Ex-Intel Employee Charged with $1 Billion for Stealing Secret Information from Intel

[malware]

Stealing money has always been the easy way to earn some quick pocket change, but what about $1 Billion stolen not from anybody but from Intel itself. At the age of 33, Biswamohan Pani, now a former Intel employee, was charged today for stealing trade secrets from Intel that worth more than $1 billion. Pani was allegedly stealing trade secrets from Intel Corp.'s facility in Hudson, Mass., and downloading confidential documents from the company's offices in California. According to the indictment, Pani gave notice to leave Intel and told his superiors he was using up about a week of vacation while looking for a job at a hedge fund. In reality, he had taken a job at Intel rival Advanced Micro Devices, and while using up vacation time at Intel, was downloading valuable trade secrets. When Pani's house was searched by the FBI, they've found eight documents described by Intel as "confidential," "secret" or "top secret." Now Biswamohan Pani is facing a major sentence in prison, so he can reconsider his theft estimated for $1 billion in research and development costs. On the other side, AMD said it was not aware for any of Pani's stolen information.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[newtekie1]

I thought this first came to light a few months ago, though now we know he has actually been charged with something, and wasn't his wife also an Intel employee at the time?

Edit: http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Intel-Espionage-Secrets-Stolen-AMD,6359.html Yep, back in September. Odd how there is no mention of his wife in the current press. Something tells me she isn't and Intel employee anymore.

 

[Kreij]

I think that Mr. Pani may be "going away" for quite some time.

 

[Baum]

may be they keep her, because if they fired his wife everybody would know the reason why and then intel would be in a bad position.
They keep her and just give her useless staf for AMD

"AMD never knew" no one steals something worth 1 Bilion just for fun?!

 

[newtekie1]

I would guess AMD knew, but when he came to them and said "Hey I stole all this trade secret stuff from Intel, give me a job" AMD probably did the smart thing and said "Yeah right, we aren't touching that stuff with a stick".

 

[[I.R.A]_FBi]

pwn't ...

thats all folks

 

[Kreij]

It's also possible that AMD gave him the job and he had not yet confronted them with an offer for the stolen items.

 

[btarunr]

Yeah the last time we covered this, Intel had lodged a formal complaint, now it's done. OMG $1B, that must be some really valuable set of information.

 

[TRIPTEX_CAN]

Thats what he gets for stealing... lousy bastard.

 

[Deleted member 24505]

He can pay the $1 billion back at $1 week for infinity.

If he really did do this he deserves to be pwnd by intel.

 

[Baum]

but 1bilion $ thats way to much for a lifetime

 

[iStink]

What are you in for? Double homicide.

What are you in for? Robbed a convenience store, things went bad...

What are you in for? Huge coke deal.

And what are you in for? I took information from Intel.
Ok, you're getting F'd in the A this saturday...

 

[jbunch07]

WOW! I would really hate to him right now...however if I was him I would not have stolen from Intel in the first place! That just had Fail written all over it! :shadedshu

 

[imperialreign]

WOW! I would really hate to him right now...however if I was him I would not have stolen from Intel in the first place! That just had Fail written all over it! :shadedshu

yeah - that type of stuff never goes over well . . .


first off - stealing from a computer-industry company, especially one that major . . . you'd think they would have IT specialists who monitor their networks to keep the 1337 haxurz out . . .

I'm sure they noticed, 'hey, look at this IP addy logged into the system . . . that's external and not recognized by our software . . . you wanna run a trace?'

This has epci moron written all over it.

 

[tomkaten]

It looks like Mr. Biswamohan Pani, (a thorough-bred American, no doubt) saw one too many movies.

 

[Bow]

He will go to a Federal Pen thats nicer than most peoples houses, have all the perks, and it will only cost the taxpayers what is it now 1.5 million if if you get life.

 

[Solaris17]

It looks like Mr. Biswamohan Pani, (a thorough-bred American, no doubt) saw one too many movies.

lol "james bond did it why not me?"

 

[FordGT90Concept]

AMD claiming amnesia...typical to offset liability. I hope someone has to pay for that and, if Intel can prove AMD implemented their stolen technology, it might be AMD. The worm needs to be squished too.

 

[johnnyfiive]

Damn, totally owned.

 

[wolf2009]

AMD claiming amnesia...typical to offset liability. I hope someone has to pay for that and, if Intel can prove AMD implemented their stolen technology, it might be AMD. The worm needs to be squished too.

well if AMD had implemented intel techm wouldn't hey have better processors than phenom, and be at 45nm earlier ?

 

[lemonadesoda]

The guy deserves a slap. But $1 billion, that's crazy.

His motives? We arent sure. You know, its very very common for people to download or take copies of company documents when they leave a company. Usually, it isnt for "selling secrets", but part of someones curiosity, thirst for knowledge, but also just plain and simple knowledge bank (private library).

I guess we will never know if AMD is silent on this.

Who knows, it could even be this guy WROTE those documents himself, and just wanted to keep copies for record. Perhaps that sentiment is a stretch... but... without proof of intent, I think it is right to take him to court over copyright breachment, possibly even theft, similar to stealing books in a bookstore. But to trump up those "commerical damages" claims is WORSE THAT THE RIAA.

Intel needs to prove damage was done, and WHO perpetrated the damage. Sticking BS numbers on a guy, made up by overegoed lawyers, is the kind of stuff that DOES NOT make a good legislative system.


ANYWAY, regaring "top secret" and "confidential" etc. that is material related to people, organisations, and strategy. If this was some cool technology feature, you can bet Intel has already patented it, so WTF if it gets out in the market? No one can use it without permission and without license fee.

Someone COOK those lawyers in a frying pan, please.

 

[truehighroller1]

The guy deserves a slap. But $1 billion, that's crazy.

His motives? We arent sure. You know, its very very common for people to download or take copies of company documents when they leave a company. Usually, it isnt for "selling secrets", but part of someones curiosity, thirst for knowledge, but also just plain and simple knowledge bank (private library).

I guess we will never know if AMD is silent on this.

Who knows, it could even be this guy WROTE those documents himself, and just wanted to keep copies for record. Perhaps that sentiment is a stretch... but... without proof of intent, I think it is right to take him to court over copyright breachment, possibly even theft, similar to stealing books in a bookstore. But to trump up those "commerical damages" claims is WORSE THAT THE RIAA.

Intel needs to prove damage was done, and WHO perpetrated the damage. Sticking BS numbers on a guy, made up by overegoed lawyers, is the kind of stuff that DOES NOT make a good legislative system.


ANYWAY, regaring "top secret" and "confidential" etc. that is material related to people, organisations, and strategy. If this was some cool technology feature, you can bet Intel has already patented it, so WTF if it gets out in the market? No one can use it without permission and without license fee.

Someone COOK those lawyers in a frying pan, please.

True, true, true, and true. :up:. I agree with you totaly all the way. Welcome to America land of the unfair Justice....

 

[[I.R.A]_FBi]

^^ poppy cock, years of research and million of dollars of research and how many man hours and he gets to steal it, i hope he gets 6 billion instead

 

[btarunr]

I followed up on the source:

Pani, if convicted, could face decades of prison time or hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.

It's not like he's going to have to pay a billion bucks.

 

[AsRock]

Gotta wounder who he been selling the info to. And it not right to point the finger at ATI.. Maybe some thing will come out of the woodwork sooner or later.

Maybe if they offer him a lower sentence or cooperates he will say lol.