Cyber: Three Former Google Engineers Indicted Over Trade Secret Transfers...

Two former Google engineers and one of their husbands have been indicted in the U.S. for allegedly committing trade secret theft from the search giant and other tech firms and transferring the information to unauthorized locations, including Iran.

Samaneh Ghandali, 41, and her husband Mohammadjavad Khosravi (aka Mohammad Khosravi), 40, along with her sister Soroor Ghandali, 32, have been accused of conspiring to commit trade secret theft from Google and other leading technology companies, theft and attempted theft of trade secrets, and obstruction of justice.

The three defendants, all Iranian nationals and residing in San Jose, were arrested on Thursday and made their initial appearances in federal district court in the California city.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ), the Ghandali sisters worked at Google before joining another technology company identified as Company 3. Khosravi is said to have been employed at a different company (named Company 2). All three of them landed jobs in the area of mobile computer processors.

"As part of the alleged scheme to commit trade secret theft, the defendants used their employment to obtain access to confidential and sensitive information," the DoJ said in a press release.

"The defendants then exfiltrated confidential and sensitive documents, including trade secrets related to processor security and cryptography and other technologies, from Google and other technology companies to unauthorized third-party and personal locations, including to work devices associated with each other's employers, and to Iran."

In a statement shared with Bloomberg, a Google spokesperson said the company has enhanced safeguards to protect its confidential information and immediately alerted law enforcement after discovering the incident. The trade secrets pertained to the company's Tensor processor for Pixel phones.

Samaneh Ghandali, per the department, transferred hundreds of files, including Google trade secrets, to a third-party communications platform, specifically to channels that had each of the defendant's first names. Soroor Ghandali is also alleged to have exfiltrated numerous Google-related files, which contained trade secrets, to the same channels while working for the company.

The trade secret files were subsequently copied to different personal devices, as well as a work device belonging to Khosravi and a work device issued to Soroor Ghandali by Company 3. The defendants then concealed their actions b

Source: The Hacker News