Laid-off Intel employee allegedly steals 'Top Secret' files, then disappears — ex-engineer downloaded 18,000 files before vanishing

A former software engineer is facing a $250,000 lawsuit from Intel after he allegedly stole tens of thousands of files, including data labeled as “Intel Top Secret” According to The Mercury News, Jinfeng Luo, who started at Intel in 2014, received a termination notice last July 7th, ending his service with the company at the same month. Luo downloaded around 18,000 files in total, and then disappeared, with Intel now pressing a lawsuit in an effort to recover its property.

Intel is in the midst of a massive reduction-in-force, with 35,000 jobs cut in the last couple of years, so that may have contributed to Luo's termination, before evidence of any wrongdoing came to light. The company has been whittling down numbers as it faces a massive financial crisis, which was first laid bare in late July and early August 2024.

The lawsuit says Luo first attempted to copy files from his company-issued laptop to an external storage drive about a week before he was set to leave the company, but Intel’s protection mechanisms prevented him from succeeding with the transfer. He tried again three days before his last day, this time successfully transferring data to a NAS. He then spent the remainder of his time at Intel downloading as much information as he could, including confidential company assets, according to reports.

Intel detected and investigated the transfers soon after Luo completed them, and it has been attempting to reach him regarding the data breach for over three months. However, after he failed to respond to its multiple phone calls, emails, and even letters delivered via post, the company was forced to file a case against him to help recover the files.

This isn’t the first time that the company has sued one of its ex-employees for stealing data. Another former Intel engineer was recently sentenced to two years’ probation and a $34,000 fine after he illegally copied information from the CPU makers, which he then used to get hired at Microsoft. The court proceedings even revealed that the software giant used it to its benefit in negotiations with the company.

Luo, who cannot be located, hasn’t responded to any of the allegations yet. However, the company is demanding $250,000 in damages from the individual, as well as the return of all the stolen information.

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