A former Intel software engineer is facing a whopping $250,000 lawsuit after allegedly stealing ‘top secret files’.
This includes accusations of stealing data that was labeled as being ‘Intel Top Secret’, according to reports.
Jinfeng Luo first started his career at Intel back in 2014 until he was terminated in July of this year.
The job loss came as the firm has made mass cuts to its workforce over the last couple years, with 35,000 workers being made redundant.
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Before losing his job, Luo is said to have downloaded around 18,000 files which Intel is now attempting to recover through the lawsuit.
In the lawsuit, it claims that the engineer first tried to copy files from his work laptop and move them to an external storage drive just one week before he was due to leave his position at the firm.
However, despite these attempts, security procedures placed onto the laptop by Intel prevented him from making the transfer.
But three days before his last day at work, Luo tried again and was able to successfully transfer the files over to a Network Attached Storage (NAS) device, according to a report by Tom’s Hardware.
According to reports, the former Intel engineer went on to download as many files and data as possible before leaving his job role, including some assets considered confidential.
After discovering the breach, Intel has been trying to contact Luo but has been unable to reach him through phone calls, emails or letters to his home in Seattle.
The company has also made failed attempts to contact him at two other addresses associated with Luo, including one in Portland, Oregon. As a result, the firm has filed a lawsuit in a bid to recover the files.
Luo has yet to respond to any of the allegations that have been made against him and has not been located since the suit was filed.
Intel is seeking $250,000 in damages and is requesting for the stolen data to be returned.
However, this isn’t the first time that the software firm has filed a lawsuit against a former employee.
Another engineer was slapped with a $34,000 fine and sentenced to two years’ probation after the former Intel worker copied information which he later used to get hired by Microsoft.
It was later revealed through court proceedings that Microsoft had even used the information in order to benefit its firm in negotiations with Intel.