Chinese national sentenced over theft of US trade secrets
A Chinese national has been sentenced to five years in prison for the theft of trade secrets from an unnamed US company.
On Thursday, January 18, Xu Jiaqiang of Beijing was sentenced for economic espionage and theft of a trade secret after he stole a proprietary source code from his former employer.
According to the US Department of Justice, the theft was intended to benefit China’s National Health and Family Planning Commission.
Jiaqiang had previously pled guilty to all six counts with which he was charged.
According to the press release, Jiaqiang had accessed the proprietary software and its source code when working as a developer for the unnamed company.
The proprietary software is a clustered file system which allows for faster computer performance by coordinating work among multiple servers.
After resigning from the company, Jiaqiang allegedly contacted two undercover law enforcement officers, one posing as a financial investor aiming to start a large data storage technology company, and the other posing as a project manager for the first undercover officer’s company.
Jiaqiang uploaded files copied from the proprietary source code onto a network of computers so that the undercover officers could test it and confirm its functionality. The computer network was set up by the FBI.
“The laws governing economic espionage and trade secrets exist, in part, to protect the sanctity of American ingenuity and property,” commented Geoffrey Berman, attorney for the Southern District of New York.
He said that Jiaqiang’s prison sentence should be a “red flag” to anyone attempting to sell US IP overseas.
As reported by WIPRlast year, three Chinese nationals were charged with hacking the computers of credit agency Moody’s, German conglomerate Siemens and electronic manufacturer Trimble, and for theft of Trimble’s trade secrets.
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