The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation this week charged former Apple Xiaolang Zhang with theft of trade secrets, according to documents filed with Northern District Court of California.. Zhang was hired at Apple December of 2015 to work on Project Titan, developing software and hardware for use in autonomous vehicles. In April 2018, Zhang took leave from Apple following the birth of his child, and during that time, he visited China. Shortly after, his supervisor at Apple he was leaving the company and moving to China to work for XMotors, Chinese startup that also focuses on vehicle technology.. Zhang's supervisor felt that he had been evasive during the meeting, looking into Zhang's historical network activity and analyzing his Apple devices. review of recorded footage at Apple indicated Zhang had visited the campus on the evening of Saturday, April 28, entering both Apple's and hardware labs, and he left with box of hardware.. In second interview with Apple's, Zhang admitted to taking both data and hardware from Apple during his paternity leave. All of Apple's evidence was relayed to FBI after Digital Forensic Investigations team discovered that at least 60 percent of Zhang had downloaded and transferred to his computer was highly problematic.. To access sensitive projects like Titan, employee must be logged into Apple's private network and must be granted disclosure, status that can be granted with administrator reviewing all requests. Zhang was interviewed by FBI June, and he was later arrested attempting to leave to China on July 7..
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