News Chinese engineer accused of stealing Google's TPU and GPU secrets, transferring them to China-based startups

[bit_user]

Average salary for employees at google that we know is 124k,

Source?

In the sort of area this guy was working, I'm sure even the starting salary for undergrads is higher than that.

by cushy, you can litterally sit in a cushioned bean bag while working at google.

Either you've never worked at a comparable tech job, or you're being intentionally obtuse. Yeah, things like bean bags make it look like a chill, comfy place, but the reason why they do stuff like that is to try and help people deal with the stress and long hours as well as to make outsiders think they want to work there.

When all is said and done, you can dress up a job however you want, but stuff like ping pong tables and bean bags aren't what makes a job good/bad or easy/hard.

 

[bit_user]

I meant if I were in his shoes. You know, brainwashed to be loyal to his country no matter what and offered a huge amount of money to "serve my country". How many Americans would sell out China to the USA without a second thought? I'm sure that patriotism played a bigger role in this than morals because, as a Chinese national, to him, he WAS doing the moral thing because the moral thing was to serve his country.

You don't know any of this. From the facts that were presented, we don't know if the Chinese government or nationalist feelings had any role. It could've been purely a cash grab, on his part.

I'm not saying those things weren't factors, but I think we at least need to be clear about when we're speculating well beyond the established facts.

it was likely a bygone conclusion as soon as he was hired.

I think the phrase you wanted was "foregone conclusion".

Regardless of whether that's true or not, Google did hire him, red flags and all.

Again, from the information presented, he didn't even start exfiltrating data until he had been there 2-3 years. That sounds more like a hire gone wrong, rather than an outright bad hire. If his goal were always to do this, then you'd have expected him to start engaging in these activities after only a few months.

He was also setting up businesses in China and I'd be willing to bet that they were to help support his family. It's not like people live incredibly well over there and the incentive to do something like this is therefore much higher.

You really should be careful with this type of speculation, because the fact that he was working at a US-based Google office suggests he likely attended a US university, and that's not cheap for a foreigner. That would mean his family is at least upper-middle class. I'm not saying they are, but the point is that it's quite plausible and you really shouldn't try to create justifications for criminals. That's the job of a defense attorney.

 

[bolweval]

Well, I don't mean me as I am now. I meant if I were in his shoes. You know, brainwashed to be loyal to his country no matter what and offered a huge amount of money to "serve my country". How many Americans would sell out China to the USA without a second thought? I'm sure that patriotism played a bigger role in this than morals because, as a Chinese national, to him, he WAS doing the moral thing because the moral thing was to serve his country. Add to that the money he was probably offered and it was likely a bygone conclusion as soon as he was hired.

Nice recovery.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Nice recovery.

Thanks!

It's true though, I was trying to look at the world through his eyes. I probably should've pointed it out but I thought it would be obvious because only looking at the world from my perspective and through my own lens is boring, useless and teaches me nothing.

 

[Yoinksss]

How did they able to figured this out?

"Apparently, the Chinese national began exfiltrating files in May 2022, sending them to a personal Google Cloud account. Google's protection policy enforcers would have noticed this earlier if it wasn't for Ding "copying data from the Google source files into the Apple Notes application on his Google-issued MacBook laptop," says the filing. "Ding then converted the Apple Notes into PDF files and uploaded them from the Google network into DING Account 1." Another personal account dubbed DING Account 2 was accessed while the ex-employee was on one of his China trips." 😱🤣

 

[bit_user]

How did they able to figured this out?

They might not have found all of the pieces, themselves. Once they had him in custody, maybe he confessed to the rest?