Jordan Robertson, of The Associated Press, reported today that a former engineer of Intel, Corp., has been charged in Massachusetts for illegally downloading more than a dozen confidential documents, worth about $1 billion, from Intel’s computer system in CA, during a 4-day stretch in June. All of this was accomplished while the engineer, Biswamohan Pani, worked for the chip manufacturer’s main rival, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Pani had told his supervisors at Intel that he was considering working for a hedge fund, but in reality was on the payroll of both companies. The supervisors did not investigate the validity of Pani’s claim.
Prosecutors have said that AMD had no knowledge of Pani’s actions, but the information downloaded is worth about $1 billion and includes information on research and development costs, and methods for designing microprocessors. Intel owns about 80% of the microprocessor market in the world, with AMD owning the rest. Pani had planned to use the information to advance his career as an engineer, and said that he meant no harm to Intel.
This is the latest incident in what companies need to do when managing information protection within the organization. As much as we want to trust our employees, and believe that they are well-intentioned individuals, the fact remains, that proceduralized regimens need to be in place in order to ensure things like this do not occur. Had Intel simply investigated Pani’s claim that he was going to work for a hedge fund, while still under its employ, then they may have prevented the release of this highly proprietary information.
To read more about this article, please click here: Former Employee Allegedly Stole $1 billion in Intel Trade Secrets