- Apple is suing a former software program engineer for leaking confidential info.
- Apple stated Andrew Aude shared details about merchandise to media and employees at different firms.
- It stated Aude nonetheless poses a menace due to his information of confidential firm info.
Apple is suing a former worker who it stated leaked confidential info, together with about merchandise he did not like, from his work-issued iPhone.
In a criticism filed on March 18 at a California court docket, Apple stated former software program engineer Andrew Aude shared details about initiatives, together with Apple’s Journal app and the Imaginative and prescient Professional, to media shops and workers at different tech firms over a interval of 5 years.
The tech big is suing Aude, who was employed in 2016, for breaching its confidentiality settlement and violating labor legal guidelines.
The lawsuit was first reported by MacRumors.
Apple stated it found the leaks in late 2023. When confronted, it stated Aude denied his involvement however then feigned a rest room break and “completely deleted important quantities of proof from his machine.”
This included deleting the Sign app — which he used for communications — from his work-issued telephone, it stated.
However the lawsuit stated that Aude usually saved screenshots of his communications on his work iPhone “to protect them for posterity,” and Apple was in a position to retrieve these.
In line with Apple’s lawsuit, an evaluation of Aude’s Apple-issued work iPhone confirmed he had over 1,400 encrypted communications with one Wall Road Journal journalist over a four-month interval.
Aude additionally despatched a journalist at The Data over 10,000 textual content messages, and traveled to satisfy her, in keeping with Apple.
Aude’s screenshots had been hooked up to the lawsuit. In a single specific leak to the Journal journalist round April 2023, Aude’s screenshots confirmed “‘giddy anticipation” of the “chaos” awaiting the corporate following the publication of leaked info, Apple stated.
Aude had additionally characterised the leak to different colleagues as a “needed evil,” it added.
“In reference to one leak, Mr. Aude admitted that he violated his obligations to Apple so he may ‘kill’ merchandise and options with which he took subject,” Apple stated individually within the lawsuit.
Aude’s leaking of data led to the publication of a number of information stories, in keeping with Apple.
“His disclosures even have impeded Apple’s capability to shock and delight with its new choices,” the tech firm stated in its lawsuit.
Whereas Aude’s employment has been terminated, Apple stated he poses an “ongoing menace” to the corporate as a consequence of his information of its confidential and proprietary info, in addition to his “lengthy and in depth historical past of revealing it to 3rd events deliberately and with out authorization.”
Apple is pursuing a jury trial, damages, and an order directing Aude to not disclose the corporate’s confidential and proprietary info to 3rd events with out its consent. It additionally desires Aude to surrender his discretionary bonuses and restricted inventory items.
Apple didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark, despatched exterior enterprise hours.
