Huawei paid bonuses to employees stealing Apple secrets

Unsurprisingly, Chinese smartphone makers are rushing to (try) to reach the top rank in the world. But at what cost? Obviously, it is not possible to speak for all companies, but certainly the Huawei used methods beyond loyal (some very invasive) to steal Apple's secrets.

exactly these practices that a new report from The information He said, after the US Department of Justice investigated Huawei for a number of crimes, including obstruction of justice, bank fraud and, not surprisingly, attempts to steal trade secrets.

Among the tactics used by the Chinese, company engineers were sent to companies supplying Apple products with promises of large orders, taking the opportunity to intrude on specific processes of Apple's device component production (in some cases such Apple employees Huawei even appealed for this information).

In one such case, Huawei employees working on a smartwatch met an Apple vendor last year. According to the report, they tried to extract specifications about the Apple Watch heart rate sensor with the promise of "big orders".

Similarly, a Chinese giant engineer sent a photo of a component to one of Apple's suppliers and asked the Apple manufacturer to "feel free to suggest a product design they had experience with." According to The information, the supplier declined Huawei's offer.

There is also a suspicion that Huawei would have copied the hinge design of the new MacBook Pro models. As in the other cases above, Chinese officials met with Apple vendors asking for details of this component; The design was recognized by the suppliers, who refused to manufacture it for Huawei. Eventually, the company was able to find a vendor that made a similar doubling of Ma notebooks, currently used in Huawei's MateBook Pro (yes, even the name).

Another tactic (this is less invasive, say) includes interviewing former employees of Apple or its supply chain. In one case, a Huawei employee approached a former Apple employee who had just left the company, only to be repeatedly asked about the upcoming products and features of the Cupertino giant.

According to the US Department of Justice, Huawei offers an internal program that rewards employees who can literally steal this information including bonuses that increase based on the value of the collected confidential information.

While theft of trade secrets is not new to the technology industry, the new allegations against Huawei certainly show boldness and less elaboration (as they have not even bothered to “hide” interest in gadgets from Apple). Will understand

via AppleInsider