Slashdot Mirror
GE Engineer With Ties To China Accused of Stealing Power Plant Technology (thestreet.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TheStreet: General Electric stock was little changed on Friday, August 3, as a GE engineer with ties to China who has been accused of stealing proprietary power-turbine technology has been released on bond. Xiaoqing Zheng, 56, has been in custody since Wednesday when the FBI raided his home in Niskayuna, New York, near Albany. A federal judge on Thursday set a $100,000 bond; Zheng offered his family's home as collateral and was released on Friday. He was ordered to wear an electronic monitoring device and limit his travel, according to multiple media reports.
Zheng, who is a U.S. citizen, was hired by GE in 2008 to work as a principal engineer for the company's power division, according to an affidavit by an FBI agent filed in federal court in Albany. Zheng is "suspected of taking/stealing, on multiple occasions via sophisticated means, data files from GE's laboratories that contain GE's trade secret information involving turbine technology," the FBI said in its affidavit. He also took "elaborate means" to conceal the removal of GE data files. "The primary focus of this affidavit is Zheng's action in 2018 in which he encrypted GE data files containing trade secret information, and thereafter sent the trade secret information from his GE work computer to Zheng's personal e-mail address hidden in the binary code of a digital photograph via a process known as steganography," the FBI said. "Additionally, the secondary focus of this affidavit is Zheng's actions in 2014 in which he downloaded more than 19,000 files from GE's computer network onto an external storage device, believed by GE investigators to have been a personal thumb drive."
Zheng's attorney disputed the allegations, saying Zheng "transmitted information on his own patents to himself and to no one else."
Zheng, who is a U.S. citizen, was hired by GE in 2008 to work as a principal engineer for the company's power division, according to an affidavit by an FBI agent filed in federal court in Albany. Zheng is "suspected of taking/stealing, on multiple occasions via sophisticated means, data files from GE's laboratories that contain GE's trade secret information involving turbine technology," the FBI said in its affidavit. He also took "elaborate means" to conceal the removal of GE data files. "The primary focus of this affidavit is Zheng's action in 2018 in which he encrypted GE data files containing trade secret information, and thereafter sent the trade secret information from his GE work computer to Zheng's personal e-mail address hidden in the binary code of a digital photograph via a process known as steganography," the FBI said. "Additionally, the secondary focus of this affidavit is Zheng's actions in 2014 in which he downloaded more than 19,000 files from GE's computer network onto an external storage device, believed by GE investigators to have been a personal thumb drive."
Zheng's attorney disputed the allegations, saying Zheng "transmitted information on his own patents to himself and to no one else."
trump will roast him!
China is waging an all out war on the West, stealing every bit of IP it possibly can, while militarizing the South China Sea as part of its "One belt, one road" initiative, along with its 2025 and 2050 roadmap. It's about time America started recognizing that and responded appropriately.
Blue skies, Barthy Burgers, girls...
We keep being told that GE is a has-been company that no longer has interesting tech to offer the world. Why would Chinese intelligence be so interested in such a corpse?
They probably stole it from Alstom first
You may think that a specific spy is "baaaad" and another spy is "brave and loves his homeland". But spying in general is what you do a hell of a lot more than others. I don't see any reason for any outrage by Americans.
Zheng's attorney disputed the allegations, saying Zheng "transmitted information on his own patents to himself and to no one else."
My experience with giant corporations is that I sign away the rights to the things I invent for them as a condition of employment. "My" patents are at home, with documentation that they were all done on my own time, using my own equipment. And even that may be subject to litigation if the patents fall into the same type of things that I develop at work.
The only information he is entitled to relating to his patents are the patents themselves, as published.
https://patents.justia.com/search?q=Xiaoqing+Zheng+General+Electric
Otherwise he is running off with "work", which GE owns. And the patents are assigned to GE as a condition of his employment, so they aren't his either even if he is one of the authors.
Is there any connection between this engineer and China?
This has been going on for decades, yet companies look doe-eyed and surprised when it happens again and again.
China is waging an all out war on the West, stealing every bit of IP it possibly can, while militarizing the South China Sea as part of its "One belt, one road" initiative, along with its 2025 and 2050 roadmap. It's about time America started recognizing that and responded appropriately.
Firstly, it's not an "all out" war, that phrase is trying to use extreme rhetoric to gin up divisiveness. It's the same thing that the Russians (and others) are accused of doing in the US. An "all out" war would include military actions; in fact, a true "all out" war would include nuclear strikes.
Dial back the rhetoric into a more accurate description.
Secondly, the employee disputes the charges, and frames his explanation in a credible way. We have essentially two conflicting stories: the FBI and the employee, and we have no idea who is right.
