As big tech layoffs continue amid the spread of artificial intelligence (AI), an Intel employee who was notified of termination has become embroiled in a lawsuit on suspicion of siphoning off a large volume of company secrets.
According to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington on the 8th, Intel filed a lawsuit against former engineer Jinfeng Luo, seeking the return of its confidential information and damages.
According to Intel's complaint, Luo worked at Intel since 2014 as an engineer developing electronic design automation (EDA) software for semiconductor design and verification. Notified of termination in early Jul., four days before his dismissal he copied about 18,000 files from a company computer to a personal network-attached storage (NAS) device.
Luo first tried to move the data to an external hard drive but was blocked by the security system, then used a NAS to circumvent the security network, the filing showed. Intel said the materials he exfiltrated included business strategy and even Top Secret documents.
The company said it tried to contact him by email, phone, and mail, but Luo cut off all contact and has gone into hiding. However, there is no confirmation yet that the data was actually leaked externally.
Intel asked the court to order Luo to return the confidential materials and to bar him from using, copying, transmitting, or disclosing them, or destroying evidence. It also sought at least $250,000 (about 360 million won) in damages, along with punitive damages.
Citing management difficulties, Intel carried out restructuring that cut tens of thousands of jobs from Apr. to Jul. this year, and Luo was reportedly notified of termination during this period. Recently in Silicon Valley, citing AI efficiency, major corporations such as Google, Meta, and Amazon have also embarked on successive layoffs.