GE Engineer With Ties To China Accused of Stealing Power Plant Technology (thestreet.com) 136
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! (Score:1)
trump will roast him!
Espionage (Score:3)
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.
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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.
No, its Russia. Let's not take our eye off the ball. Russia is the enemy! Why do you think the news talks about Russia so much more than China? Get with the program.
Re:Espionage (Score:4, Funny)
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You inadvertently hit the nail on the head there.
There is a hell of a difference between industrial espionage and military espionage.
What Russia is doing now is a propaganda war with the intent of destabilizing the country and turn the population against itself.
That kind of operations have been common in times of war, but technology have change a bit so instead of releasing flyers you spam twitbook.
What China is doing is doing is spying to give their industries access to research so that they don't have to
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Russia can be resolved by educating people better. And not by one side of the political spectrum trying to delegitimise the result of a democratic election by continuously bringing up Russian propaganda on Facebook.
With China, they are now big enough that even they can't believe they can continue to get away with straight up stealing technology from other countries and shutting off their market using tariffs and non-tariff barriers while continuing to receive favourable access to other countries markets. Ad
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We can have more then one enemy. Heck we can have Russia and China as an Enemy while Russia and China are enemies with each other.
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We can have more then one enemy. Heck we can have Russia and China as an Enemy while Russia and China are enemies with each other.
We did. Russia and China almost went to war over a border conflict in 1969.
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Re:Espionage (Score:4, Informative)
Why do you think the news talks about Russia so much more than China?
It's likely because we have a president who may have gotten help getting elected from Russia. Also the active an ongoing interference in elections around the world (including our own upcoming ones) tends to get them mentioned. Oh yeah and then there is the whole Russia poisoning people abroad.
But don't worry, the same president also kowtows to all dictator nations.
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It's likely because we have a president who may have gotten help getting elected from Russia.
Got elected 'from' Russia? Better tell CNN about that.
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Russia is marching back towards becoming an authoritarian 3rd world country with a large and aging nuclear weapon arsenal. Stalin would be so proud his legacy still exists in mother Russia. And their nuclear arsenal doesn't really count for much since using it would guarantee their total destruction. Russia is an economic pigmy on the international scene. The state of California has a larger GDP than Russia. And as often as their state sponsored hacking collectives get caught out you would think they would
Re: Espionage (Score:2)
So if a company is in the business of building IP, and it sees the risks of having that IP stolen to China for lower cost competition, should the company be afforded the right to discriminate against Chinese?
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The real problem is that we used to use FBI to vet ppl in secured positions. Now, we use private companies that do not give a hoot about America, only greed. We need to go back to FBI so as to limit the corruption.
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Innocent until proven guilty (Score:3, Insightful)
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 employ
Re:Innocent until proven guilty (Score:5, Insightful)
Secondly, the employee disputes the charges, and frames his explanation in a credible way.
What's credible about it? If the rights to the patent are assigned to his employer, as they certainly are, then it's not really his patent at all. There's no legitimate reason for him to transfer any of the information to himself. If there were, he wouldn't have to use steganography. All he needs to do is write down the patent numbers if he wants to refer to the patents later as his work, which if he has no right to the patents, is all he has the right to do "with" them.
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Then he has multiple trips to China, since he is a Chinese citizen. Of course, he forgot to tell GE that he has dual citizenship.
Then when his house was raided by the FBI because he had been talking with Chinese spies, they find a book from the Chinese MSS that speaks of the rewards that they will give chinese spies that send them loads of IP.
Re: Innocent until proven guilty (Score:2)
And considering my kids are half Asian, I seriously doubt it.
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China, like the west, is about to switch over to EVs. WHen they do, where will they get the electricity from? Not from AE. It will come from their 1.1+ TW of coal capacity that i
More Windy idiocy (Score:2)
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.
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First off, we are talking 12,000+ FILES, which his lawyer claims are nothing but his patents. Even if there were 100 files / patent, that is 120 patents. Got news for you. He does not have that many.
Secondly, if it was HIS data, then WTF is he using steganography AND encryption to get it off the systems?
3rdly, yes, he needs to be tried. However, that is such overwhelming evidence that it is near certain. This is no different than if 100 cameras caught you shooting Trump showi
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Re: Innocent until proven guilty (Score:2)
Yes it is different, which is why this isn't a cold war. If you had even the slightest clue you would realise.
You are probably one of those idiots who Fox news has convinced that China is still communist.
While it's true everyone in China is smarter than you. That doesn't mean everyone smarter than you is in China.
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And porky/red tide, Only an idiot would believe that China is NOT COMMUNIST. You continue to do what your paid to do, which is lie and think that you can con [wikipedia.org]
Re: Innocent until proven guilty (Score:2)
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One of the WORST things that you can do, is encrypt and then send the file. That is a red flag.
