted; CyCraft declined to name them. It was also unclear who was responsible for the […]

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Engineer took U.S. locomotive manufacturer’s source code to China, prosecutors say

A former software engineer at a locomotive manufacturer in Illinois stole intellectual property from the company and took it to China, according to a U.S. Department of Justice inductment made public this week. The 57-year-old engineer, Xudong “William” Yao, has been charged with nine counts of related to the alleged theft of trade secrets, the Department of Justice said Thursday. The indictment returned by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois alleges a months-long scheme by Yao to steal more than 3,000 electronic files including source code, technical documents and other sensitive data from the unnamed manufacturing company. Within two weeks of joining the company, located in suburban Chicago, in August 2014, Yao downloaded proprietary data detailing locomotive operating systems, according to the indictment. That activity continued for six months before Yao ultimately accepted a job at a company in China that made automotive telematics service systems, U.S. officials alleged. […]

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Former McAfee employees conspired to take ‘secret sauce’ to Tanium, lawsuit says

McAfee has filed a lawsuit against former employees, accusing them of conspiracy and stealing trade secrets before starting new positions at a competitor. In a suit filed Monday in the Eastern District Court of Texas, McAfee claims that three former sales staffers — Jennifer Kinney, Alan Coe and Percy Tejeda — conspired to breach their contracts and steal the “secret sauce” underlying McAfee’s sales tactics and customer strategies. The three left McAfee for Tanium, the lawsuit states, a rival endpoint-security firm, at various points throughout the past year. The case highlights the cutthroat nature of the security industry, a relatively small field where firms are in constant competition and employees frequently get offers to jump ship. Tejeda, McAfee’s former director of finance, was the first employee to accept a new position at Tanium, according to the complaint. He then recruited Kinney, who formerly reported to Tejeda at McAfee, and Coe […]

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Huawei Indicted, China Claims Foul

There’s no doubt Huawei is in crisis management mode, as the company continues to get pummeled by the United States and others. In January, we have seen two of Huawei’s subsidiaries charged with industrial espionage against U.S.-based T-Mobile and thr… Continue reading Huawei Indicted, China Claims Foul

High-ranking Chinese operative charged with economic espionage, theft of trade secrets

The US is intensifying its push to repress Chinese espionage efforts. A high-level Chinese intelligence officer from China’s major spy agency, the Ministry of State Security (MSS), was arrested in Belgium in April on charges of economic espionage… Continue reading High-ranking Chinese operative charged with economic espionage, theft of trade secrets