Jumping to conclusions, in this case espionage, is unwarranted at this time. It's calling for "mob rule" based on perception of guilt or innocence, said perception being made (by the FBI, and the employee) with no standards of accuracy.
We have "innocent until proven guilty" for a reason, it's one of the basic rights, and we need to get back to those.
People keep talking about "fake news" and "divisive tribalism", and we only get that when people have an emotional reaction to something they take as un-skeptically true and rhetorically pushed to the limits of outrage.
Let the evidence be introduced and examined in the legal process, where a much higher standard of accuracy and relevance is enforced, and let a court decide.
We don't need to get all outraged and mob-like about this incident, at least not yet.
Gotta give him props for going beyond the typical password protected zip file exfiltration technique
Be Excellent To Each Other
I do not understand why those "appropriating" information for China are not given only public keys, and instructions on how to use them. The individuals would then generate random AES symmetric passwords which they encrypt with their public key, then run AES on the payload and send the bundle when convenient.
These people are being caught with the materials in the clear. This seems like really sloppy handling.
Literally their entire culture is one giant theft.
NEWSFLASH. Chinks steal.
What do you expect chi.com Manchurian candidates to do ? Pimp dem migruntz feckin-A prog-slut.
There's no way that guy has that many patents in his name,
....when do we get to start executing spies?
I'm serious. China's been blatant in their ongoing efforts to steal both US gov't and private IP.
And the world is having a hissy because a US president is telling them to knock their shenanigans off?
Maybe it's about time.
-Styopa
This guy will be defending him for spying for his nation. No doubt he will claim that Zheng was framed or that Zheng never stole anything and that it all belonged to China's communist party anyways.
This is how it is done amongst real spies. The days of leaving simple encrypted files around is LONG over. Now, you have to hide that you have something of value. AQ, Talibahn, and obviously many state spies make heavy use of steganography. In general, it is hard to detect if done right and going against a weak opponent.
BUT, the fact that he DID use steganography to transmit some 12,000+ files, implies that he got help from Chinese MSS. Since he was born and raised in China, and was obviously getting Chinese gov help, chances are that he was sent here as a sleeper.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
I wouldnâ(TM)t put it past China to get someone into the US as workers who had access to specific information. Why donâ(TM)t we treat these people as enemies of the state? Hopefully Trump will prosecute to the fullest extent. Send all his family back to China as well!
https://www.theblaze.com/news/...
The driver had been employed by Feinstein for 20 years. He also acted as a gofer in the senator’s office in San Francisco and as a liaison to the Asian-American community. In this role, he attended multiple Chinese Consulate functions on the senator’s behalf.
And recent cases indicate that the "consideration" can be "remaining an employee" - there's no need for any recognition whatsoever.
Big US Co's have protection of proprietary info programs. The suspect did something fishy and Co's have to show they took reasonable precautions to protect their Proprietary information or it might not be considered theft. Motorola lost an IP theft case because they were deemed not to have designated info as restricted and did not adequately restrict access. An extreme example of leaving money on your driveway, passerby picks up, hardly a case of lost or misladen but so it goes. The suspect signs confidentiality agreements and was presumably aware that encrypting and sending info against Company policy. The dude is a bad position regardless due to his suspicious actions. Spy allegations very serious, otherwise he likely loses his job and guessing goes back to his other company Or retires from that line of work.
What the hell can the Chinese do with GE turbines?
Will they use the GE turbines to fly lice?
Or would they put some GE turbines into their JDI drones?
Or into their AI projects? Or their quantum machines?
Or will their substitute their chopsticks with GE turbines?
WHAT ???
Clinton, Obama, and Bush gave away the store. Trump doesn't play that shit. MAGA!
This sounds familiar...
http://archive.jsonline.com/news/crime/chinese-engineer-accused-of-stealing-trade-secrets-from-ge-unit-b99344912z1-274122821.html/
The Blaze? Really? When Fox News is too reliable of a source, you can turn to The Blaze!
Remember. " He was ordered to wear an electronic monitoring device".
Remember that this is a jail-like sentence. And I don't think much more highly of remote-controlled cameras, or streets and public places where you live lit like search lights.
Rarely watch fox news, though I have done so for the last 6 months.
Delusional fool admits to the reason for his delusions.
So Chinese aren't racist because I'm pretty sure there kids are at least half Asian too. They must also be immune.
You remain 'none-intelligent'. It's clear from the rest of your troll post who the troll is Windy.
The more trolly your posts the more upset you get the more Chinglish slips out.
America is still far worse and is getting further behind in deploying renewables not even catching up. What stupid comments from you.