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Ya, the U.S. will....run U.S. Navy ships right through China's claimed sea lanes...oh, the U.S. already does that. Well, the U.S. can invade central Asia...oh, the U.S. already did that but seems a bit bogged down in Afghanistan...should've taken a left at Albuquerque...hell, Bugs Bunny could have told them that.
I know, the U.S will form Alliances to box in China...oh, Trump has peed on S. Korea and Japan and Australia. At least the U.S. has NATO...oops, Trump is peeing on NATO as well. Hmmm....the U.S. can
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clearly you fail to see that in his self centered world, all is well and truly sane.
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China took the lead in power plant technology about 10 years ago, following Jack Welch's obsessive dismantling of General Electric's heavy industrial engineering and manufacturing arm + Westinghouse's 30 years of incompetent management. Germany had some firms that were still competing but as of this year they are going down the Welch path, leaving only China and to a lesser extent Japan in the arena.
So I'm not really sure what this guy was supposedly stealing - if anything he should have been going in the
That's odd... (Score:2)
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?
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We keep being told that GE is a has-been company that no longer has interesting tech to offer the world.
By who, retard? I have yet to read or hear an authoritative source of information make such a dubious claim.
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i work for GE power in the UK and basically our engineering teams (those that survived the cull) are only babying our existing products, bug fixes etc. No new features or products.
GE is a badly managed mess, it's no wonder it finally caught up with them
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GE has been greatly downsizing. However it is still a big company. GE is rather famous for killing its units that are not as profitable as others. Lately they have been going full force. That said their power generation investment is still on the GE Safe list. It seems that GE is still interesting in proving General Electric Services.
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His own patents? (Score:5, Informative)
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.
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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.
That's been my experience as well. There are also rules about handling proprietary information in general.
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Well, practically speaking the assignee for all intents and purposes 'owns' the patent.
You can point to the authorship, but you can't really do anything with the patent. Hence again, downloading a bunch of stuff to help you implement 'your' patent elsewhere doesn't work if the patent has been assigned to your then-current employer.
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Even more to the point, the whole nature of patents is that they are revealed to the public. You can't say, "You can't use this mechanism I have a legal monopoly on, but I won't tell you what it is." If anyone want information on how some patented invention works, all they have to do is look it up at the patent office.
So clearly the lawyer is speaking loosely here about some kind of trade secrets that might involve patented inventions in some way. You might make the business decision to keep some part o
Not his patents if he's working for GE (Score:5, Informative)
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.
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We don't know what those files are.
They could be vacation pictures for all we know. Also, that happened in 2014. Don't tell me GE waited FOUR YEARS to hand that info to the FBI.
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And yes, they know what the files are. They pulled the data out of the pictures and then decrypted it. They were data files from GE. Ones that he was not entitled to.
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Source?
Re: No proof. No evidence. (Score:3)
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I store about 30K personal pictures on my work machine, the employer is OK with it. Yes the machine is within the internal network.
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Can you read?
The 2018 steganography action is different from the 2014 19K files download action. It's in TFS, no need to even leave Slashdot.
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Luckily I am not American. My country, although 3rd world and with a plethora of issues, at least doesn't oppress its citizens with idiotic things.
Re: No proof. No evidence. (Score:2)
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Why can't people fucking read TFS is beyond me.
DIFFERENT ACTIONS!
The download happened in 2014 and the encryption happened in 2018.
Steganography though... (Score:2)
Re:Steganography though... (Score:5, Insightful)
If he was just using password protected zip files, I might be more inclined to believe his story, The fact that he was trying to hide what he was doing cast his story in a bad light.
Why? (Score:2)
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 Ch
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Actually, China isn't the only country that does this. US companies do industrial espionage too. The US government uses national security assets to conduct economic espionage against foreign targets, for example against Petrobras and Siemens.
Of course this kind of thing hurts the US more and helps it less than any other country, but that doesn't mean we don't do it when the opportunity arises. Nobody consults the Categorical Imperative or thinks about long term consequences when deciding to do this sort
So... (Score:2)
....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.
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Yep, they wouldn't think of catching a few Americans, declaring them spies, and whacking them. It helps to think things through before you shoot your foot off.
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So what's the result...fewer American businesspeople go to China, fewer enablements for China to steal tech and IP.
Fewer companies want to deal with them. Maybe fewer US firms building factories in China that the Chinese-Army-owned front companies can take over / plunder for talent and tech to develop their own businesses competitive with those in the west.
Maybe taking off the mask and letting China look like the bloodthirsty totalitarian regime it is might not be a bad idea in the long run.
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It's kind of ironic when nationalist fools want foreign nationalist fools executed for spying.
x2: Feinstein staffer was reportedly a Chinese spy (Score:4, Interesting)
https://www.theblaze.com/news/... [theblaze.com]
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.
Oops (Score:1)