Ex-IBM employee from China Allegedly Stole Trade Secrets
Technology // China and the United States
A former software coder for IBM in China has been accused of trying to sell stolen code to other companies.
He was arrested on Dec. 7.
IBM was not identified by name in the complaint. But a LinkedIn profile for Xu said he was employed as a system software developer at IBM during the period in question, Reuters notes.
The technology at issue is related to proprietary software the company developed for a system that facilitates faster computer performance.
Xu had full access to the source code before voluntarily resigning in May 2014.
That year, the FBI received a tip that someone in China was claiming to have the code and was using it for business negotiations.
An undercover officer posing as an investor contacted Xu.
In March, Xu emailed the officer and another undercover agent about his past experience with the proprietary software and attached some sample code from his prior job.
After Xu offered to remotely install the proprietary software, the FBI in August arranged for a mock computer network to be set up. The files Xu uploaded to it contained a functioning copy of the software.