Apple today filed a lawsuit against Simon Lancaster, a former employee who allegedly used his position within the company to steal “sensitive trade secrets” from Apple, which was subsequently leaked to a journalist and published in rumored articles.
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Lancaster worked at Apple for more than a decade, using his seniority to attend internal meetings and access documents that Apple said were “beyond his job responsibilities.” Details he received were published in media articles that called “a ‘source’ at Apple.”
In exchange for the leaked information, Lancaster asked the media person he was in contact with for favors, such as giving favorable coverage of a start-up business in which Lancaster had invested.
Until November 1, 2019, Lancaster was involved in multiple hardware projects as Advanced Materials Lead and Product Design Architect. His role was to evaluate materials and prototype innovations for future hardware devices. He started leaking details to the media contact via text messages, emails and phone calls on November 29, 2018.
After he resigned from Apple, Lancaster “deepened” his relationship with the media correspondent he spoke to, and Apple’s internal investigation of Apple devices that Lancaster returned after he was employed suggested he was communicating about “specific Apple trade secrets” while he also took “specific Apple trade secrets”. steps’ to search for additional information. On its last day, Lancaster downloaded a “significant number” of confidential Apple documents.
Furthermore, a forensic investigation of the devices Apple supplied to Lancaster for its work at Apple shows that Lancaster and the correspondent coordinated to steal specific documents and product information from Apple. On several occasions, the correspondent had requested Lancaster to obtain specific trade secrets and information from Apple. On several occasions, Lancaster then sent the correspondent certain of the requested confidential materials using Apple devices. On other occasions, Lancaster met the correspondent in person to provide them with requested confidential Apple information.
According to Apple, information shared by Lancaster included details of “unreleased Apple hardware products, unannounced changes to features in existing hardware products, and future product announcements.” He also took on a new role at Arris Composites, a supplier that works under Apple, and Apple says he had access to confidential information that would help Arris in addition to leaking Apple documents to the media.
Apple does not provide details on which products were leaked by Lancaster, but many of the leaks occurred around October and November 2019 and concerned what Apple calls “Project X”. Just after Lancaster left, he even spoke to the journalist to whom he leaked details, congratulating the person on the success of an article that contained details he leaked.
Like all Apple employees, Lancaster signed a ‘Confidentiality and Intellectual Property Agreement’ before being adopted by Apple that prohibits them from sharing classified and proprietary information, and attended ‘security training’ and ‘business conduct’ to prevent theft of classified information. to prevent. documents.
Apple is now seeking damages incurred as a result of the trade secrets stolen by Lancaster, and Apple plans to determine the amount at trial. Apple also wants to recover from Lancaster all profits, gains and benefits it obtained from the document theft.
The lawsuit was first shared by AppleInsider this afternoon. We’ve included the full document below, and it’s a fascinating read that covers the leak culture within Apple and the efforts the company is making to end it.